Professor Trevor Gale, Director of the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education and former CQUniversity academic recently returned to Rockhampton to participate in the Social Inclusion Speaker Series and to work with Student Support Centre staff and student mentors.

In his series presentation to staff, Trevor argued that at a time when higher education in Australia was expected to be more inclusive of people from under-represented backgrounds, institutions needed to do more than merely welcome diverse cohorts.

Professor Trevor Gale

Professor Gale believes that institutions have to re-engage with the curriculum and its delivery to improve engagement of students from under-represented groups, which will contribute to a better quality of higher education for all students.

Mary McLeod, Manager of the Student Support Centre said that "the Social Inclusion Speaker Series aimed to provide opportunities for staff to learn more about issues of social inclusion in CQUniversity communities and how these relate to leaning and teaching".

Professor Gale's research expertise in transition to higher education was also sought by the Student Support Centre as it begins establishing a program of research to build a better understanding of issues related to young people's awareness and aspirations for tertiary education in the Central Queensland region.

In 2011, the Widening Participation team (from the Student Support Centre) are delivering a range of innovative Outreach programs in 31 high schools and 107 primary schools in the Central Queensland region and Indigenous-specific activities in three high schools. Outreach programs are delivered exclusively to schools in low socio-economic areas.

"It's really important for us to be able to gauge the level of awareness and aspiration for tertiary education among students from low socio-economic backgrounds in our region," according to Outreach Coordinator Stacey Doyle. "We need to collect data on how students from LSES backgrounds set goals about their learning and future work choices and how they see themselves achieving those goals. This information will better inform the programs we design and deliver."

Professor Gale also participated in a facilitated discussion with CQUniversity Student Mentors and the First-Year Experience Coordinator Dr Gemma Mann to raise awareness of the role that first-year mentors play in developing the 'voice' of new students from under-represented backgrounds.  The group also discussed how mentors could use their experiences to educate teaching staff about issues in the first year of university.

"Mentors have ‘been there and done that' as first-year students," says Gemma. "They are also an important connection between new students and the University and I think their knowledge and experiences are important in raising awareness of learning, teaching and support issues for first-year students."

Professor Gale is a policy sociologist with research interests in social justice in schooling, vocational and higher education. He is author and co-author of 150 books, book chapters, journal articles and conference papers. His latest books are Schooling in Disadvantaged Communities (Springer 2010) with Carmen Mills and Educational Research by Association (Sense 2010) with Bob Lingard. He is currently undertaking a meta-analysis of students' transition into higher education, for the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC).