The Emerging Equity Evaluation Landscape in Higher Education
| Author | Liam Downing |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X1701700104 |
| Published date | 01 March 2017 |
| Date | 01 March 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Academic Article |
Downing—The emerging equity evaluation landscape in higher education
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ACADEMIC ARTICLE Evaluation Journal of Australasia Vol 17 | No 1 | 2017 | pp. 19–29
LIAM DOWNING
The emerging equity evaluation
landscape in higher education
Despite signicant funding owing into higher
education for programs aimed at improving
participation, access and success, there still exists a
limited amount of systematic evaluation taking place
within the sector. In some institutions (including
universities, research centres and centres of excellence),
a greater level of onus has been felt in recent years for
the need to ascertain whether funding sources such
as the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships
Program (HEPPP) have led or are likely to lead to
positive equity-related outcomes. An understanding
of the causal links that lead or do not lead to these
outcomes being met is also being sought for potential
replication and evidence of success, along with advice
from funders about what they are looking for. This
creates a ‘perfect storm’ in which it seems evaluation
is an ideal tool. The landscape this storm is creating—
which is leading to a slowly growing body of evidence
around how equity programs work—has potential to
generate convincing evidence about the ecacy of
such programs and lead to signicant improvements
in how they are run. This paper will document aspects
of this emergence, and suggest ways forward which
could sustainably hasten this process.
Introduction
Commonwealth funding specifically directed at higher education
equity initiatives has increased dramatically since 2010. This funding
has led to a significant level of activity in Australian public universities
aimed both at improving the number of students from traditionally
underrepresented groups and their levels of success in study.
Liam Downing is Equity Programs Evaluation
Coordinator, Oce for Students, Charles Sturt
University, Orange, New South Wales.
Email: ldowning@csu.edu.au
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