1. The University of New England

Objectives for Indigenous Students’ Education

The University of New England’s Strategic Plan 1997–2002 states that ‘[t]he University of New England is to pursue excellence in teaching, research and scholarship and, in so doing, serve its regional, national and international communities’. The Strategic Plan commits the University to an ‘active recognition of the interests of our culturally diverse, Indigenous and international populations, and local, regional and global communities, in all facets of University work’.

The aim of the University’s Indigenous Students’ Education Strategy is to enhance the quality of education for Indigenous students, through culturally appropriate courses, academic services, and support.

Strategies and Performance

The University of New England Indigenous Students’ Education Strategy has a multi-focus approach to the higher education of Indigenous Australians. This 0000approach has four themes:

1. Recruitment and Access.
2. Participation and Retention.
3. Extension to the wider community.
4. Subject and Award Offering.

The University of New England (UNE) consults through the Indigenous Peoples Access and Participation Committee and the Oorala Aboriginal Centre Advisory Committee to ensure that all issues are adequately addressed.

The strategies relating to the major themes are as follows:

1. Recruitment and Access

• As from 1997, Oorala Aboriginal Centre staff have been working as a team to recruit Indigenous Australians to UNE programs. Specific target areas are: north-western NSW; western NSW; and south-western Queensland.

• The focus of these recruitment programs remains as previously—to develop closer relationships with the Indigenous communities in the region. During 1998 this program will be refined in the light of recruitment success and failure.

• A special initiative in 1998 will be the establishment of the position of UNE Project Officer at Moree TAFE, charged with developing alternative pathways for TAFE students who wish to combine TAFE and university study.

• The majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are from low income families. For 1999 some residential scholarships, of $5,000 each, will be earmarked for Indigenous students wishing to study at UNE, as part of UNE’s Country Scholarships initiative.

• The Oorala Aboriginal Centre will respond to community education needs in the region by providing information seminars which will assist in creating career pathways for Indigenous students seeking to access educational programs at UNE. It will develop multimedia and on-line resources promoting the range of programs for Indigenous students at UNE.

2. Participation and Retention (Success)

• The University is aware of disempowerment processes that confront Indigenous students prior to and during higher education. The Oorala Aboriginal Centre will encourage Indigenous students to take control of their studies through diverse support processes, including the reaffirmation of Aboriginality.

• Maintaining appropriate support services for Indigenous students plays an important part in their success in higher education. The Oorala Aboriginal Centre will support Indigenous students with tutorial (Aboriginal Tutorial Assistance Scheme—ATAS) and other support to assist their studies at UNE. Together with Student Services, it will assist with housing, financial, ABSTUDY, travel, part-time employment, and other difficulties.

• The University of New England is committed to ensuring that curricula contain culturally relevant Indigenous materials. The Oorala Centre will monitor curricula and work with academic staff to achieve this end.

• The University of New England encourages self-determination as a key principle in the education of Indigenous people. The Oorala Aboriginal Centre, through formal and informal counselling, will provide that encouragement to take control over education processes.

• The University of New England is committed to raising the awareness of Indigenous issues among the wider University community and to promoting a greater understanding and tolerance of Indigenous people.

• The Oorala Centre will work with the University to raise general awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues through continued active involvement in the Archibald public lectures and periodical publications.

3. Community Outreach and Support

• The University, in collaboration with the Armidale Aboriginal Medical Service and Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, has formed the Armidale Regional Indigenous Centre for Emotional and Social Well-Being at the Oorala Centre. By 1999 the Centre will offer six units in Aboriginal Studies, community development, and counselling to Indigenous communities and Health Workers in the north-west region.

• The University, in collaboration with the Boggabilla Aboriginal community, will trial a community-based off-campus teacher training program funded by the Vice-Chancellor’s Initiative Grant scheme. In 1999 it is anticipated that twenty Indigenous students from the community will enrol.

• Starting in 1998 UNE’s Department of Health Studies is offering a Graduate Diploma in Health Services Management to ten Indigenous health workers from the region. The program is funded by DEETYA and the Commonwealth Health Department, and supported by NSW Department of Health. The intention is to extend the program in future years to cover a wider geographical region.

4. Subject and Award Offering

• Major sequences in Aboriginal Studies units are offered by the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Education, Health, and Professional Studies in the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of General Studies, Bachelor of Professional Studies, and associated Masters’ programs. They have been built into a new Early Childhood program developed jointly with TAFE as part of the TAFE Certificate in Early Childhood and have been identified and coded in a common form to facilitate course planning. Units with a high level of Indigenous content in Faculties other than Arts have been identified and listed alongside the major sequences in the BA in a common brochure, as many BA students wish to broaden their degrees with study in other Faculties. Foundation courses in Maths, Physics, and Chemistry are particularly suitable for Indigenous students with a weak science background.

• The University is developing a major sequence within the Bachelor of Commerce degree for ‘Indigenous Studies for Business’, for introduction in 2000. It is developing a major within the Bachelor of Environmental Science degree for ‘Indigenous Land Management Studies’ for introduction in 1999. The School of Law is conducting an Indigenous pre-law program in 1999.

• The TRACKS program, a tertiary preparation course, which has run for four years, is to be reviewed during 1998. Subject content and levels of achievement will be analysed prior to student enrolment for 1999.

Projected Performance Against Performance Indicators

Success (Indigenous Students), by Academic Organisational Unit (AOU)

A comparison of Indigenous students with other than equity group students and the total for all students indicates that progression rates are lower, though there is a wide variation between areas of study.

(DEETYAPAC ‘98 EQUITY Version 2.02.20, run 11 June 1998)

Retention (Indigenous Students)

(DEETYAPAC ‘98 EQUITY Version 2.02.20, run 11 June 1998)

The above figures indicate that the Indigenous student progress rate lags behind that of other students, and that retention rates are also lower. To address these issues, the Oorala Centre has established contact officers in each School, and allocated one Indigenous staff member to each Faculty as a liaison officer with special responsibility to provide advice about the needs of Indigenous students. The ATAS scheme is constantly monitored with systematic reports being received from students and tutors alike. Each semester all ATAS tutors undergo a seminar on cultural awareness. To assist curriculum development in Aboriginal Studies units, staff from the Oorala Centre are intimately involved in the design and delivery of first-year units.

Exit surveys are routinely performed on Indigenous students who wish to leave the University, and these are regularly examined by the Oorala Advisory Committee. Surveys to date reveal that it is personal rather than academic matters which drive Indigenous students to quit study.

The increased promotion by the Oorala Centre throughout UNE’s primary recruitment area suggests that the increase in planned Indigenous student loads should be achievable.

Contact Officer

Byron Davis
Director
Oorala Aboriginal Centre
University of New England
Telephone: 02 6773 3163
Facsimile: 02 6773 337