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Amnesty International has identified soaring Indigenous incarceration rates as one of the most significant social justice and policy issues facing Australia. Indigenous Australians are twelve times more likely to be incarcerated than other Australians, mostly due to high recidivism rates. While a higher education qualification can significantly decrease reoffending rates post-release, accessing this type of education in correctional centres is becoming ever more difficult as providers move their program offerings online. As a result, prisoners are progressively excluded from higher education. This is particularly the case for Indigenous prisoners who often have lower levels of educational attainment than their non-Indigenous counterparts, further marginalising them. The University of Southern Queensland is leading a project, , aimed at facilitating increased participation of prisoners, particularly Indigenous prisoners, in digital higher education. In this way, the project aims to assist incarcerated students to develop critical thinking skills, digital literacies and the capacity for self-reflection. In addition, it seeks to enhance the prospects for employment on release and promote positive connection to families and communities. Such outcomes are expected to reduce the risk of reoffending upon release, by equipping people with the cognitive tools needed to engage constructively with families, communities and an increasingly digital society.

Uneven distribution of resources and services based on geographical location (commonly referred to as spatial inequality) is likely to influence Indigenous Australian higher education outcomes. Online education could potentially resolve access to education, where distance is the primary barrier, by mitigating some of the impediments to Indigenous education such as travelling long distances or living away from home. Recent Indigenous higher education trends suggest that online courses are in fact succeeding in attracting and retaining Indigenous students, particularly in regional areas. However, little is known of how socio-technological barriers (such as Internet connectivity, ownership/sharing of devices and digital literacy) relate to and interact with other social and educational barriers. In this chapter we discuss online education in relation to digital literacy and related factors. We draw on evidence from Swinburne University of Technology’s Indigenous Futures Program, which is developing pathway programs for regional and remote Indigenous communities. The project is being conducted in partnership with not-for-profit organisations working with Indigenous individuals and communities in regional and remote areas.

This chapter extends the findings of a four-year investigation (2012–2015) into the processes, the data, the issues, the enablers and constraints, the opportunities and the successes associated with the transition of Indigenous students into higher education across the nation (Kinnane et al. ‘Can’t be what you can’t see’: the transition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students into higher education: Final report 2014. Office for Learning and Teaching, Sydney, 2014). This research described exemplar thinking, principles of successful programs, and identified elements of leading practice in the context of current trends and overall policy shifts relating to Indigenous experiences of higher education in 26 universities across Australia. The research also outlined five models for Indigenous student transition, retention and graduation utilised by Australian universities. This foundational work was then used as a framework by which to conduct further research into online learning experiences for Indigenous students living and studying in remote communities. In this chapter, we examine particular elements within the identified models that afford maximum success and participation in higher education for Indigenous students studying in remote locations. It is noted that these models are also in transition, hybridised and dynamic, with the thinking, policy and programs that underpin them continually evolving. Based on interviews with educators in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia, we establish an informed and nuanced understanding of the experiences of Indigenous university students living and studying in remote, and very remote, locations of Australia and of what ‘success’ might look like in these particular geographical and cultural contexts. Further, we aim to contribute to the development of a culturally responsive approach in the higher education sector which seeks to (i) promote community and family awareness and engagement in these students’ learning experiences, (ii) strengthen student support and (iii) improve learning opportunities and enhance student engagement; the combined effect of all three being to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous higher education students studying online in remote and very remote communities. We argue that successful transition may actualise anywhere between enrolment in a university, retention in a course or successful completion, and that there are key areas where investment in success can be made. To this end, we identify online teaching and learning strategies based on the research findings, designed to enhance learning opportunities and promote family and community engagement.

This chapter details the findings from a national project that investigated the efficacy of the enabling program pathway into higher education for disadvantaged student groups. Enabling programs are not-for-degree programs designed to provide the necessary academic and cultural scaffolding for students who do not meet the institution’s usual admissions criteria. The brief given to the project team was to undertake a review of current enabling programs offered by Australian higher education providers and report on the extent to which these courses were effective in increasing access and participation to, and subsequent success in, undergraduate courses for domestic students from disadvantaged groups. This chapter focuses specifically on the findings relevant to Indigenous students, who represent one of six officially recognised equity groups of students in Australian higher education policy. In this chapter the authors detail and discuss the nature and design of enabling programs for Indigenous students, and then provide a detailed analysis of the first year retention and success rates for Indigenous students who transitioned to undergraduate studies via these enabling programs. The evidence from the study indicates that Indigenous enabling pathways provide an important and effective environment in which the students develop a sense of belonging in higher education and develop the necessary resilience to persist in their subsequent studies. However, it is less clear whether Indigenous students are receiving the academic skills development necessary to succeed in their studies at rates similar to other students.

Since 2011 the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation’s (CRC-REP) Remote Education Systems (RES) project has investigated aspects of remote schooling with a view to uncovering ways that outcomes for remote students and their families could be improved. One of the key questions driving the research was ‘what is education for in remote communities?’ The bulk of responses from remote Aboriginal respondents discussed the need for education to maintain language and culture, and build strong identities in young people. Very few respondents suggested that school was a stepping stone on a pathway to higher education. The question remains then, ‘what kinds of pathways would enable remote learners to progress to university and then to succeed?’ The answers we provide to this question are in part drawn from the RES research findings. But we also propose responses that are built on principles that emerge from the project. We look forward to consider how remote education systems could respond to give young people with aspirations for higher education the opportunities they need to succeed. The answers we provide recognise the complexity of the context. In particular, we provide a critique of boarding school strategies and suggest – in line with RES findings – strategies and approaches that are responsive to both the aspirations stated by community members for the future of the youth and the community.

An aim of this volume is to acknowledge the diverse approaches and strategies used to support and enhance pathways and transitions into higher education for Indigenous learners. Authors have approached this from various standpoints and so this book has a focus on social justice and equity issues in Australian and international contexts, and cross-cuts a range of disciplines including humanities, social sciences, education and public policy. Issues raised in this volume include transitions and pathways policy, theory and practice, but are very much grounded in the need for a transformative academy, one which truly engages with communities and has an intercultural foundation. Nakata (2002) views the academy as a ‘cultural interface’ where there is an ‘intersection of Western and Indigenous domains… the place where we live and learn, the place that conditions our lives, the place that shapes our futures and more to the point the place where we are active agents in our own lives – where we make our decisions – our lifeworld’. The ‘cultural interface’ has commonalities with the concepts of ‘both ways’ (Wunungmurra 1989; Marika et al. 1992; Ober and Bat 2007) and ‘interculturalism’ (Abdallah-Pretceille 2006; Coll 2004; Frawley and Fasoli 2012) as these are concerned with similar notions of space where systems, organisations, communities and people meet and interact, where there is balance, where knowledge is negotiated and where new knowledge is shared equally. This is the challenge for higher education: that within the cultural interface context, each university is a place for everyone.