A framework for Australian Universities and public libraries supporting regional, rural and remote students
- Authors: Partridge, Helen , Power, Emma , Ostini, Jenny , Owen, Sue , Pizzani, Blanca
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association Vol. 70, no. 4 (2021), p. 391-404
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- Description: University students living in regional, rural and remote (RRR) communities of Australia face unique challenges including geographical isolation, lack of access to face-to-face support, and technological barriers. This paper outlines a project funded by the Australian Government’s Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program that was undertaken by five universities with significant enrolments of students from low socio-economic backgrounds living in RRR communities. The project established a Framework for Australian Universities and Public Libraries Supporting Regional, Rural and Remote Students that provides a set of strategic recommendations that will guide the development of accessible, relevant and sustainable study and learning support to meet the needs of low socio-economic students living in RRR communities. This national project provided a unique opportunity for Australia’s universities and public libraries to work together in order to ‘future proof’ the education of students from low socio-economic backgrounds living in regional and remote communities. © 2021 Helen Partridge, Emma Power, Jenny Ostini, Sue Owen and Blanca Pizzani.
Narratives of access: A critical exploration of how institutional interactions with students affect regional student participation in higher education.
- Authors: Ostini, Jenny , Partridge, Helen , Kelly, Kate , Owen, Sue , Jeffries, Sandra
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Student Success Vol. 11, no. 1 (2020), p.
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- Description: This article examines the narratives that drive university staff understanding of the concerns and experiences of regional and remote students at five universities in Australia. Interviews were conducted with thirty university staff members over a period of three months in 2018. Reflexive thematic analysis of the stories told by staff of supporting regional students found that staff used the lens of access to create meaningful stories for themselves and others in how they supported students. Access is defined as a multi-faceted term encompassing access to people, Internet, study materials and equipment and study environments. Access is facilitated by a sense of belonging or identity as a student and limited by the lack of this. Our analysis of “belongingness” draws on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitas to start to unpick the interactions between higher education institutions and the student that develop student identities as scholars and centres the narrative on the student as a person, wrestling to gain many forms of access within complex social situations.