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The Forum > Article Comments > Transformations in Indigenous higher education > Comments

Transformations in Indigenous higher education : Comments

By Joe Lane, published 9/12/2009

For a generation now tertiary education has been the quiet success story for Indigenous people.

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Yo Joe,
Always pleased to provide entertainment for my smug superiors.
And thanks for correcting me on HEC's and also, possibly, rent assistance.
When I interviewed my indigenous student circa 2004/5 it was a bone of contention between him and his house-mates that he received rental assistance and had his HECS paid for him due to his "indigenous" status, whereas they didn't.
Perhaps his was one of the indigenous cadetships that paid his HECS and which appear not to have a non-indigenous equivalent?
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/careers/cicp.htm
I don't think he was doing his masters or doctorate, otherwise his indigenous status would have qualified him for HECS exemption as well as a healthy $20,427 pa, not available to the non-indigenous.
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/payments/abstudy_addition.htm#maximum
I further note the exclusive availability to indigenous students of incidentals allowance plus additional incidentals allowance of up to $4,200 pa, which in themselves approach HEC values.
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/filestores/co029_0909/$file/co029_0909en.rtf
The Centrelink Austudy and Youth Allowance booklet (Ci004.0609) from my filing cabinet refers to Youth Allowance and Rent Assistance but not Austudy and Rent Assistance, reinforcing my memory on that point. This leads me to think that Rental Assistance for Austudy recipients must be a recent, and welcome, innovation.
Please correct me again if I’m wrong.
You seem to view this from a reparations point of view.
At what point should reparations stop?
When equity has been achieved?
But surely we’re beyond equity when there are more indigenous-women than non-indigenous men in tertiary education.
Race-based welfare will always be racist, by definition.
Welfare should be needs-based not race-based.
Otherwise you get the ludicrous, unjust and racist system we have now,
where somebody in a similar situation to other people gets special treatment because one of their ancestors happened to be indigenous.
Posted by HermanYutic, Sunday, 13 December 2009 5:13:09 PM
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Hi Herman,

No, I don't think I'm smug at all. AuStudy is available to Australian domestic students, Abstudy is available to Indigenous students, and I wasn't aware that there was all that much difference between the two.

Yes, some students, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, may be studying on cadetships. Rent allowance, I don't know about: none of the students I worked with ever received it, as far as I was aware.

I don't see any of this being relevant to reparations: if there are any extra payments available to Indigenous students, they could be called 'catch-up' for the generations of exclusion from the education system, and I presume they will be levelled out in the near future. As it happens, I believe that all students in need, Black or White, should receive supplementary assistance. I don't believe that any students who are well-off, Black or White, should.

To get back to the topic, Indigenous women are commencing tertiary study at a slightly better rate than non-Indigenous males. They are not commencing at anywhere near the rate of non-Indigenous women. That's how it is. What do you propose from now on, that if any struggle for equity is over, Indigenous women can now be barred from tertiary study ?

Indigenous students have been a permanent feature of Australian tertiary education for a generation now, and they will be participating at increasing rates in the future. That was the gist of my article. Please try to get used to the idea.

Joe Lan
Posted by Loudmouth, Sunday, 13 December 2009 10:48:01 PM
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Herman,

1. One of the things that concerns me about people adopting the position of 'reverse racism' is the mistaken notion that everyone begins from the same starting position. Despite various difficulties for any student undertaking tertiary study (such as having to live on a pittance; travel distances and find accommodation to complete placement requirements; costs of books and all that), mainstream society has been advantaged for a very long time compared to Aboriginal students. For example, it's well known that children of professional people tend to gravitate towards higher education and to follow similar career paths to their parents. At least if they reject that path; they have had an opportunity to exercise some choice.

2. Education is a protective factor against a lot of health and community problems.

3. There are a huge range of scholarships and entitlements for which the majority of students and some international students are eligible to apply. For example:

http://www.deakin.edu.au/future-students/scholarships/access-equity.php

http://www.goingtouni.gov.au/Main/FeesLoansAndScholarships/Postgraduate/Scholarships/UniversityScholarships/ScholarshipsAtAustralianUniversities.htm

http://www.csu.edu.au/student/scholarships/

http://www.rcna.org.au/scholarships/government_scholarships

http://www.csu.edu.au/student/scholarships/other-bodies.htm

http://www.griffith.edu.au/research-higher-degrees/scholarships/externally-funded

http://studyinaustralia.gov.au/Sia/en/StudyCosts/Scholarships

http://www.ausaid.gov.au/scholar/

http://education.qld.gov.au/marketing/service/higher-education/university/courses-other-info.html

http://www.studentcentre.utas.edu.au/scholarships/AwardDetails.aspx?AwardId=188
Posted by Pynchme, Monday, 14 December 2009 5:45:12 PM
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Dear Joe
What degrees or higher degrees are they achieving and at what Universities?
Posted by blairbar, Thursday, 17 December 2009 3:54:52 PM
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Hi Blairbar,

In the latest data, that for 2008, more than ninety per cent of Indigenous graduations were at degree- and post-graduate level. Check out
http://www.deewr.gov.au/HigherEducation/Publications/HEStatistics/Publications/Pages/Students.aspx

for the latest summaries, and

http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/publications_resources/statistics/publications_higher_education_statistics_collections.htm

for older data. By definition, by the way, bridging course 'graduates' are not counted in the total of AWARD-LEVEL graduates. Fair enough too.

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Friday, 18 December 2009 10:45:41 AM
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