Based on post code derived definitions of socio-economic status, the cohorts of students in the UniSA-PAL course at the four adult re-entry schools, the Diploma in University Studies at the University of South Australia, and courses funded by the enabling program nation-wide are all disproportionately in the lowest quartile. For the UniSA-PAL students this is overwhelmingly the case at Para West Adult Campus, and least so at Hamilton and Marden. However definitive conclusions cannot be drawn from this data alone given the limitations of the postcode methodology in accurately identifying individuals’ socio-economic status. Nevertheless there is clearly a class difference between the cohorts at the four adult re-entry schools, with the students at Para West and Thebarton more socio-economically disadvantaged as a group than those at Marden and Hamilton.
In some respects, this could have been predicted from the locations of the schools in their different suburban locations around Adelaide. In this context it is worth noting that, based on the 1999 DETYA report on regional tertiary participation rates, Elizabeth, the area in which Para West is located, has a higher education participation rate for the 19-21 year old cohort of 7.6 per cent, while the regions in the study which most closely correspond to the suburbs in which Hamilton, Thebarton and Marden are located have much higher participation rates of approximately 23.7, 24.7 and 32.0 per cent respectively.129 It should also be noted that while the location of the schools clearly has an impact on the socio-economic and other characteristics of their student bodies, their adult re-entry students can come from any part of Adelaide as they are unzoned. However this is least likely to be the case with Para West, given its relative distance from Adelaide and the inadequacy of the public transport in the region, and most likely to be true of Thebarton which is closest to the city itself.
In terms of their level of previous educational attainment, students undertaking UniSA-PAL at the adult re-entry schools have the lowest levels and those in Enabling Program courses the highest130 for the cohorts of students being compared in this research. The finding that 38 per cent of the PAL students’ parents appear not to have had any post secondary education or training confirms their level of socio-economic disadvantage, but there is no comparable data available on this factor for students in the University’s access Diploma or national data on students in Enabling Program courses,. Similarly for their income ranges, with half of the 2002 cohort at Para West in the range $10,000 - $20,000, over 80 per cent of the four 2003 PAL cohorts with $30,000 or less, and the majority of them in the ranges $5,000 to $20,000.
It can be concluded therefore that while students in each of the UniSA-PAL course, the Diploma in University Studies and the enabling program all show evidence of educational disadvantage, based on the data above, those in the UniSA-PAL program are significantly disadvantaged with respect to their socio-economic location and all that follows from this in terms of educational outcomes.