Australian Government

Department of Education

Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP)

Participation and Partnerships Baseline Component

2013PROGRESS REPORT

Covering the period 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2013

University details

Name of university / Curtin University
Name of contact officer / Mel Henry
Designation of contact officer / Manager Corporate Values & Equity
Email address /
Telephone number / 08 9266 7914

Note: Contact details are collected so that the Department of Education can contact you about this form. These details will not be disclosed without your consent, unless required by law.

The deadline for submission of the report is 5pm AEDST, 31 March 2014.

Please note:

a)the template groups Participation activities according to the areas of activity addressed by the HEPPP Participation component outlined at section 1.65.1 of the Other Grants Guidelines (Education) 2012. As stated in the Guidelines, universities may undertake, but are not limited to, these activities using Participation funding. All activities must meet the Participation funding objectives at section 1.55.1 of the Guidelines.

b)the information obtained from this report will assist the Department to evaluate the HEPPP and ensure funds are expended in achieving the program’s objectives.

c)when reporting on progress,please provide a concise and direct response.

Please submit :

  1. a completed declaration form, signed by the Vice Chancellor, in PDF format
  2. acompletedreport template in PDF and Word format.

If you require assistance in completing the formor any queries about unspent program funds please email .

UNSPENT 2013 HEPPP FUNDS

The information in this section relates to the reporting of unspent HEPPP grant funds provided for the 2013 calendar year under the Participation component and the Partnerships baseline component. Partnerships competitive grant projects managed under separate Conditions of Grant are excluded as these are grants are in respect of a project and not a year.

Grant recipients are required to fully expend Participation component and Partnership Baseline component grant funds in the year for which the grant is made and report to the Commonwealth on this expenditure including the amount of any unspent funds.

If a provider fails to spend an amount granted it in respect of a year, the unspent amount will be recovered by the Commonwealth from that year.

It is possible for a provider to have an amount of unspent funds rolled over to the next calendar year. Requests for the rollover of unspent funds will be considered by the Department on a case by case basis and providers wishing to do so should contact the Department to discuss this process.

The Higher Education Support Act 2003 (the Act) requires that the value of any funds approved for rollover from one year to the next will be treated as inclusive of a university's grant for the year the funds are rolled over into. Because the Act specifies a maximum grant amount to be paid in respect of a year, the Department is then required to adjust downwards each university's grant allocation in that year by the amount of the university's rolled over funds from the prior year.

SECTION 1:

PARTICIPATION COMPONENT

______

In 2013, what activities did your university undertake with HEPPP Participation funding to improve access to higher education for students from low SES backgrounds?

Please report Partnership Activities funded by the Participation Component in Section 2 ‘Partnership Component’.

Please complete the table below, adding extra rows as required.

Title / Description and objectives / Progress achieved / Cost ($)
Please give the title of the program/project and indicate,by clicking on the check boxes, the type of activity or activities involved. / Please describe the activity using the following subheadings.
1. What was done (please include number and type of engagements, number of schools, number of students internal/external, facilities/resources used and
number of staff
2. For which group/s eg low SES, low SES with disability, low SES regional, low SES Indigenous
3. Why
4. Where / Please state quantitative and qualitative measures of progress to date and include in brackets the methodology used to measure the progress, eg survey, focus group, administrative data, individual feedback, evaluation. Please provide the following measures where relevant and available, and any other measures of progress you can report:
  1. number/percentage of students enrolling,
  2. number/percentage students becoming/remaining engaged
  3. retention rates
  4. number/percentage students passing
  5. number /percentage students completing
  6. percentage change in attitude.
For example:
60% of participants reported an increased desire to attend university (individual feedback)
25 students completed the summer camp (administrative data)
54% of participants enrolled at a university (survey) / 1) HEPPP funding
2) Other funding
Title:Student Support & Outreach Service (SSOS)
☐Inclusive entry processes
☐Transition programs
☐Academic preparation
☐Mentoring, peer support, tutoring
☐Programs for parents
☒Monitoring student progress
☒Administering student scholarships
☒Institutional scholarships
☐Research and monitoring
☐Other /
  1. What was done?
Provision of social wellbeing/welfare support to current students. The Student Support and Outreach Service (SSOS)is conducted on an individual basis face-to-face, as well as group sessions. Example consultations involved:
•Supporting students in creating suicide safety plans, escorting them to hospital and ensuring they receive follow up care.
•Helping create safety plans for students experiencing domestic violence concerns and supporting them with applications to the court for violent restraining orders.
•Providing budgeting support, food and clothing vouchers, emergency and long term accommodation, and referring students to appropriate services on and off campus.
  1. For which groups?
Low SES students, including mature aged students, low SES students with a disability, students in regional areas and Indigenous students
  1. Why?
The SSOSprovides a proactive and preventative approach to supporting students with social wellbeing concerns commonly experienced by low SES students, with the potential to severely impact on their studies.
  1. Where?
Service operates primarily on campus (Counselling and Disability Services), with staff visits to student housing and external community organisations (e.g. Perth and Freemantle Magistrate court) / •446 Students attended the SSOS
  • 947 individual visits, including face to face, phone and email contacts.
  • Visits ranged from 15 minutes to 4 hours.
•18 social wellbeing workshops were delivered at the Counselling and Disability Services andStudent Housing
•564 other consultationswere completed, including Safer Community Response Team meetings, professional development, case consults about students, scholarship reviews, facilitation of group programs and various committees addressing social wellbeing concerns
•Workshopswere developed and facilitated to assist
  • staffto develop skills to support students with mental health issues
  • students who in the future may support others with mental health concerns
•54% of students attending workshops were domestic students
•Workshop participants’ age ranged from 17 to 63 years old with the most frequent ages reported as 21, 22 and 29 years old
•Group programs facilitated:
  • for women who are victims of domestic violence (8 week psycho-educational group)
  • to address sexual health and relationships, budgeting and self-care, cooking classes, career workshops, Mindfulness and migration information
•69% of students were aware of SSOS services (student housing survey)
•18% of students in Curtin housing attended a SSOS workshop
•Top 5 issues addressed during appointments:
  • organisational support
  • financial issues
  • study/work related concerns
  • accommodation issues
  • domestic violence.
•Due to the demand on services Student Support & Outreach Service (SSOS) hassince increased from 1.0 to 1.8 staff EFT.
Title:KickSTART
☐Inclusive entry processes
☒Transition programs
☐Academic preparation
☐Mentoring, peer support, tutoring
☐Programs for parents
☒Monitoring student progress
☐Administering student scholarships
☐Institutional scholarships
☐Research and monitoring
☐Other /
  1. What was done?
Student Equity Advisors in eachFaculty, and the KickSTART Project Coordinator contacted identified low SES students upon commencement to provide personalised, targeted, and timely information to support their successful transition into University.
Identified students who later experienced poor results (i.e. placed on “Conditional” or “Terminated” academic standing status) at the end of semester received follow-up support to enable them to return to “Good Standing”.
  1. For which groups?
•New-to-Curtin StepUp (ATAR bonus scheme for low SES applicants) students
•Students identified as low SES, including rural/remote and Indigenous students
  1. Why?
Traditionally these groups experience higher attrition rates at University than their mainstream counterparts due to the intersectionality of poverty, parental educational attainment, lack of educational resources, homesickness and non-traditional backgrounds, for example. Providing targeted, timely information to support their personal transition to University aims to increase retention rates and the overall student experience.
  1. Where?
Service operates out of Curtin University, but includes online, oncampus (in person) and phone correspondence with students. / •1286 students were contacted in Semester 1, 2013.
  • 314 (24%)responded with queries or feedback.
•“Academic issues” and “Enrolment issues” were the two main topics causing students to contact Advisors.
•40% of student queries were referred to a Curtin support service, including Counselling & Disability Services, Scholarships, Academic Staff members and the Student Wellbeing Advisory Service.
•60% of students with queries were helped directly by return email.
•67% of contacted Indigenous students completed the year on academic “Good Standing”.
•71% of contacted rural/remote students completed the year on academic “Good Standing”.
•Feedback comments from students included:
  • “The (link) is great, and I’ll get onto finding out as much as I can about it. It’s fantastic that the university offers support”.
  • “Thank you for the email, very informative. Now I know where to go for assistance with personal issues”
  • “Thank you for spending the time to help me. It is really appreciated!”
  • “Thanks for the reply. I was at uni yesterday for a case study assessment and visited student services where they helped me to switch to off campus study. I now only have to attend for one of my units in semester 2. This is a much better idea”.

Title:Enactus
☐Inclusive entry processes
☐Transition programs
☒Academic preparation
☒Mentoring, peer support, tutoring
☐Programs for parents
☐Monitoring student progress
☐Administering student scholarships
☐Institutional scholarships
☐Research and monitoring
☒Other /
  1. What was done?
Enactusis a global organisation comprising a community of student, academic and business leaders committed to using the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better more sustainable world.It is a student run organisation where the students implement and manage projects in the community to empower local communities to achieve positive social change from within; and to make tangible and positive impacts with local communities through social enterprise initiatives.Through Enactus we aim to engage with low SES students in their communities and toshowcase higher education as a viable study option for all, where, along with study, students can work within their communities ‘to make tomorrow better’. In 2013, projects included:
•ProSocial: networking events and professional development initiatives for young women in need of professional development opportunities. Involved 32 students and young professionals, 6 female business mentors.
•Blossom: partnership with Olive Tree House Day Centre. Together we produced and sold jam and in the process improve motor skills, provided support and reduced social isolation for physically and intellectually disabled people living within our community. Involved 14 elderly people with physical and intellectual disabilities from two different groups within Olive Tree House.
•CALE: vegetable garden at Clontarf Aboriginal College, as part of the curriculum, to enhance students’ business and soft skills while encouraging healthy lifestyle choices. Involved Clontarf year 8 and year 9 bush ranger class students.
  1. For which groups?
•Low SES women
•Elderly people with physical and intellectual disabilities
•Indigenous high school students
  1. Why?
Identified issues experienced by disadvantaged communities including:
•young women in need of professional development opportunities
•a large proportion of physically and intellectually disabled people living within our community face social isolation and lack of support
•adiscrepancy in the lack of entrepreneurial knowledge amongst indigenous teenagers in Clontarf.
  1. Where?
These programs operated within the communities they were working with, i.e. on campus, at Olive Tree House and Clontarf Aboriginal College. / •Enactus Curtin expanded its projects to introduce a new project called CALE in 2013.
•Enactus Curtin has 47 members, which are Curtin students
•2,000 Curtin students actively participated in an Enactus event in 2013
•2,650 volunteer hours were undertaken by Curtin students through Enactus
•10,399 people were reached through Enactus Curtin’s Social Media channels
•ProSocial:
  • Fostered relationships between industry and mentors
  • Successfully organized 1 event and establishing 3 programmes
  • Presented educational workshops that enhanced students employability skills
  • 4 students benefited from the ProSocialnetworking event by gaining first hand industry experience
  • Provided access to affordable professional development opportunities that focus on improving participants networking and communication skills
  • Attendees formed mentoring relationships have increased their confidence and willingness to excel in the future.
•Blossom:
  • Facilitated connections between people with disabilities and thecommunity.
  • Provided a meaningful activity for the people of Olive Tree House.
  • Decreased costs of staffing by sourcing volunteers
  • Strengthened client’s standard of living through an innovative social enterprise allowing financial independence, improvement of motor skills and testing of mental and physical boundaries.
•CALE:
  • Equipped students with leadership and entrepreneurial skills to enable them to become independent and productive members of society
  • Made complex business concepts easy to understand through hands on collaborative learning
  • Enhanced already existing relationships with Clontarf by fostering new programs
  • Created a symbiotic relationship with students from Clontarf college and Enactus students
  • Built a foundation for continued learning and development
  • Improved students’ literacy and communication skills
  • Improved employability of Aboriginal students
  • Encouraged confidence, teamwork, persistence and commitment

Title:Earn While You Learn (EWYL)
☐Inclusive entry processes
☐Transition programs
☐Academic preparation
☐Mentoring, peer support, tutoring
☐Programs for parents
☐Monitoring student progress
☒Administering student scholarships
☒Institutional scholarships
☐Research and monitoring
☒Other /
  1. What was done?
Earn While You learn (EWYL) helps to source and recruit current second year and above Curtin students into part-time or casual paid work on campus. The emphasis is on placing low SES students as identified/referred by others within the university. It is a free service to students and Curtin Faculties and Departments.
•Facilitated paid employment for current students
•Scholarships of $2000 plus 20hours paid employment awarded
•Facilitated volunteer placements for current students
•Student were invited to register for the Earn While You Learn Pool
•Faculties, Schools and Departments were assisted to recruit students for suitable positions
  1. For which groups?
•Current Curtin students, with a priority focus on low SES students
•EWYL Scholarships offered to current low SES students
  1. Why?
•To provide the opportunity for financial support and employment experience (paid or volunteer)
•To provide the opportunity for a personal resume review and advise students of upcoming job opportunities on campus
  1. Where?
On campus, Movies by Burswood, Australian Electoral Commission / •452 students registered with EWYL in 2013. They have each received (or are in the process of receiving) a personal resume review.
•899 applications were received for advertised EWYL opportunities in 2013.
•A total of 206 placements were made of Curtin Students into on-campus positions
•45 Scholarship applicants
  • Email contact made with all.
  • Individual phone contact made with 24
  • Individual appointments with 12
•2 workshops offered as part of up-skilling successful EWYL scholarship applicants: 5/8 attended interview skills workshop, 6/8 attended resume and cover letter writing workshop.
•Sourced an external opportunity for employment of Curtin Students for the Australian Electoral Commission and is the exclusive supplier of all Election Assistants working in the vote counting hub at Ascot Racecourse on September 7.
  • A total of 126 Curtin Students worked for the AEC on Election Day
•Approximately 110 students were placed into voluntary positions with Movies By Burswood at Curtin for the 2013-14 Summer season.
•Students have developed skills such as customer service, cash handling, teamwork, manual handling and responsible service of alcohol through their involvement with the program, enhancing their employability.
•Engaged with 31 different Schools and Departments across Curtin University in 2013.Of those, 22 have utilised the EWYL service to recruit students this year.
Title: Career Development Consultant (Equity)
☐Inclusive entry processes
☒Transition programs
☐Academic preparation
☐Mentoring, peer support, tutoring
☐Programs for parents
☐Monitoring student progress
☐Administering student scholarships
☐Institutional scholarships
☐Research and monitoring
☒Other /
  1. What was done?
•Developed & shared career decision making resources
•Job application workshops and follow-up phone calls for EWYL students.
•Established referral pathways to specialist career consultant through enabling programs, academic staff and support services
•Developed Indigenous specific career development resources
•Assisted with running Indigenous Career Fair
•Established a career resource area in Centre for Aboriginal Studies common room
•Deliveredcareer development workshops
•Embeddedcareer development in a Communications unit
•Providedindividual pathway advice and transition support
•Follow-up phone calls for “Conditional” status students,to discuss their course selection & career goals
  1. For which groups?
•Students entering throughStepUp pathway