Abstract:
This paper reports on a long-term collaborative project in New Zealand between a university and low decile schools, to improve access to university participation of under represented groups. In the first phase, high school students from these groups who showed ‘potential’ for university study, but with little family history of such participation, were encouraged to remain at school through a system of awards and other strategies that also raised their awareness and expectations of future higher education. In the second phase, students were first introduced to university life and later, building especially on lessons learnt from those early years, were supported in their study. As the innovation developed, mistakes were made and lessons learnt which, because of the ‘piecemeal’ nature of the change process undertaken, could be addressed as the project unfolded.

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Addressing policy imperatives to improve access of under-represented groups to university education: a collaborative project between a university and secondary schools.