people of Indigenous descent have to do something with their lives, like anybody else, and they are deciding to go on to university.
Loudmouth,
I can't see a single thing wrong with that. Where I do see much wrong is when pretend or unwarranted claiming of indigenous status is being heavily subsidised by our tax dollars. I think most people who are pulling their weight in society would have a problem with that, it just doesn't get the publicity. Our indigenous students even get pocket money from the State & free travel & schooling whereas non-indigenous do not. So, if a really watered down heritage is claimed for finanicial gain then it really is fraudulent or at the least it lacks integrity.

Individual, I'm not so sure that the financial incentives are any greater now for Indigenous students than for any others.

But just to complete the picture of how different institutions have been performing in relation to Indigenous students:

Graduations by Institution [Table 9 of the Database]:

More than seven hundred Indigenous students in NSW graduated in 2013, more than Victoria and Queensland together. But South Australia, once a leader in Indigenous student performance, contributed barely 5 % of the national total in 2013 – total graduations there declined compared to the previous year's graduations, the total pulled down by the poor performance of the University of SA. In fact, Charles Sturt alone graduated more Indigenous students than all South Australian universities together in 2013.

Graduation numbers in 2013 were 54 % better than in 2006, with NSW and Victoria's numbers increasing by around 90 %. Again, Western Australia experienced least growth, with 20 % fewer graduates in 2013 than in 2006, pulled down by Curtin's decline of more than 40 % since 2006.


Retention and Attrition by Institutions [Table 10]:

Indigenous student retention from 2012 into 2013 averaged about 73 %, i.e. attrition averaged 27.2 % overall, but only 23 % for students in award-level courses, reflecting the fact that bridging course students usually spend only a year in their courses, and then take other pathways.

State-wide, NSW and Victoria had retention rates that were 20 % or so above the national average, South Australia and Queensland had average attrition rates, while Charles Darwin, the University of Tasmania, and Western Australian universities – apart from the University of WA – averaged well below national retention levels.

[TBC]

Loudmouth,
As I said, if they were to seriously look into this the findings would shock many.

Individual,

I've been pondering some of the same issues for forty years or more. A very good friend (now deceased) who had, like me, married an Indigenous woman, used to agonise (and probably had arguments with his wife) over to what extent their beautiful blond, blue-eyed kids were Aboriginal, and at what point of intermarriage would it no longer be relevant to talk about Aboriginality. Of course, in those prickly days, nobody talked about being 'part-Aboriginal' any more. But the issue keeps coming up, much more so now than forty years ago.

Another issue that you may have alluded to, is the possibility of non-Indigenous people claiming Indigenous status and putting the figures out of whack. Yes, indeed, but again, by definition, how does one assess the incidence of that sort of fraud ? My wife and I worked in Indigenous student support over the 25 years, 1981-1005, and occasionally had experience of non-Indigenous trying either to make use of the relaxed entry qualifications, or - playing a longer game - 3expected to move into some secure Indigenous-reserved position.

Invariably, if a student was Indigenous, when you asked about their mob, or their country, you would find out in ten seconds or less. A phony would equivocate, and usually name some place far, far away.

One bloke tried this and mentioned a small town, and when I said 'Oh yeah, my wife's aunty lived there, what was your mum's name?' he mumbled something about 'stolen generation'. I gave him a 'family tree' form that I hurriedly put together and never saw him again. He got into another, more casual, program, and became their 'Aboriginal Scholar of the Year', and from there, leap-frogged into a policy position in Canberra.

It could get brutal: when my wife asked one person about her Aboriginality, she replied, 'If you ask me that again, I'll take you to court.' She also is now in a senior position. The union, the NTEU, was utterly useless, it would never come to the defence of staff over issues like this.

So ....

[TBC]

[continued]

So yes, both problems exist. How much, who can say, perhaps a quarter in total ?

Census data can be used to crudely gauge the numbers of graduates in states and regions and districts and 'communities' - but even then, one can't say if graduates are local or from urban areas.

Perhaps one way to estimate local-area participation at universities is to see how often, or if at all, universities send out promotional material or publicity teams to motivate people to apply for enrolment.

But I suspect that not much of that is being done these days, not like twenty or twenty five years ago. I recall sending out two thousand information packages, to every high school in Australia, and visiting twenty or thirty schools each year, but nobody seems to be doing that now.

Some universities regularly experience large commencement numbers (in 2012) but poor continuation numbers in 2013. One can't help feeling that some universities boost their Indigenous numbers with large intakes of poorly prepared students (perhaps Special Entry students, and perhaps enrolled externally and interstate as well), and tolerate high drop-out rates.

Conversely, sandstone universities tend to be much more circumspect about their intakes, with low intakes, few Special Entry students, lower than state-average enrolments, but much lower attrition rates.

But since 2005, some universities have outstanding commencement, enrolment and graduation numbers, AND average or high retention as well: Charles Sturt, Flinders, Griffith and ANU are good examples of such broad success.

And yet Indigenous student performance has improved sharply. How has this come about ? And what might be the consequences, the implications, on Aboriginal society of large numbers of university graduates in the near future, if not already ? What might be the consequences for Indigenous society and 'community' of, say, fifty thousand graduates by 2020, or 100,000 graduates by 2030-2032 ? Will the 'Gap' close or widen as a consequence ?

But those are the subjects of another paper :)

Cheers,

Joe