opening page ornament

The Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success acknowledges Indigenous peoples across Australia as the Traditional Owners of the lands on which the nation’s campuses are situated. With a history spanning more than 60,000 years as the original educators, Indigenous peoples hold a unique place in our nation. We recognise the importance of their knowledge and culture, and reflect the principles of participation, equity, and cultural respect in our work. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future, and consider it an honour to learn from our Indigenous colleagues, partners, and friends.

Enter website
Back to Publications
You are reading: Examining geography as a predictor of students’ university intentions: a logistic regression analysis

Grant Cooper, Rob Strathdee and James Baglin

Published in Rural Society
May 2018

Abstract

While improving educational aspirations has been positioned by various stakeholders (e.g. governments, researchers, educators) as an important part of increasing higher education participation, there appears to be disagreement in the literature about this relationship. If a key goal of eliciting students’ educational aspirations is to reliably predict future university participation, researchers should choose aspiration measures supported by evidence regarding their predictive validity. In this article, the authors examine students’ university intentions considering past research has demonstrated the relative strength of its predictive validity. The key aim of this article is to investigate if, and to what extent, distance predicts students’ intentions to attend university. Over 9400 Australian students are included in the analysis. Findings indicated students from provincial areas were significantly less likely to report intent to study at university when compared with metropolitan students. Furthermore, remote students were less likely to report an intention to attend university than students in the metropolitan category. Controlling for socio-economic status (SES), as distance increases from an Australian metropolitan area, the likelihood of students reporting intentions to study at university decreases.

Read the full article.

View more open access national and international journal articles.

General Regional, rural and remote Journal articles
Examining geography as a predictor of students’ university intentions: a logistic regression analysis
G Cooper, R Strathdee, J Baglin, 2018
Featured publications
Towards a financially inclusive higher education system
A McMahon, K Charlton, K Lambert, Y Probst, K Kent, K Walton, J Russell, K Austin, and G O’Flynn​ , 2026
A Small Grants Research Program final report. The study examined the prevalence and impact of financial hardship on university students. It evaluated the effectiveness of existing financial support services and identified barriers that prevent students from accessing essential assistance.
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
Disability
Evidence-based pedagogies to support online engagement of low SES, and regional, rural, and remote students
F Fan, D Hicks, and S Fischer​ , 2026
A Small Grants Research Program final report. The study sought to explore how to support engagement for online students, thereby addressing issues of disengagement and attrition.
Low SES
Low socioeconomic status
Indigenous success: Creating a Senior Leadership Capability Model (SLCM) through capacity building
P Anderson, T Pham, and C Tapia Parada​ , 2025
An ACSES First Nations Fellowship final report. This project created a Senior Leadership Capability Model (SLCM), which is a unique framework specifically designed for university leaders to foster Indigenous success in higher education.
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
Indigenous
Equity Policy Options: Parity Targets, Final Report
ACSES​ , 2024
This report outlines policy options in relation to parity targets for four priority equity groups in Australian higher education – students from low SES backgrounds, First Nations Australian students, students with disability, and students from regional and remote Australia.
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
Disability
More publications
Towards a financially inclusive higher education system
Tomasz Zając​ , The University of Queensland (UQ)​
A Small Grants Research Program final report. The study examined the prevalence and impact of financial hardship on university students. It evaluated the effectiveness of existing financial support services and identified barriers that prevent students from accessing essential assistance.
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
Disability
General / all students
Indigenous
International
Research Reports
Evidence-based pedagogies to support online engagement of low SES, and regional, rural, and remote students
Tomasz Zając​ , The University of Queensland (UQ)​
A Small Grants Research Program final report. The study sought to explore how to support engagement for online students, thereby addressing issues of disengagement and attrition.
Low SES
Low socioeconomic status
Online students
Regional, rural and remote
Regional and remote
Research Reports
Indigenous success: Creating a Senior Leadership Capability Model (SLCM) through capacity building
An ACSES First Nations Fellowship final report. This project created a Senior Leadership Capability Model (SLCM), which is a unique framework specifically designed for university leaders to foster Indigenous success in higher education.
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
Indigenous
Research report
Publications
Fellowship Reports
Equity Policy Options: Parity Targets, Final Report
This report outlines policy options in relation to parity targets for four priority equity groups in Australian higher education – students from low SES backgrounds, First Nations Australian students, students with disability, and students from regional and remote Australia.
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
Disability
Indigenous
Low SES
Low socioeconomic status
Regional, rural and remote
Regional and remote