A Companion to the International Literature Review of Equity in Higher Education: Dismantling Deficit in Equity Structures by Drawing on a Multidimensional Framework

articipation in higher education, entrenched patterns of inequality continue to negatively influence both the breadth of participation, and the experience of those students from underrepresented backgrounds who do attend. To produce and sustain positive change, we need new language, concepts and practices, rather than persisting with current, and largely ineffective, solutions. This can be achieved by building on good quality practice where it exists but also by forging new connections...
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articipation in higher education, entrenched patterns of inequality continue to negatively influence both the breadth of participation, and the experience of those students from underrepresented backgrounds who do attend. To produce and sustain positive change, we need new language, concepts and practices, rather than persisting with current, and largely ineffective, solutions. This can be achieved by building on good quality practice where it exists but also by forging new connections and collaborations across research, practice and policy. This National Priority Pool project was tasked by the Department of Education, Skills and Employment to undertake an international review of literature that: - is contextualised in view of contemporary Australian literature and frameworks; -identifies overseas academic research on initiatives designed to improve the higher education outcomes of disadvantaged students, specifically Indigenous and regional/remote students and students from low socio-economic status backgrounds; - makes a critical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the research; -determines the potential for the research to provide evidence-based policy guidance that could be applied to initiatives designed to improve the higher education outcomes of students from disadvantaged backgrounds in the Australian context. In looking to international literature for insights relevant to the Australian context, we have identified the limitations of narrow and instrumental forms of research and evidence. We have also found an urgent need to disrupt 'one-dimensional' approaches - those that don't consider the broader conditions and ramifications of equity programs. Such narrow conceptual foundations tend to be embedded in deficit frameworks that are unable to grapple with entrenched patterns of inequality. If policy is to improve equity outcomes in higher education, it must engage more effectively with the multidimensional nature of inequality and the need for similarly multidimensional approaches to action. More attention is also needed to the ways in which research and evidence are created, and how this connects to policy and practice. This review has identified that deficit framing through the individualisation of structural issues is a persistent underlying issue for building equity in higher education.