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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.

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You are reading: Money plus support: Evaluating the impact of packaged equity scholarships on students’ short-term success and retention using regression discontinuity design

Trial overview

Registered
Users Priority Students: Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders, Low socio-economic status backgrounds, Regional, remote, or rural locations
Academic Cap Stage of Intervention: During Higher Education
Chart Line Outcomes: Progression

What was trialed

The University of Western Australia (UWA) Connect Scholarship targets students commencing in their undergraduate studies at UWA, and is designed to prioritise students by need, as determined through an evaluative framework assessing cumulative disadvantage (Tomaszewski et al., 2020).

The scholarship is a “packaged” product and includes three components: a $1500 bursary upon enrolment; $5000 per year for up to four years of undergraduate studies (delivered as $2500 per semester post census); and inclusion in “Broadway Connect”, a wrap-around support program. With that, the scholarship package provides money plus tailored support.

The UWA Connect Scholarship seeks to increase students’ retention, pass rates, and grade point average while enrolled in the subsequent semester at university.

What was found

The results will be available in May 2026.

How the trial was delivered

A regression discontinuity (RD) design is being used to estimate the effects of the UWA Connect Scholarship package on student success.

The scholarship is awarded based on a ranking score calculated from a set of individual characteristics relevant to disadvantage. The RD design utilises the quasi-randomness at an arbitrary threshold and compares scholarship applicants who are just above the threshold and receiving the intervention (the treatment group) with a comparable “control group”—scholarship applicants who are otherwise similar but just below the threshold and thus not receiving the intervention.

University administrative data will be used to test the effects of the initiative on students’ retention, pass rates, and grade point average.

The trial is being undertaken at UWA during 2025.