Aboriginal university enrolments double, but barriers still exist

Aboriginal enrolments to university have doubled in the past decade, but financial challenges result in many Indigenous students abandoning their studies after their first year.

Warumungu and Warlmanpa man 23-year-old Ethan Taylor is one of the success stories. He is headed from Melbourne University to Oxford to study political philosophy on a fully funded Charlie Perkins scholarship and is hoping to become an academic.

Ethan Taylor is an Aboriginal student who has received a Charlie Perkins scholarship to go to Oxford.Credit:Simon Schluter

“[Political philosophy] is one of the last fields to get decolonised,” Taylor said.

Between 2010 and 2020, Aboriginal student enrolments have essentially doubled in bachelor, postgraduate and postgraduate research respectively from 7605 to 15,290, from 1285 to 3330 in postgraduate studies and 423 to 751 in postgraduate research.

In the same period, Aboriginal enrolment has also increased as a percentage of all enrolments from 0.92 per cent to 1.41 per cent, according to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

The dropout rate is still higher for non-Indigenous students, but is declining. In 2010, Indigenous students had an attrition rate of 25.46 in their bachelor degrees compared with 13.72 for non-Indigenous students.

In 2019, it dropped to 19.45 compared with 15.52 for non-Indigenous students.

Minister for Education Jason Clare said fewer than 10 per cent of First Nations Australians aged between 25 and 34 have a university degree.

“I don’t want us to be a country where your chances in life depend on your postcode, your parents, or the colour of your skin,” Clare said.

He said that was why he was requiring universities to allocate 20,000 new university places to people who are “under-represented at university” – including First Nations people.

Minister for Education Jason Clare.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

In the past 10 years, almost 100 Indigenous scholars have received either the Perkins or Roberta Sykes scholarships to study at the most elite universities in the world.

Taylor, 23, who is originally from Alice Springs, dropped out of high school but later tried remote learning via the School of the Air in Western Australia.

He found it isolating at first but started to realise he could almost ignore the things he felt were racist about educational systems if he distracted himself with challenging work.

Eventually, he became the first member of his family to attend university, transferring to the University of Melbourne to study law and moving into Trinity College where, he said, the Indigenous liaison officer helped students feel safe, included and represented.

Despite the gains of recent years, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students still face barriers to attend university including accessing financial support, not feeling like they belong, moving away from family and internet access.

Indigenous Aurora Education Foundation chief executive Leila Smith said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students often need to use a “patchwork” of funding to complete their studies.

Indigenous Aurora Education Foundation chief executive Leila SmithCredit:Oscar Colman

Of those who drop out in their first year, financial troubles is a key factor, she said.

She said the “social capital” that comes from the knowledge of how to navigate universities, absent when you are first member of your family in tertiary education, makes a difference, which is why Indigenous education centres are “so critical”.

“It’s a good news story when an Indigenous person has a uni degree, their employment outcomes are the same as non-Indigenous students,” she said.

Inala Cooper, director of Marrup Barrak – Melbourne University’s Institute of Indigenous Development – said the university had about 500 students who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, and they were assessing how that number could be lifted.

“We should be working to ensure that both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people feel they belong in university settings if that’s where they want to be and that they are settings that are free from racism and are safe places to be,” Cooper said.

She said some students “choose not to continue their studies” because of racism, which is why having a “cultural wrap-around” was important.

Other universities are increasing their representation, with Monash recording its largest enrolment of Indigenous students in 2021. Swinburne’s Moondani Toombadool Centre, established in 2019 has driven a boom in Aboriginal enrolments, which have increased from 81 in 2014 to 1048 in 2021. In 2019, the Indigenous retention rate was 71.5 per cent.

Representation in staff is one important factor, Cooper said. According to the University of Melbourne annual report, of their 9451 staff, 139 were Indigenous. By the end of 2021, RMIT had 46 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff. At Swinburne, of the 2421 staff members, 17 are Indigenous.

“The more First Nations people you have in any organisation, the deeper and more valuable the knowledge and the world view and experience is brought into the workplace, and that is only for the better,” Cooper said.

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