Academic Practices: Current Strategies to Attract and Retain Indigenous Higher Degree by Research Students in Australia

Abstract

The number of Indigenous higher degree by research (HDR) students has increased steadily over the past decade. Support for Indigenous students from the Australian government, universities and Indigenous Support Units has been documented in Australian higher education. Unfortunately, a range of barriers continue to hinder Indigenous HDR students to completion in their research journey. Presented in this book chapter is the literature review of barriers, including lack of academic skill set and research skills to pursue a research degree program, lack of social and academic support for Indigenous HDR students, the student—supervisor relationship issues and challenges relating to health, family and community responsibilities. Simultaneously, our review identified current strategies and initiatives to retain Indigenous HDR students in their research degree programs and to support them to completion, highlighting the roles of the Indigenous Postgraduate Support Officer and the National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network. This review, we suggest, should move further to analyse the effectiveness of current strategies and initiatives provided for Indigenous HDR students in detail to inform Indigenous students of the available support resources and how to access to these resources.