Developing productive relationships with partner schools to widen participation. A Practice Report

Abstract

The Review of Australian Higher Education (DEEWR 2008) noted the unacceptably low participation rates of students from low Socio-Economic Status (SES) backgrounds, Indigenous students and rural and remote students in Higher Education. This nuts and bolts session focuses on strategies for developing productive relationships with partner schools to widen participation. The Aspire UWA program has partnerships with 24 under-represented schools: six in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and eighteen in outer-metropolitan Perth. This session will share ideas to support the diverse stakeholders in this project long term and, in the case of the Pilbara, across vast distances, to achieve positive outcomes.