The UNE Pathways Enabling Program: a case study

Purpose: This paper describes an activity that attempts to remove barriers to higher education for people affected by previous educational disadvantage. It is the University of New England (UNE)'s recently launched Pathways Enabling Program for people without any other means of entering higher education. UNE is a small university in a regional setting in New South Wales. Educational disadvantage is more prevalent in rural areas of Australia because of distance from metropolitan centres and socio-economic disadvantage. UNE is a pioneer in providing non-traditional entry pathways that are not tied to high school matriculation results. With this program the intention was to provide a pathway that was not dependent on prior education at all. This program has special features that have proven to be very effective in breaking down the barriers that previously prevented people from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds from accessing higher education. The paper describes the course, its carefully structured delivery of tertiary literacy development, the student cohort, and the results of its first full year of operation (2008). Design: Student outcomes, gathered through standard unit evaluation instruments, informal feedback, via a student reflection component of the program and through an examination of subsequent enrolment data, were measured against the initial objectives of the program. Findings: It appears that this program has removed, to varying degrees, constraints and disadvantages experienced by its participants and has an empowering effect on the majority of participants.