The new face of Equity
by Michèle Nardelli
The new Director of the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education hosted by UniSA knows he has his work cut out for him.
Not only is Professor Trevor Gale to set up the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education from scratch, he also wants to redefine the way we look at equity and equity targets.
And while he is pragmatic enough to accept that we may never reach perfection in redressing social imbalances, Prof Gale believes that equity as an ideal is a worthy goal and that the time is right to make the kind of shift that will ensure real gains in improving access and participation in higher education.
"There has been embarrassingly little change in the participation rates of ‘equity groups’, especially Indigenous, rural and regional and low socio-economic status (SES) background students over the past 20 years," Prof Gale says.
"I think equity needs to be brought back into the mainstream – and with the Bradley Review of Higher Education underway and the actual foundation of the Centre itself there are some very good signs that it will be.
"Australian universities are about to hit a demographic speed bump as numbers of school leavers decline. At the same time we need to lift participation in higher education and respond to the skills shortages. We know that 25 per cent of the possible student pool are those from low SES backgrounds who often miss out on higher education – it is around that point we need to start asking the right questions about how we can make a difference.
"In Australia research around equity has generally focused on what the problems are whereas all the activity by institutions has been focused on how to construct programs and projects to overcome these problems. The trouble is, what we have been missing is evaluation of those programs and a deeper analysis of why equity groups miss out, with some real emphasis on defining the very different needs of each of those key groups."
Prof Gale believes we need to rethink how we define equity.
"We need an approach that is more respectful of the differences within various people groups," he says. "Within the six target equity groups, there are enormous differences. Simple measures are inadequate and one-size-fits-all programs obviously are not working. We need to reconsider how we define success for individuals and communities.
"This is not simply about economics – it is about how we support more people into education so that they have richer, fuller lives and are able to make significant contributions to their communities."
Prof Gale’s submission to the Bradley Review of Australian Higher Education can be found at www.dest.gov.au