Eight projects boost equity at University of Newcastle

12 February 2016

The University of Newcastle has attracted eight Higher Education Participation Programme (HEPP) National Priority Pool (NPP) grants, totalling almost $1 million, to help improve the tertiary education experience and process for students from diverse backgrounds.

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UON’s Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education (CEEHE) will oversee the eight projects and ensure their impact is sustained long after the funding period ends.
Professor Penny Jane Burke, Co-Director of CEEHE, said that the Centre’s unique framework brings together people committed to an equity agenda to share ideas and collaborate to tackle the complexity of educational inequalities.
“This funding is very important in supporting our aim to develop research across a range of challenging and complex issues in an emerging field. In order to tackle inequalities in higher education, we must build and sustain research-informed strategies and practices, for which funding such as this is crucial” said Professor Burke.
The 2016 funding success builds on eight existing HEPP NPP grants secured in 2015, aimed at enhancing equity across a number of disciplines – Creative and Performing Arts; Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM), as well as digital resources and strategies aimed at access and student experience.

Successful 2016 Projects

  • Building Statistical Literacy for Success in Higher Education – Project Lead: Dr Peter Howley
  • Enhancing University Retention and Success for First-In-Family, Low SES Students Through a Flipped Classroom Learning Model – Project Lead: Dr Johanna Macneil
  • Equity & Medical Education – Project Lead: Dr Robbert Duvivier
  • Guiding futures: The role of teachers in the formation of students’ aspirations for higher education – Project Lead: Professor Jenny Gore
  • Indigenous enabling: ‘what works’? Developing a national conversation around enabling education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students through a comprehensive audit of current provision – Project Lead: Associate Professor Maree Gruppetta
  • Live Learn Grow – Project Lead: Louise Rak
  • Unlocking Capacity and Empowering Choices”: Indigenous Students’ Aspirations – Project Lead: Professor Max Smith
  • Yarning the Way: The role of Indigenous education paraprofessionals in guiding the post-school educational pathways of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth – Project Lead: Associate Professor Maree Gruppetta and Dr Erica Southgate

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