Creating pathways to university for Indigenous students has been a focus of many tertiary institutions over the past decade, but the success of initiatives has varied across the sector.

The University of Wollongong has seen a consistent growth in Indigenous student numbers, engagement and success, according to key metrics.

Over 3.6 per cent of the UOW student body identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, a number that has exceeded both internal targets and eclipsed the Accords 2035 targets, a decade in advance.

UOW vice president (Indigenous Strategy and Engagement), Jaymee Beveridge said that the unprecedented numbers have come well ahead of the target timeframe.

“We’ve set targets of increase in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander enrolments and we have already superseded that,” she said.

“This is the highest Indigenous participation rate in the history of the University of Wollongong, and earlier 2025 data has suggested that we are on track to exceed our 2024 participation rate as well.”

UOW has significantly improved its slice of funding allocations for Indigenous students over the past decade.

The Indigenous Student Success Program, which allocates government funding to universities based on the number of equivalent full time study loads (EFTSL), as well as success rate and the number of course completions in the previous calendar year.

Since 2018, UOW’s funding under this formula has increased from $1.6 million to more than $2.9 million in 2024, with the institution currently outperforming all of the Group of Eight universities.

A key driver of UOW’s higher funding compared to many of the state’s other large universities is the significant proportion of regional students amongst the Indigenous student numbers, many of whom enrol via early entry and Indigenous pathways programs, similar to the University of Newcastle and Charles Sturt University, which both secured over $4 million in ISSP funding in 2025.

Source: ISSP Allocations and Student Data 2017 – 2024

Ms Beveridge said that this is just one part of the university’s overall strategy aimed at diversity, equity and inclusion, which is a key reason as to why UOW has consistently outperformed all of the Group of Eight universities in terms of the key metrics which secure funding.

“I think what you’re seeing is that UOW has a real investment and a real focus on equity, inclusion and diversity,” she said.

“A lot of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students that come through, they’re ticking more than just the identity box for being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. 

“They’re regional students, they’re from remote areas, a lot of our students have disabilities as well. 

“It’s a testament to UOW, it shows that we’re committed to the growth, the completion and the success of Indigenous students and it also probably highlights that equity for the Group of Eight has not really been a priority.”

Source: ISSP Allocations and Student Data 2017 – 2024

Changes to governance over the past decade have seen the University’s Woolyungah Indigenous Centre able to focus on improving student outcomes, which Ms Beveridge said has led to more students enrolling at the university and further increases in funding.

“In 2018 we decided to make Woolyungah Indigenous Centre completely self-determinant, so the funding that comes here to UOW, we have complete autonomy over the spending,” she said.

“It doesn’t get filtered into any other pockets, it’s completely at the discretion of the vice president, and we’ve got an internal governance mechanism as well.”

One way in which the Woolyungah Centre is using its funding allocation is in creating systems that identify and address the specific situations of students, such as those who may have moved off country to the area, as well as others who may be experiencing financial, educational or family challenges. This focus in turn improves outcomes, and therefore, further increases funding.

The initiative has been a great success, with the University’s attrition rate for Indigenous students dropping to only one-seventh of its previous number.

“In 2018, when I started, we created a Strengths and Needs Assessment,” Ms Beveridge said.

“It was created as an early intervention tool so we could work out what’s happening with students so that we could reduce the rates of students exiting university. 

“Our attrition rate has decreased significantly from about 43 per cent in 2017, now we’re at about 6 per cent attrition.

“So we’re retaining 94 per cent of our students that come in and enrol.”

With the increase in the number of undergraduate students and course completions, another area of growth has been in the number of Indigenous postgraduate students.

The category of students studying a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) has increased, with numbers jumping from just three in 2017 to 19 in 2025.

However, while that increase is promising, there are still significant barriers to further growth of postgraduate student numbers.

PhD candidate, Catherine Moyle said that while the growth in undergraduate student numbers is great for the University, further support is needed for Indigenous students undertaking higher degrees by research (HDR).

“One area that UOW doesn’t do so well is in terms of scholarships for their Indigenous PhD students,” she said.

“So whilst we’ve got growth in the undergrad students, which is fantastic, there’s a bit of a bottleneck in the pipeline.”

infographic by Tallon Smith

Ms Moyle said that one issue is that the scholarships offered to Indigenous PhD candidates are not enough to live off, meaning many have to juggle part-time work as well as study, leading to a higher rate of students dropping out.

“At the moment, other universities offer much more lucrative, much larger benefits or scholarships for their Indigenous PhD students,” she said.

“Here our stipend is about $52,000 a year, which isn’t quite enough to live on.

“When you reflect on the fact that the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PhD students are older, and they’ve got responsibilities, they’ve got families and things like that, it makes it really, really difficult to succeed.

“We’ve got this growth in our undergrad numbers, which is phenomenal, but if we want to keep them here and grow our own academics here, we really need better support for HDR students.”

Despite these shortcomings in postgraduate support, Ms Beveridge said the undergraduate growth supported by the ISSP funding remains a great source of motivation for the Woolyungah Indigenous Centre to continue improving outcomes for First Nations students.

“Tailoring our supports for the students is really important, [as is] ensuring that we’re listening to students’ voices around what they actually want.”