University of Wollongong

Dr Janine Delahunty's 2020 NCSEHE Equity Fellowship report recommends engaging and supporting students from RRR areas to identify their strengths and hopes for the future and communicate their challenges to improve educational outcomes.

The article provides a holistic view of the lessons learned and discoveries made from COVID-19, informing future program design and delivery.

This article applies the framework of possible selves to the motivation and persistence behaviours of one group of First-in-Family university students, all of whom were mature-aged women returning to formal learning. The ways in which societal expectations and expected life trajectories impact (re)conceptualisation of ‘selves’ are discussed, particularly when individuals choose an unexpected or non-normative life course.

Regional students were given the opportunity to use digital storytelling to capture their perspectives on the transition to university. Common themes emerged through in-depth analysis of student narratives, including concerns about relocation, relationships and community, personal identity, and potential hardships.

Paper provides context for Sarah O'Shea's 2019 NCSEHE Research Fellowship on post-graduation outcomes and employment mobility of individuals who are first in their family to complete a university degree.

This article argues that a student partnership approach creates trust filled partnerships between staff and equity-seeking students. Forging genuine and collaborative partnerships within the equity and outreach space offers potential to both envision and create a university for all, rather than for just some. Professor O'Shea drew on her own experiences, practices, and research while contributing to the ongoing discourse in the emerging students-as-partners community.

This article details a study that applies the Capabilities Approach to understand how individual learners reflected upon success and how understandings of this concept might be used to enrich and inform the higher education environment. The participants were all first in their families to come to university and approaching completion of their degree studies.

The Engaging Families to Engage Students fellowship seeks to engage with universities to explore ways to both support and retain first-in-family learners. It is also exploring approaches to fostering meaningful connections with the family/community of this cohort in order to sustain student engagement.

Drawing on interviews conducted with first-in-family students, this article explores how one cohort considered their movement into university and how they enacted success within this environment. Utilising Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth framework, this article discusses how these individuals drew upon existing and established capital reserves in this transition to higher education.

First-in-family cohorts have been long ignored as a group that needs extra assistance in making it through university. This article outlines what the "first-in-family" cohort is and why it should be further supported.