Investigating transitions to university from regional South Australian high schools
Type of Publication: Research report
Lead Organisation: Country Universities Centre
Lead Researcher: Sharron King
Written by Professor Sharron King1, Dr Cathy Stone2, Chris Ronan3
This research sought to identify why high-achieving students (i.e., those in years 11 and 12
in an ATAR1 stream) from regional South Australia (SA) are transitioning from school to
university at lower rates than students in metropolitan areas. Additionally, the project aimed
to build an interstate comparison between previous NCSEHE research conducted in NSW
on the same issue (Quin, Stone, & Trinidad, 2017).
Compared with students at metropolitan high schools, students at regional and remote high
schools are less likely to complete high school, less likely to apply to university, less likely to
accept a university offer and, for those who do take up a university offer, they are twice as
likely to defer it and less likely to complete their degree (Commonwealth of Australia, 2019,
p. 14). Additionally, regional students from high socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds
are more likely than those from low SES backgrounds to take up their deferred university
positions the following year (Polesel, 2009).
Read the full report here: Investigating transitions to university from regional South Australian high schools
1University of South Australia
2The University of Newcastle & NCSEHE
3Country Universities Centre