Indigenous university students experience similar or higher levels of satisfaction and engagement with learning than their non-Indigenous peers, according to a research briefing paper from the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) released in May.

The analysis also reveals that Indigenous students rate their relationships with other students and teaching staff just as positively as non-Indigenous students do and are significantly more likely to report positive relationships with administrative staff.

Yet despite such positive findings, Indigenous students are significantly more likely to seriously consider leaving their current institution prior to completing their studies.

The paper focuses on the responses of more than 500 Indigenous Australian students collected as part of the 2009 administration of AUSSE, representing one of the largest collections of data from Indigenous students to date. The paper is co-authored by Dr Christine Asmar, Senior Lecturer at Murrup Barak, the Melbourne Institute for Indigenous Development at the University of Melbourne, and Associate Professor Susan Page, Director of Macquarie University’s Warawara Department of Indigenous Studies.

“The puzzle is that, while Indigenous students are enthusiastic about their studies, and are engaged on similar or higher levels than their peers, they remain more likely to seriously consider leaving,” said Associate Professor Page.

Around 37 per cent of Indigenous students and 29 per cent of non-Indigenous students report that they plan to or have seriously considered leaving their current institution before finishing their qualification. The authors note that only one in 50 Indigenous students deliberately plan to leave before completing, as opposed to considering leaving. Nevertheless, Indigenous students who are older, male, who have a self-reported disability, who are from a non-metropolitan area, are studying externally or are receiving financial assistance all have higher early departure intentions than those who do not have those attributes. For many Indigenous students (as for non-Indigenous peers) a number of these factors can and do overlap.

Importantly, the analysis found that Indigenous students who report a high level of support from their institutions are significantly less likely to have departure intentions than those who report a low level of support. In one third of students’ comments referring to Indigenous issues, Indigenous centres were rated as among the ‘best aspects’ of how their universities engaged them in learning, leading the authors to conclude that such centres play a vital supporting role. They note, however, that more data is needed on this aspect of Indigenous engagement since most surveys do not ask about Indigenous centres.

Institutional support also stems from students’ academic interactions with teaching staff. Compared with their domestic, non-Indigenous peers, Indigenous students are significantly more likely to ‘often’ or ‘very often’ report discussing grades with teaching staff, work with teaching staff on non-coursework activities and discuss ideas with teaching staff. Indigenous students are also significantly more likely to report having positive relationships with administrative personnel than are their non-Indigenous peers.

Indigenous students report markedly higher levels of engagement in relation to work-integrated learning than non-Indigenous students. The authors suggest this difference is probably due to the fact that Indigenous students are generally older, are often employed before commencing study and select courses directly relevant to their work. Around 43 per cent of Indigenous students say that their paid work is ‘quite a bit’ or ‘very much’ related to their field of study, compared with only 29 per cent of domestic, non-Indigenous students. Yet, again, the authors note that there is a lack of detailed data in this area.

The paper concludes by proposing new items for inclusion in national surveys, in order to deepen our understanding within the areas of significant difference between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Those areas include: how students’ studies relate to their employment; whether student interactions are mainly with Indigenous staff and students (or not); the roles of Indigenous centres and of community; and whether departure intentions are influenced by factors such as health.

“We have a clear picture of what Indigenous students think about university, but much less idea of why they think it,” said Dr Asmar. “Tapping into the ‘hidden stories’ of Indigenous engagement and success will help to better inform our efforts to attract, support, engage and retain our Indigenous students.”

AUSSE is a collaboration between ACER and participating universities. The full briefing, Dispelling myths: Indigenous students’ engagement with university, is available from http://ausse.acer.edu.au

« Back to eNews