Improving higher education success for Australian Indigenous peoples: Examples of promising practice

The first recorded university graduations of Aboriginal Australians were Ms Margaret Weir with a Diploma from the University of Melbourne in 1959 and Mr Charles Perkins who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney in 1966. Indigenous Australians welcomed the Aboriginal Study Grants Scheme, and despite the many and varied hurdles to academic success, enrolment numbers and completions have steadily increased over this time. This chapter highlights where Indigenous higher education strategies and their implementation are showing signs of success and to outline where further investment is required to ensure Indigenous students in Australia are supported to achieve improved higher education outcomes. It draws examples of promising practice from existing peer-reviewed academic publications alongside the empirical findings from a regional university case study from a recent cross-jurisdictional nationally-funded research grant from the Commonwealth Office of Learning and Teaching.