La Trobe University’s Regional Higher Education Pathways Program

Abstract

Nuanced support for regional secondary school students can be a key to their consideration of university as an option in their educational journey. Reports, studies and teachers on-the-ground continue to call for tools and resources to boost students’ decision-making about their futures. La Trobe University’s Regional Higher Education Pathways Program takes an evidence-based approach to developing learner confidence and pastoral support for senior secondary students in Albury-Wodonga and Shepparton. As part of the program, students participate in regular, timetabled in-school sessions that cover topics from exam revision and literacy to wellbeing and mental health. The overall foci of the program are building learner confidence (‘I can do university’) and demystifying higher education through connection to the university environment (‘I can see myself at university’).