Access to tertiary education by individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds has been extremely low historically, despite policies to address this inequity. Twenty eight people from a low socio-economic community with almost the lowest rates of access to university in Australia were interviewed to identify the barriers they had encountered and the factors that had enabled them to access and complete a university qualification. Barriers reported occur both within the community, and external to, or on the boundary of the community. Internal barriers included lack of information about the existence of university or it’s value for individuals, cultural beliefs about acceptable aspirations, a lack of role models within the community, and a lack of the opportunity to compare the impact of a university education on lifestyle, opportunities and options. Motivators identified are categorised as “nature of work”; “interest,” role models/comparisons” “competition/proving,” and “encouragement.”
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, D. S. (1990). Access to university education in Australia 1852–1990: Changes in the Undergraduate social mix. Aust. Univ. Rev. 33, 37–50.
Anderson, D., and Vervoorn, A. (1983). Access to Privilege: Patterns of Participation in Australian Post-Secondary Education, ANU Press, Canberra.
Andrews, L. (1999). Does HECS Deter? Factors Affecting University Participation by Low SES Groups, Higher Education Division, Department of Education Training and Youth Affairs, Commonwealth of Australia, Australia.
Bailey, P. (1996). Assuring quality in narrative analysis. West. J. Nurs. Res. 18(2), 186–195.
Baum, S., Stimson, R., Mullins, P., and O’Connor, K. (2000). Welfare dependency in communities within Australia’s metropolitan regions. People Place 8(3), 28–36.
Birrell, B., Rapson, V., Dobson, I., Edwards, D., and Smith, F. (2002) From Place to Place: School Location and Access to University Education in Victoria, Centre for Population and Urban Research, Monash University, Clayton.
Bourdieu, P. (1973) Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In Brown, R. (ed.), Knowledge Education and Cultural Change, Tavistock, London, pp. 71–112.
Clark, J., Zimmer, B., and Main, R. (1997) Under-representation in Australian higher education by the socio-economically disadvantaged: Review of trends and issues, and implications for university planning and practice. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Institutional Research 8th International Conference, 26–28 Nov., Adelaide, South Australia.
Connell, B., Ashenden, D., Kessler, S., and Dowsett, G. (1982) Making the Difference—Schools, Families and Social Division, Allen and Unwin, Australia.
Copeland, J., and Hayford, J. (1997) Perceptions and Experiences of the University of Adelaide by Students From Low Socio-Economic Backgrounds University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia.
DEET (Department of Employment, Education and Training). (1990) A Fair Chance for All: Higher Education That’s Within Everyone’s Reach, Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra.
DETYA (Department of Employment, Training and Youth Affairs). (1999) Equity in Higher Education, Higher Education Division, Occasional Paper 99A, Canberra, Australia.
Denzin, N., and Lincoln, Y. (1994) Handbook of Qualitative Research, Sage, London.
Dey, I. (1993) Qualitative Data Analysis: A User Friendly Guide for Social Scientists, Routledge, London.
Dumais, S. (2002) Cultural capital, gender and school success: The Role of Habitus. Sociology of Education 75(1), 44–68.
Fine, M. (1994) Working the hyphens: Reinventing Self and Other in Qualitative Research. In Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research, Sage, pp. 70–82.
Fontana, A., and Frey, J. (1994) Interviewing: the Art of Science. In Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research, Sage, pp. 361–376.
Glaser, B., and Strauss, A. (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory : Strategies for Qualitative Research, Aldine
Gregory, R.G., and Hunter, B. (1995) The Macro Economy and the Growth of Ghettos and Urban Poverty in Australia, Discussion Paper No 325, Economics Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University.
Horvat, E., and Antonio, A. (1999) ‘Hey those shoes are out of uniform’: African American girls in an elite high school and the importance of habitus Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 3, 3, 317–327.
Johnson, P., and Lloyd, R. (2000) Does Higher Education Pay? Results from the Returns in Education Model, Paper presented at the 29th Conference of Economists, 3-6 July, Gold Coast,.
Lamb, S. (2001) The Pathways from School to Further Study and Work for Australian Graduates, Research Report 19, Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).
Lynch, J., Kaplan, G., and Shema, S. (1997) Cumulative Impact of Sustained Economic Hardship on Physical, Cognitive, Psychological and Social Functioning, The New England Journal of Medicine, 327, 26, 1889–1895
Martin, L. M. (1996) Equity and General Performance Indicators in Higher Education (Vol. 1), Department of Higher Education and Training, Australian Government Publishing Service, Australia.
Marmot, M., and Wilkinson, R. (eds.). (1999) The Social Determinants of Health, Oxford University Press, New York.
McGuinness, P.P. (1998) Two Nations: The Causes and Effects of the Rise of the One Nation Party in Australia, Bookman Press, Melbourne.
Moodie, G., and Swift, L. (1996) Participation in South Australia by people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. J. Institut. Res. Australasia, 5, 2, 55–70.
Mullaly, B. (2002) Challenging Oppression: A Critical Social Work Approach, Oxford University Press, Toronto, Ontario.
NCVER (National Council for Educational and Vocational Research). (1999) Statistics 1999: TAFE and University Graduates. Retrieved May 14, 2002 from: http://www.ncver.edu.au.
Peel, M. (1994) A Place made Poor. Arena Magazine, Dec. 1993--Jan 1994. 36–39.
Peel, M. (1995) Good Times, Hard Times: The Past and the Future in Elizabeth, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
Ramsay, E., Tranter, D., Charlton, S., and Sumner, R. (1998) Higher Education Access and Equity for Low SES School Leavers: A Case Study, DETYA, Australia.
Rankine, B., and Quane, J. (2002) Social contexts and urban adolescent outcomes: The interrelated effects of neighbourhoods, families, and peers on African--American youth. Soc. Probl. 49(1), 79–100.
Reason, P. (1994) Three approaches to participative inquiry. In Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research, Sage, London, pp. 324–339.
Reason, P., and Bradbury, H. (2001) Handbook of Action Research, Sage, London.
Sarantakos, S. (1993) Social Research, Sage, South Melbourne.
Spierings, J. (2000) Youth Disadvantage: Some Key Trends and Future Policy Directions, Dusseldorp Skills Forum, Ultimo, New South Wales, Australia.
Stevenson, S., Maclachlan, M., and Karmel, T. (1999) Regional Participation in Higher Education and the Distribution of Higher Education Resources Across Regions, Occasional Paper series, Higher Education Division, Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (99B), Australia.
Thomson, P. (2002) Schooling the Rustbelt Kids: Making the Difference in Changing Times, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, New South Wales.
Western, J., McMillan, J., and Durrington, D. (1998) Differential Access to Higher Education: The Measurement of Socio-economic Status, Rurality and Isolation, Retrieved March 10, 2002 from: http://www.detya.gov.au/archive/highered.eippubs/eip98-14/execsum.htm, Commonwealth of Australia.
Williams, T., Long, M., Carpenter, P., and Hayden, M. (1993)Entering Higher Education in the 1980s, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Young, J. “Becoming Different”: Accessing University From a Low Socioeconomic Community—Barriers and Motivators. Syst Pract Act Res 17, 425–469 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-004-5788-8
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-004-5788-8