From HEPPP to HEPP: The Queensland Widening Tertiary Participation Consortium in transition

The Bradley Review of Higher Education in 2008 ushered in a new period of collaboration for public universities and a heightened focus on low SES participation in higher education. Queensland’s Widening Tertiary... [ view full abstract ]

The Bradley Review of Higher Education in 2008 ushered in a new period of collaboration for public universities and a heightened focus on low SES participation in higher education. Queensland’s Widening Tertiary Participation Consortium evolved in this post-Bradley era, taking advantage of this changing policy context and forging a new collaborative approach to school and community partnerships. Eight Queensland universities developed a partnership with the State education authority and navigated the inherent complications of large scale collaboration and the need to eliminate gaps and duplication across the State. While the Bradley review was largely silent on Indigenous participation, the Consortium took Indigenous engagement as a key focus of its activities alongside school outreach. It also intentionally directed the largest share of its funding to regional universities whose local footprints are characterized by high numbers of low SES schools and large Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations spread across vast distances.

With the aid of HEPPP grant funding (December 2011- June 2015) the Consortium partnered with over 500 low SES schools, engaged up to 65,000 students per year, and reached Indigenous students and communities through more than 100 community partnerships. The presentation will include consideration of evidence of the impact of the Consortium projects, focusing particularly on the following three joint evaluation initiatives: analysis of application and enrolment data; pre and post activity testing of student beliefs about university attendance; and investigations with Student Ambassadors employed on Widening Tertiary Participation Projects.

This presentation will also focus on the way the Consortium has negotiated the complex terrain of large-scale collaboration in the context of changing public policy. This will include how at the end of Consortium HEPPP grant funding new models of collaboration were considered in an era where HEPP funding is mostly institutionally based and where significant policy uncertainty prevails.