From equity to excellence: Reforming Australia’s national framework to create new forms of success

Abstract

This chapter asserts the need to renovate and improve the equity framework advanced in A Fair Chance for All in order to support and shape the future of Australian higher education. Failing to renovate this national framework after 25 years renders it exposed to being further swamped and sidelined by other institutional and national initiatives, with many such initiatives residing outside the Framework in an undefined fashion. In this chapter we affirm the continued need for a national equity framework, but suggest that it must be expanded to fit contemporary contexts and do more to ameliorate educational disadvantage in Australia. We advance the need to create a more sophisticated perspective on student success that shifts focus from access to outcomes. A shift in policy emphasis should also move beyond preoccupation with the prospects of a small number of tightly defined groups. We discuss rationales and options for moving un-anxiously from a focus on groups to a focus on individuals. The success of any such change rests on the availability of robust and accessible evidence. The concluding section of this chapter looks at current prospects and opportunities for development.