Fostering Inclusion for Disadvantaged Students
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Fostering Equity in Higher Education Compendium of Practical Case Studies FOSTERING INCLUSION OF DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS March 2014 This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries. This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................... 4 AUSTRALIA ....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Australian Government Department of Education ...................................................................................... 5 University of Newcastle ............................................................................................................................... 5 BELGIUM .......................................................................................................................................................... 7 Ghent University .......................................................................................................................................... 7 BRAZIL .............................................................................................................................................................. 9 University of Campinas ................................................................................................................................ 9 CROATIA .......................................................................................................................................................... 9 The Agency for Science and Higher Education ............................................................................................ 9 DENMARK ...................................................................................................................................................... 10 Aalborg University ...................................................................................................................................... 10 FINLAND......................................................................................................................................................... 11 University of Eastern Finland ..................................................................................................................... 11 University of Tampere ............................................................................................................................... 11 SLOVENIA ....................................................................................................................................................... 11 Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia ................................ 11 SPAIN ............................................................................................................................................................. 13 Basque Government .................................................................................................................................. 13 Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona ........................................................................................................ 15 SWEDEN ......................................................................................................................................................... 17 Karolinska Institutet ................................................................................................................................... 17 Linnaeus University .................................................................................................................................... 19 Örebro University....................................................................................................................................... 19 UNITED KINGDOM ......................................................................................................................................... 20 Higher Education Funding Council for England ......................................................................................... 20 3 INTRODUCTION In November 2013, the OECD consulted the IMHE Governing Board on the strengths and weaknesses of the Membership package products and services in order to improve their value and usefulness to members. With respect to the Quarterly Briefs (the What it Means for Higher Education series), participants suggested that this series would benefit from complementing the policy-oriented content of these Briefs with practical case studies highlighting how member institutions tackle specific issues in practice. Accordingly, this new approach has been tried out in the March 2014 issue of the Quarterly Brief. This Brief takes a closer look at equity and gender balance issues based on the PISA 2012 results, and examines the implications for higher education. Therefore, IMHE Members were asked to flag any initiative they may have adopted in their institutions to: provide academic support to under-prepared students, attract and retain disadvantaged students and help them reach graduation, promote female enrolments in scientific programmes, use role models (whether female scientists or resilient disadvantaged students) to foster students’ self-confidence, or foster attitudes that are associated with successful higher education (autonomy, perseverance in problem-solving, self- efficacy, etc.). The two compendia (Fostering Inclusion of Disadvantaged Students and Promoting Female Participation in STEM) show all the practical cases that the Secretariat received and they have been sorted according to their thematic focus. The contributions are included in the state they in which they were submitted by the Members, with some minor proof editing by the Secretariat. 4 AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program and Disability Support Program The Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP) provides funding to higher education providers to conduct activities that improve access to domestic undergraduate courses for people from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds and improve the retention and completion rates of those students. Activities funded through the HEPPP include scholarships, academic support and alternative entry schemes, as well as partnership activities with schools, vocational education providers and others to raise aspirations and build the capacity of low SES people to participate in higher education. $951 million is budgeted for the HEPPP from 2014 to 2018. Although the precise impact of the HEPPP is yet to be determined, in 2012, for the first time in a decade, the rate of domestic undergraduate students from low SES backgrounds commencing university exceeded 17 per cent of the domestic undergraduate population. This is up from 16% in 2007. The Disability Support Program (DSP) funds higher education providers to assist in removing barriers to education for domestic students with a disability through partial reimbursement of equipment and educational support costs for those students with high cost needs. Some of the services supported by the DSP include: production of Braille formats of course materials and lecture notes, examination and assessment assistance, and purchase of adaptive software and/or adaptive computer equipment such as adaptive keyboards, mouse, screens, etc. In 2014 under the DSP, $6.9 million is available to universities for this purpose. In 2012, nearly 6000 students with disabilities accessed equipment and educational support made available by the universities using DSP funds. Submitted by: Robina Mitchell, Strategic Engagement and Communication Unit, Quality and Deregulation Branch, Higher Education Support Group, Australian Government Department of Education, [email protected] UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education The University is ranked in Australia’s top 10 for research, with strengths in health and medicine, energy and the environment, and science and engineering. Twelve disciplines of research at Newcastle are ranked in the top 200 across the globe, in the 2014 QS Subject Rankings. The University has at its core a deep commitment to access and equity. In the Hunter region – the University’s primary catchment area for student enrolments - total weekly family income is below the Australian average. Running in parallel with the region’s lower socio- economic status, our participation rates in education are also lower – 38 per cent of young people complete their Higher School Certificate compared to the national average of 52 per cent, and 15 per cent hold a Bachelor degree or higher compared to 21 per cent nationally. Over the past 40 years more than 37-thousand students have enrolled in our enabling programs – courses of study that provide the skills and qualifications needed to enter an undergraduate degree at university. The NeW Directions Strategic Plan 2013 – 2015 includes an objective