The access pilot which is the subject of this research originated from a proposal to the University of South Australia from one of South Australia’s adult re-entry secondary schools, Para West Adult Campus.
As a university with a legislated responsibility to meet the educational needs of disadvantaged members of the State’s community,86 efforts had been made over some years to build up relationships with schools in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, an area in which a disproportionate concentration of the State’s socio-economically disadvantaged community resides. As a school serving disadvantaged adults whose earlier educational experiences had been negative in a range of ways, and as the only adult re-entry school in these disadvantaged northern suburbs, Para West had been a special target for these efforts. Hence the proposal for the pilot built upon an existing relationship between the University and Para West Adult Campus, including earlier and less ambitious initiatives aimed at opening up access into university level study for its students.
The proposal put to the University by the Principal of the school87 was that the school should teach the first stage of the University’s existing access award for disadvantaged adults to a cohort of its adult re-entry students, on campus at the school, and that the University would accept successful completion for entry to a range of its programs. This opened up the possibility of a whole cohort of disadvantaged adults completing stage one of the University’s access award, in a cohesive group, and thereafter progressing into undergraduate level study at the University. Discussion followed exploring various approaches to managing and resourcing such an arrangement. For example, would the students be university students, and hence HECS liable, or school students; if the latter, would they have access to university resources, and in particular the library, on the same basis as the University’s students; would the University be licensing the school to deliver part one of the Diploma program on its behalf; or would the University be giving or selling its intellectual property to the school, which would then offer the course independently of the University; in either case, how would the University assure itself that the standard achieved by completing students was equivalent to that expected of its own students in stage one of its access award?
Agreement was reached that the best model,88 from the students’ point of view, was for students to be enrolled with the school and funded in the same way as other students at the school. They would not be HECS liable and the financial arrangements between the University and the school would be simplified by this decision. The school would be responsible for marketing, information and counselling sessions for prospective students, selection processes, enrolment, student administration, and student support services throughout the year, accommodation, equipment, teaching materials and other facilities, as well as for teaching and assessing stage one of the University’s access diploma taught as the UniSA-PAL course. The University would provide the course materials for use in the pilot, information sessions for the staff teaching it, moderation of samples of summative school assessments in relation to each of the eight subjects, a final score, record of completion and certificate of achievement to all completing students, advice to students as to their possible study pathways in the University, and on-going support to the school as relevant throughout the year. It was intended that UniSA-PAL students enrolled at the school would have access to the University’s library but for internal reasons this did not actually occur until part-way into the second year of the expanded pilot in 2003. Completion of the course would be accepted for entry to all of the University’s programs which accept the Special Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT) for entry, and on the same basis.89
In a paper90 to the University’s Academic Board in September 2001, three Pro Vice Chancellors91 proposed the terms of the pilot project, then entitled UniSA-Preparation Program for Adult Learners, for commencement in the following academic and school year. The paper broadly reflected the in-principle agreements referred to above about the best way for the pilot to be organised. In addition it referred to an evaluation which would, amongst other internal matters, determine whether the arrangement had been more effective in terms of providing access to the University’s programs for under-represented students and in terms of achieving better retention and success rates for them during their university studies. Reference was also made to those services which would be provided to the school free of charge and those which would be subject to a cost recovery fee. The proposal was approved, and the pilot project UniSA-Pathway for Adult Learners (UniSA-PAL) came into being.