Indigenous students: struggle to balance retention and enrolments

Victoria's universities are struggling to retain indigenous students despite increases in admissions. Tailored support services are slowly starting to make a difference at Monash and Melbourne universities, and increasing numbers are grabbing the chance to improve their results.  

By LUKE MORTIMER

Deakin University had Victoria’s highest proportion of indigenous enrolments in 2012 at 1.53 per cent, a 15 per cent increase over five years.

It was well ahead of the more prestigious Group of 8 universities – Melbourne and Monash – where indigenous students represented just 0.36 per cent and 0.27 per cent of enrolments, respectively.

However, despite a gradual increase across the board since 2007, the latest Department of Industry statistics show that of 598 indigenous students enrolled at Deakin in 2011, only 448 had either graduated or were still enrolled by the following year.

This puts the indigenous retention rate at just 74.2 per cent, compared with Deakin’s overall rate of 88.3 per cent.

By contrast, the indigenous student retention rate at Go8 universities remains a priority, with the University of Melbourne reporting an increase from 79.7 per cent in 2011 to 84.5 per cent in 2012, while Monash University indigenous student retention in 2012-13 stood at 94.3 per cent, exceeding retention rates for non-indigenous students at 88.8 per cent.

Monash’s director of indigenous studies Prof Lynette Russell said indigenous students at other Victorian universities still face tough odds of remaining at university.

“A lot of universities are very proud that they have very large numbers of Aboriginal students, but when you look at the graduations at the other end, you don’t get the same sort of results,” Prof Russell said.

“I think the better model is having a sustainable population of students coming in, and exactly the same number going out with a degree.”

Prof Russell said universities should be more selective about who they admit.

“The most important thing for me is that we never admit someone into university who we don’t think will succeed,” Prof Russell said.

 “I’m actually talking about a personal cost to the individual student. If you admit someone into the university who you don’t believe will get through and they don’t get through, then I think you’ve done a grave disservice to them.”

The Yulendj Indigenous Engagement Unit – a support service for indigenous students at Monash – has identified pre-enrolment interviews as the key to major successes in the university's indigenous recruitment program.

Monash’s senior indigenous policy adviser Inala Cooper – who shared the strategies behind its high indigenous retention at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education in Honolulu in May – said a selective interview process before admitting students into the university’s Enabling Program helped identify whether a student was likely to complete their degree.

“We don’t want to enroll large amounts of students to have them unprepared, and then to drop out,” Ms Cooper said, stressing that it was “not about lowering the bar to fulfill targets”.

Established in 2012, the Enabling Program provides an alternative pathway for indigenous students to attend university if they haven’t met the academic prerequisites.

Monash University student Stephanie Briggs, who completed the three-unit program during her first semester in 2012, said the program prepared her for the academic challenges of university.

After having previously completed a two-semester bridging course at the University of Western Australia (UWA), Ms Briggs withdrew after experiencing unexpected personal difficulties.

“I came to university with a lot of self-doubt and a lack of confidence within myself about how smart I am,” she said.

“The Enabling Program got me back into study mode and got my confidence up.

“ITAS [the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme] is a big difference that I found with the UWA bridging program to the Enabling Program.”

ITAS is a Commonwealth funded program that provides indigenous students with a one-to-one, two-hour tutorial per unit per week. The program was implemented to prevent indigenous students from failing, and is available at every Australian university.

Senior indigenous strategy adviser Jason Brailey said the Yulendj Unit’s relationship with students enrolled in the Enabling Program was used to encourage them  to take part in the tutorial assistance scheme.

“A lot of the first-year students engage with tutoring, because we have a lot to do with them as they’re enrolling,” he said.

“We generally make contact with them, and through those relationships we’ll promote [ITAS]”.

He said ITAS was now promoted to indigenous students as an extra resource that could enhance their academic performance.

“It’s no longer seen as a remedial program, so it’s no longer just taken up by students who think they’ll fail,” Mr Brailey said.

“It’s actually being used by middle-band and higher-end students who are looking to get an edge.

“I think that if someone’s scoring HDs or Ds throughout their degree, then they feel more confident than someone who’s just scraping through, and that confidence has a massive impact on retention.”