Closing Gaps in Indigenous Undergraduate Higher Education Outcomes: Repositioning the Role of Student Support Services to Improve Retention and Completion Rates

Abstract

The current change agenda to improve the persistently lower rates of access, participation and outcomes of Indigenous Australians in higher education is a broad one that attempts to address the complex range of contributing factors. A proposition in this paper is that the broad and longer-term focus runs the risk of distracting from the detailed considerations needed to improve support provisions for enrolled students in the immediate term. To bring more attention to this area of indicated change, we revisit 'the gaps' that exist between the performance of Indigenous and all other domestic students and the role that student support services have to play in improving retention and completion ..