ACSES Equity Hub: A Community of Practice for Student Equity Evaluation

The Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES) invites you to the next Equity Hub Community of Practice (CoP) event for 2025. The CoP aims to bring student equity managers and staff together to provide an opportunity for practitioners to share their lessons learned and best practices on student equity evaluation.

This hybrid event, held in-person at the UNSW Kensington campus and livestreamed, will include two presentations:

UNSW Case Study on Evaluation: Gateway Admission Pathway and Program

This presentation will explore the contribution of the Gateway Admission Pathway and Program towards UNSW’s Gateway Equity Target, which aims to increase the proportion of undergraduate students from low socio-economic status backgrounds and educationally disadvantaged schools commencing enrolment at the university to 25% by 2027. Following an overview of the theory of change and evaluation framework informing the Gateway Admission Pathway and Program, the presentation will focus on key student outcomes emerging from the 2024 Gateway Programs and how they have supported an increasingly diverse undergraduate body at UNSW in 2025.

Dr Katie Osborne-Crowley is Head of Strategic Programs and Impact Evaluation, Student Equity at the University of New South Wales. She leads strategic projects at UNSW aimed at increasing the access and success of students from underrepresented backgrounds and specialises in quantitative and mixed methods evaluation of widening participation initiatives.

Dr Mick Warren is Strategic Insights Lead, Student Equity at the University of New South Wales with expertise in qualitative and mixed-methods evaluation and equity research.

The Student Experience Survey (SES) and its use and potential for equity evaluation

This session will focus on leveraging the Student Experience Survey (SES) institutional results to inform and enhance equity practice across Australian universities. This presentation will explore how SES data, particularly from the wellbeing and student support and engagement modules, can be used to better understand and support equity students. Lauren will also introduce a newly commissioned module by ACSES, offering an additional avenue for equity-focused evaluation.

We will demonstrate how these insights can be translated into actionable strategies, including linking survey outcomes to specific student support service provisions to guide decision making and service enhancements.

Hiedi Wilkinson has worked as an analytics professional for over fifteen years, with most of that time spent in the higher education sector. In her current role as Equity Impact Evaluation Analyst at the University of the Sunshine Coast, she focuses on using data to support student equity and improve service delivery across the Student Services business area and institutional HEPPP programs. Hiedi aims to find practical ways to turn data, including survey results, into useful insights that help shape student support services.

Lauren Spencer is Research Director in the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT) program at the Social Research Centre (SRC), Melbourne, and has been an integral member of Student Experience Survey project teams for over five years. Lauren holds degrees from RMIT (Melbourne), Pusan National University and Dong-A University (Korea).

Livestream

This event will be livestreamed. Please ensure that you select the correct ticket type when registering as in person attendance will be limited. The livestream link will be sent to anyone with an ONLINE attendance ticket ahead of the event.