Overview
Join us for a Fellowship Webinar where 2025 Equity Fellow, Kelly Linden, will present her project “Is the problem us? Helping part-time students to succeed in a full-time world”.
Event information
Online via Zoom
Please join us for this event to hear from 2025 Equity Fellow Kelly Linden on the outcome of her ACSES Fellowship.
Is the problem us? Helping part-time students to succeed in a full-time world
This Fellowship highlights the extent to which part-time students, who make up 35% of all domestic Australian University students, are juggling competing responsibilities, such as caring and work commitments. This Fellowship includes analysis of 2024 sector data, detailed student-level data from domestic students enrolled in 2022 and 2023 at four Australian universities, interview responses from 965 part-time students from 35 Australian universities, and 80 follow-up semi structured interviews. Findings highlight that part-time students on average have lower success and retention and are more likely to belong to an equity group than full-time students. The students who participated in the research demonstrated that, although they are dedicated to their studies, university cannot always be their number one priority. Part-time students emphasised the importance of high quality learning and teaching, including engaging and understanding lectures as well as flexibility in their studies as keys elements to success.
About the speaker
Associate Professor Kelly Linden was a 2025 ACSES Equity Fellow. Over the last 10 years, Kelly has developed and led student success and retention projects at Charles Sturt which led to an AAUT Program Award for programs that enhance learning. Her research interests are supporting part-time students, kindness, and UDL with a particular focus on supporting equity students.
About the ACSES Equity Fellowship Program
The Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES) is committed to developing research capacity in Australian higher education equity, especially through its support of the next generation of equity researchers.
The ACSES Equity Fellowship provides funding for researchers and practitioners in higher education to complete a project that will inform an area of Australian higher education practice and policy in relation to domestic students, via a combination of research, translation, best practice implementation, evaluation, and knowledge transfer.
