‘Taking your mob with you’: giving voice to the experiences of Indigenous Australian postgraduate students

Abstract

Indigenous Australian postgraduate students experience different barriers from those encountered by non-Indigenous students. In the transition from undergraduate to postgraduate study, Indigenous students are more likely to come from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, have lower personal incomes and lack family and other networks supportive of engagement with tertiary, and especially postgraduate, study. While there is a growing literature on Indigenous participation in higher education, with the exception of a few notable examples, there is little known about the effectiveness of support mechanisms and issues for Indigenous students undertaking postgraduate study. Drawing on interviews with current and past Indigenous postgraduate students at The University of Queensland, this paper problematises the postgraduate experience for Indigenous Australian students, identifying common themes in their accounts. It also discusses one of the outcomes of the project along with planned future developments that aim to provide better support for Indigenous Australian postgraduate students at The University of Queensland. By knowing and acting upon the kinds of mechanisms that can assist Indigenous postgraduate students, the disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous student participation in postgraduate study can begin to be addressed.

Keywords:

• cultural safety
• Indigenous students
• online networking
• postgraduate experience
• support

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the Indigenous postgraduate students and Indigenous graduates for generously sharing their stories. Thanks also to Ian Lilley for providing me with the opportunity to work on this project, Monique Proud for her research assistance and companionship and Christine Asmar, Sandy O'Sullivan, Simone Brotherton and Celmara Pocock for insightful discussions around the topic. Many thanks to the Higher Education Equity Support Program (HEESP) for generous funding support.

Notes

The term ‘Aboriginal’ refers to Indigenous Australians whose culture is tied to the country of mainland Australia, while ‘Torres Strait’ describes those Indigenous Australians whose country comprises the islands in the Torres Strait. While acknowledging the diversity amongst and between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, in this article I use the term ‘Indigenous Australian’ to refer to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.