Last week, the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES) and the Western Australian (WA) chapter of EPHEA hosted an insightful event for Perth-based student equity practitioners. The event focused on the role of trials and evaluation in advancing student equity in higher education and brought together equity practitioners from all five WA-based universities – Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University, The University of Notre Dame Australia, and The University of Western Australia – to discuss how they can engage with ACSES’s various work programs, with a particular focus on ACSES’s Trials and Evaluation Program.
Attendees were welcomed by EPHEA WA Co-convener Nurul Huda Sanny Yap and were then introduced to ACSES’s Trials and Evaluation team with short presentations from Associate Professor Tim Pitman (Trials and Evaluation Program Director, interim), Dr Patricia Vermillion Peirce (Trials Lead), and Dr Patrick Broman (Manager, National Student Equity Evaluation).
The team discussed how the work of the Trials and Evaluation Program intersects with the work of EPHEA members and others working in student equity in higher education and how they can be supported by various ACSES programs, such as the Equity Frontiers Program that provides funding for trials.
The event also provided an overview of ACSES’s Research and Policy and Data programs, delivered by Associate Professor Gemma Cadby (Data Program Director), who highlighted the different ways in which student equity practitioners can be supported by ACSES – for example through the Centre’s grants and fellowships programs or resources such as ACSES’s interactive data tool.
ACSES Deputy Director, Professor John Phillimore, concluded the event by emphasising the Centre’s commitment to collaborating with student equity practitioners to support the sector in finding what works in equity and invited some inspiring discussions on current trials being run by those in attendance.
Overall, the event was a great opportunity for the WA student equity community to come together and share their experiences and insights. ACSES’s Trials and Evaluation team is looking forward to holding similar events in other regions over the coming months.
