About the Building Legacy and Capacity Workshop Series
The Building Legacy and Capacity Project is an initiative by the NCSEHE to further extend the Centre’s capacity in synthesising, codifying and disseminating learnings from research and practice and use them to inform future initiatives, studies and policy.
Project components include a series of expert panel workshops followed by corresponding webinars presented by workshop participants, inviting open discussion and feedback on the subject. Each workshop consists of a small group of researchers, practitioners, policymakers and community partners, who contribute their insights as subject matter experts.
The objectives of the workshops are to:
- Define a collective knowledge base informed by research and practice
- Engage in strategic and action planning to guide institutional practice and future research
- Develop evidence-informed policy advice.
Workshop Three: Indigenous Perspectives on Evaluation in Indigenous Higher Education
The third workshop in the series, at The University of Sydney on Friday 6 April 2018, put a spotlight on data sovereignty and the importance of listening to Indigenous perspectives on evaluation in Indigenous higher education.
Within Australia, the Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People (Behrendt, Larkin, Griew, & Kelly, 2012) provided a clear mandate for investing in policies and programs that support Indigenous pathways, participation and achievement in higher education. While there have been notable investments and significant national reforms in Indigenous higher education over the past few years, the recommendation within the Behrendt Review to develop a monitoring and evaluation framework is yet to be actioned. Similarly, in 2015 prior to its abolishment, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Advisory Council recommended the development of a ‘performance framework’, which is also yet to be actioned. This means there are no frameworks or practice guidelines to inform future success in evaluation in Indigenous higher education in Australia. Focused discussion through the workshop and subsequent webinar will aim to partially address this gap.
James Smith and Kim Robertson provided a brief introduction about what is currently known about evaluation in Indigenous higher education contexts in Australia, followed by findings from James Smith’s 2017 Equity Fellowship project hosted at Charles Darwin University and sponsored by the NCSEHE. It is envisaged these findings will help to frame subsequent workshop and webinar dialogue about potential success factors and good practice principles that could shape improvements in evaluation in Indigenous higher education in Australia. This will mark the commencement of what is hoped to be an ongoing national conversation about this important topic.
Workshop Facilitators:
- James Smith — NCSEHE Adjunct Professorial Fellow; Father Frank Flynn Fellow, Menzies School of Health Research
- Kim Robertson — Senior Analyst, Indigenous Policies and Programs, Office of Pro Vice-Chancellor – Indigenous Leadership, Charles Darwin University
Expert Panel:
- Peter Anderson — Queensland University of Technology and WIRA
- Jason Brailey — RMIT University
- Nathan Cassidy — Universities Australia
- Bronwyn Fredericks — CQUniversity
- Kathryn Gilbey — University of Southern Queensland
- Cheryl Godwell — Charles Darwin University and NATSIHEC
- Kim Grey — Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
- Leanne Holt — Macquarie University and NATSIHEC
- Sebastian Lowery — The University of Adelaide
- Maria Raciti — University of the Sunshine Coast
- Kim Robertson — Charles Darwin University
- James Smith — NCSEHE
- Karen Treloar — TEQSA
- Sue Trinidad — NCSEHE
- Nadine Zacharias — NCSEHE
Please note: attendance was by invitation only.
The insights generated during the workshop have informed a good practice guide to distribute across the sector as well as recommendations for policymakers and future research.
Summary of Outcomes and Recommendations
More information and outcomes from previous workshops is available here.
