The Future of Education Equity in Regional and Remote Australia

Background:
Education is a fundamental human right, social determinant of health and key to meaningful workforce participation. Despite investment into education equity strategies, policies, and programs, there remain significant disparities in post-secondary education access, participation, and attainment for structurally marginalised populations in English language settler-colonial countries, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. These include students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, students with disability and students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Factors that influence higher education equity are compounded in regional and remote areas, where extreme disparities in socioeconomic circumstances are combined with greater distances to educational opportunities compared to those living in major cities. In major cities in Australia, 48% of the population hold a bachelor’s degree or above, compared with 27% in inner regional areas, 21% in outer regional areas, and 17% in remote and very remote areas. In the Northern Territory (NT), almost half of the population live in remote or very remote areas. This PhD program aims to better understand how various factors impact higher education equity in regional and remote settings, and identify effective strategies to enhance access, participation, and success in post-secondary education for structurally marginalised populations.
Methods:
The purpose of this PhD program is to develop a national evidence-based framework for the future of education equity in regional and remote Australia This PhD is nested within the Menzies-Ramaciotti Centre which aims to build a sustainable, local, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce in the NT. It will be underpinned by Indigenist Research Methodology. This PhD will include four studies. The first will identify best practice and innovative education equity approaches in regional and remote areas, including successful initiatives that have been implemented in other jurisdictions through a systematic review. The second study will explore education, training, and employment aspirations of regional and remote school leavers, alongside their skills and qualifications to understand how education, training systems and pathways to employment can better meet their needs. The third study will explore regional and remote student, family, staff, and stakeholder experiences with an education equity program (the Menzies-Ramaciotti Centre), including exploration of factors that enable or hinder program success. Finally, a fourth study will map current and previous policy approaches to achieving education equity in regional and remote NT and will investigate how representations of education equity challenges shape policy solutions to critically consider how public discourse and power differentials can be questioned, disrupted, and replaced in relation to education equity.
Significance:
The overarching aim of this thesis is to utilise evidence gathered through the research program to develop a national evidence-based framework for the future of education equity in regional and remote Australia, and to influence federal, state and territory policy on bestpractice approaches to education equity model design and implementation in regional and remote settings. It is anticipated that this research will contribute to an understanding of the various factors that impact higher education equity in regional and remote settings and will identify effective strategies to enhance access, participation, and attainment in post-secondary education for structurally marginalised populations.