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Determinants of Attraction, Retention and Completion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Degree Research Students: A Systematic Review to Inform Future Research Directions

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Abstract

Expanding the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian (hereafter respectfully Indigenous) talent pool to undertake valuable roles in business, health, education, academia, government, policy development and community development is critical for addressing current disparities between Indigenous and other Australians. Parity of access and engagement with education plays a key role in facilitating participation in these roles but has not yet been attained. This article provides an initial systematic review of literature on the state of the evidence regarding access/attraction, retention and completions for Indigenous Higher Degree Research (HDR) students. This article identifies the quantity (number examined), nature (e.g. focus of study), quality (peer reviewed and evidence of methodological rigour) and characteristics (e.g. publication type, authorship) of the limited publications. Using specific search strings (words or phrases of relevance to the topic), a systematic review methodology was employed to search nine databases and grey (non-peer reviewed) literature from 1995 to 2015. The resultant 12 publications were mined with quality assessed and a predetermined framework used to extract and synthesise the characteristics from individual publications. This research contributes to existing literature about Indigenous Peoples in HDR programs internationally in identifying significant cultural and institutional barriers and highlighting institutional enablers which can contribute to attraction, retention and completion. Building on the prior limited research reported in the review, the article highlights the need for further research and provides an initial agenda of directions for universities and government to redress the disparity in entry and completion of Indigenous Peoples in HDR programs.

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Notes

  1. Where the term Indigenous HDR student/Indigenous Peoples is used it refers to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander HDR students or Peoples except where specific reference is made to Indigenous Peoples internationally.

  2. For the purposes of this article we use the term community to refer broadly to extended family and the cultural group with which individual Indigenous Peoples identify. We acknowledge, however, that the term is very complex and may have multiple meanings, but importantly must be as individuals and communities choose to define it. As Peters-Little (2010, p. 18) notes of community in Aboriginal Australia, given the diversity of definitions of community and the non-applicability of the one definition for all situations and diversity of groups within communities, it is important to “bring forth discussions on the importance of self-definition, as opposed to having bureaucracies determine who and what is a community or an Aboriginal person and what their structures of representation and socio-economic needs will be”.

  3. Given the limited amount of research undertaken about Indigenous Peoples’ experiences in higher education, some of the literature referred to in this article is also mentioned in other articles developed by some of the authors.

  4. Throughout this article the term supervisors means doctoral/research thesis supervisors (usually referred to as advisors in North American universities).

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge research assistants Krystal Lockwood and Adam Robertson at Griffith University who undertook database searches for the systematic literature review component of the paper. The research was supported by a Small Research Grant from the Indigenous Research Unit, Griffith University. The authors would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their suggestions which greatly assisted us to further develop the paper. In particular we would like to acknowledge that the reviewers brought to our attention additional literature on Indigenous methods/methodologies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Employment Relations and Human Resources, Griffith University, Nathan, Australia

    Kate Hutchings

  2. Centre for Indigenous Health Equity Research, Central Queensland University, Cairns, Australia

    Roxanne Bainbridge

  3. Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia

    Kerry Bodle

  4. Pro Vice Chancellor Indigenous Leadership, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia

    Adrian Miller

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  1. Kate Hutchings
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  2. Roxanne Bainbridge
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Correspondence to Kate Hutchings.

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Hutchings, K., Bainbridge, R., Bodle, K. et al. Determinants of Attraction, Retention and Completion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Degree Research Students: A Systematic Review to Inform Future Research Directions. Res High Educ 60, 245–272 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-018-9511-5

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