Indigenous Education Strategies in Higher Education 2001-2003
Deakin University
- Objectives
- Consultative Mechanisms
- Current and Continuing Activities
- Major Achievements in 1999 and to Date in 2000
- Planned Changes
- Future Goals
- Arrangements for Future Monitoring and Evaluation
- Planned New Activities
- Performance and Review
- Qualitative Indicators
- Report on Expenditure
- Contact
Objectives
Deakin University aims to provide Indigenous Australian students with culturally appropriate award courses that incorporate the knowledge base of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. The community-based mode through which Faculties’ degrees are delivered to Indigenous Australians will continue to define Deakin University as a tertiary education provider that differentiates its service provision according to the cultural needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. The wider purpose of Deakin University’s commitment to Indigenous Australian programs is to ensure that benefits obtained from tertiary education work to strengthen Indigenous Australian community developments and to promote healing between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
These overall objectives are an expression of Deakin University’s partnership arrangement with the Victorian Koorie Community. Under Statute 2.9, Regulation 2.9(14), Deakin University’s Council has established Joint Management principles through the management structure of the Board of the Institute of Koorie Education.
The Higher Education Agreement has been re-negotiated for the current triennium, acknowledging the partnership between the University and the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc. (VAEAI). This agreement maintains a collaborative arrangement for policy, planning and program development which underpins Deakin University activity in regard to Indigenous Australian Education.
This now long-standing partnership arrangement is continually renewed through institution-wide consolidation mechanisms. The Deakin University Strategic Planning Framework 1999-2001 highlights the University’s role of providing leadership in flexible and lifelong learning and the University values of equity and social responsibility. Accordingly the Institute of Koorie Education’s objectives are aligned with these values and the following key strategic priorities: teaching and learning, graduate outcomes, partnerships, staffing and infrastructure, with a particular emphasis on developing growth in the strategic area of scholarship and research.
Consultative Mechanisms
The Board of the Institute of Koorie Education, which meets quarterly, considers the management and future directions of Indigenous Australian Education. It has representation from all sections of the University and the Victorian Koorie communities.
When the Institute of Koorie Education’s programs and activities extend interstate or involve community/organisation participation outside of the University, Indigenous Australian representation is included through a steering committee structure. This formalises the voices of local communities as well as any other relevant stakeholders. The Board incorporates the consultative committee concept into its decision making which has produced a stronger and more enabling administrative structure for the University and the Victorian Koorie community.
Issues are directed to the Board of the Institute of Koorie Education through discussion papers, proposals or reports, for policy and program developments. All stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process. Implementation of the Board’s proposals or recommendations is referred on, as appropriate, to the University Council, Academic Board, the Vice-Chancellor’s Planning and Resources Committee, Finance and Business Affairs Committee, Campus Planning Committee, Equal Opportunity Advisory Committee, or Faculty Boards.
This consultative process and joint management principles are a sound basis for involving the Koorie community in the business of the University. Both VAEAI and the University are committed to the Joint Management policy as expressed in the Higher Education Agreement.
Current and Continuing Activities
The Institute of Koorie Education plans to continue the following strategic activities:
- Customise course design, delivery modes and teaching methodology
- Maintain, review and extend community-based programs within faculties
- Maintain support structures for Indigenous Australian students enrolled in community based studies
- Maintain support structures for Indigenous Australian students enrolled on-campus
- Maintain administrative strategies in the context of the community-based program focus
- Maintain joint management strategies
- Publicize Deakin University’s Indigenous Australian education strategies and reports and disseminate other promotional and information materials
- Maintain special entry provisions across Deakin degree courses
- Increase retention and graduation rates
- Increase the Indigenous Australian research profile
- Maintain a Koorie community celebration for Graduates.
Major Achievements in 1999 and to Date in 2000
- The enrolment of Indigenous Australian students at Deakin crossed a new threshold, with 310 students enrolled across undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the five Faculties.
- Secured limited exemption from the cuts to the provision for accommodated days in the Abstudy Away from Base program.
- Completion of the student residence.
- Appointment of a Koorie Research Manager.
- Formalised a process through the Academic Board to put in place appropriate cultural land protocols across the University.
- Maintenance of community-based delivery of all Faculties’ degrees.
- First graduates completed their Bachelor of Nursing degree in the Mt Isa Nursing Program.
- Aunty Iris Lovett-Gardiner was the first Indigenous Masters student to come through the Faculty of Science & Technology.
- First graduate to complete Bachelor of Arts degree through the Students in Custody Program.
Planned Changes
- To defer the investigation of a pilot program in the undergraduate Bachelor of Commerce degree and target its implementation by the end of 2003.
- Shift of focus to overall program growth rather than increasing individual scholarships.
Future Goals
- To further develop joint management principles across all education programs and activities that cross over with Koorie cultural business.
- To expand the post-graduate numbers across all discipline areas.
- Negotiate for a new academic facility by the year 2002.
- Broaden the Koorie Research Management Plan across the University and throughout the community.
Arrangements for Future Monitoring and Evaluation
- Performance will be evaluated against specific objectives and strategic activities as outlined in the Indigenous Education Strategies 2001-2003 triennium.
- Qualitative measures will be used in the main, as these are the most useful tools with which to assess the effectiveness of the Institute’s programs.
- Accountability to the Victorian Koorie Community, Deakin University and DETYA will be served through close monitoring of student access, participation, success and retention rates.
Planned New Activities
The Institute of Koorie Education will:
- Investigate a pilot program in the Masters of Public Health in consultation with the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) and Koorie Health Workers and relevant government agencies.
- Develop a Victorian model of the Mt Isa Nursing Program in a community setting in consultation with the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, the Victorian Nurses Registration Board and VACCHO, Koorie Health Workers and relevant government agencies.
- To consolidate a partnership with the Garma Institute with a view to delivering Deakin University courses in community based mode.
- To develop employment initiatives via traineeship schemes through the Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business.
Performance and Review
Performance, in line with the Institute of Koorie Education’s flexible, holistic and community-based mode of delivery, must be measured by the imperative to be effective as a culturally appropriate educational provider. Hence, qualitative measures are more effective in ascertaining the success of the Institute’s capacity to implement the Institute’s current and continuing activities. These are continually monitored and reviewed through a close team-based organisational structure that is intrinsically responsive to community need and directions. Students, partnerships, teamwork, committee participation, community networks and the student focus of the education structures are the key to the ongoing monitoring and review practices of the Institute. The Institute of Koorie Education maintains a range of quantitative and analytical measures, which also informs these review practices.
Table 1: Quantitative trends.
|
Institution |
Access % |
Participation |
Success |
Retention |
Reference Values (proportion of equity group in population) |
|
|
National |
1997 |
1.48 |
1.11 |
0.78 |
0.78 |
Aust |
|
Victoria |
1997 |
0.6 |
1.00 |
0.86 |
0.86 |
Vic |
|
Deakin |
1997 |
1.28 |
2.27 |
0.79 |
0.87 |
Vic |
NOTES
- Deakin consistently provides access for Indigenous Australian students at more than twice the rate of State access but is less than the National level.
- Deakin’s participation rate is double both the State and National levels.
- Deakin’s retention rate is higher than both the State and National rates.
- Uncertainties about ABSTUDY Living Allowance and Away From Base Funding have affected access, participation, success and retention rates at Deakin University.
Qualitative Indicators
- The role of peer and mentor student support in improving retention rates.
- Program development and growth at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
- Student testimonials, course evaluations, Koorie graduation ceremonial celebration highlight student experience in relation to participation and success.
- Monitoring student exit profiles in relation to participation and success.
- Community assessments relating to standards and expectations create a quality assurance structure, which strongly influences access, participation, retention and success.
- Ongoing networking through the graduates’ communities allows tracking of graduate employment outcomes.
- Ongoing graduate interactions with the Institute from workplaces and communities inform program directions, community development requirements and the establishment of future partnerships.
- Strong patterns of referral into courses from extended family and clan networks.
- The level of enquiry and enrolment from past graduates for postgraduate courses.
Report on Expenditure
Initially provision is made from the Commonwealth Operating grant for administration, library, central overheads and research costs, with the balance allocated to the Institute for academic purposes. No central university overheads are then levied on the Indigenous Support Funds.
The Institute of Koorie Education receives 100% of Indigenous Support Funding directly from DETYA and combines these funds with the Commonwealth Operating grant allocation for subsidised student places to meet all its operating salary and non-salary outlays.
All Support Funds are directed into the key teaching and support programs of the Institute which are focused across the five Faculties Arts, Business and Law, Education, Health and Behavioural Sciences, and Science and Technology.
The Indigenous Support Funding received in 1999 of $606,000 was expended in the following manner: 31% on academic support salaries, 35% on administrative student support salaries and 34% on non-salary costs. All these costs contribute strategically to the maintenance and the development of the programs delivered. The Institute’s Student Support services are integrated structurally into the overall program delivery to sustain student participation and success.
The Higher Education Agreement as cited in the Objectives section of this document sets out the joint management principles which govern the delivery of Koorie Programs at Deakin University and provide the basis for future planning, negotiation, resource allocation, community participation and program growth.
Contact
Mrs Geraldine Atkinson
Chair, Board Institute of Koorie Education
c/o Deakin University
Geelong Campus
Geelong Vic 3217
Tel: (03) 5227 2538
Fax: (03) 5227 2019
Ms Wendy Brabham
Director, Institute of Koorie Education
Deakin University
Geelong Campus
Geelong Vic 3217
Tel: (03) 5227 2538
Fax: (03) 5227 2019
E-mail: wbrab@deakin.edu.au
Professor Anne Martin
Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Deakin University
Waterfront Campus
Geelong Vic 3220
Tel: (03) 5227 8507
Fax: (03) 5227 8510
E-mail dvc@deakin.edu.au
Any comments or queries should be sent to: highered@dest.gov.au
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last updated on Tuesday, 04 December 2001
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