Improving the participation of disadvantaged students in post-compulsory education and training: A continuing challenge

Abstract

The early 1980s were a time of great expansion and structural change in Australian education, when Hughes and his research colleagues at the University of Tasmania began their influential longitudinal cohort study of the post-compulsory education, training, or employment careers of 14,000 Tasmanian students who completed Year 10 in 1981 and 1986 (Abbott-Chapman et al., 1986a, b, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992). Rising public expectations of the role of education in society and a desire by government to develop the human capital of the nation to meet the expanding economy's growing demand for graduates, had characterized the 1960s and 1970s. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.