Empowering Collaboration: Practical Approaches to Student Equity Program Evaluation

Student equity program evaluation is an emerging field of practice in the Australian higher education sector. Driven by reporting requirements from the Department of Education, it is incentivised through targeted funding provided by the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES). Curre...

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Main Authors: Nadine Zacharias, Elisa McGowan, Catie Gressier, Riett Kriel, Katie Douglas
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Southern Queensland 2025-07-01
Series:Student Success
Subjects:
Online Access:https://studentsuccessjournal.org/index.php/studentsuccess/article/view/3792
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author Nadine Zacharias
Elisa McGowan
Catie Gressier
Riett Kriel
Katie Douglas
author_facet Nadine Zacharias
Elisa McGowan
Catie Gressier
Riett Kriel
Katie Douglas
author_sort Nadine Zacharias
collection DOAJ
description Student equity program evaluation is an emerging field of practice in the Australian higher education sector. Driven by reporting requirements from the Department of Education, it is incentivised through targeted funding provided by the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES). Currently, the evaluation capability of equity practitioners is highly variable. Universities have responded to this challenge by employing evaluation experts to work with their student equity teams, or by commissioning expert consultants to build evaluation capability and/or undertake evaluations of student equity programs. This practice report focuses on a project that aimed to explore best practice in equity program evaluation, recognising that these are often collaborative endeavours. Through structured reflective activities, the diverse project team generated insights on factors that enable or challenge evaluation partnerships. The report concludes with a set of principles for implementing collaborative evaluation projects and outlines the key roles and responsibilities of an evaluation team.
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institution Kabale University
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publishDate 2025-07-01
publisher University of Southern Queensland
record_format Article
series Student Success
spelling doaj-art-6bd2f81574d24ae3ac51652b28bcde2a2025-08-20T03:28:13ZengUniversity of Southern QueenslandStudent Success2205-07952025-07-01162617010.63608/ssj.37924115Empowering Collaboration: Practical Approaches to Student Equity Program EvaluationNadine Zacharias0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7988-9177Elisa McGowan1Catie Gressier2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6024-7767Riett Kriel3Katie Douglas4Swinburne University of TechnologyThe University of Western AustraliaThe University of Western AustraliaThe University of Western AustraliaThe University of Western AustraliaStudent equity program evaluation is an emerging field of practice in the Australian higher education sector. Driven by reporting requirements from the Department of Education, it is incentivised through targeted funding provided by the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES). Currently, the evaluation capability of equity practitioners is highly variable. Universities have responded to this challenge by employing evaluation experts to work with their student equity teams, or by commissioning expert consultants to build evaluation capability and/or undertake evaluations of student equity programs. This practice report focuses on a project that aimed to explore best practice in equity program evaluation, recognising that these are often collaborative endeavours. Through structured reflective activities, the diverse project team generated insights on factors that enable or challenge evaluation partnerships. The report concludes with a set of principles for implementing collaborative evaluation projects and outlines the key roles and responsibilities of an evaluation team.https://studentsuccessjournal.org/index.php/studentsuccess/article/view/3792student equityevaluationreflective practicebest practice
spellingShingle Nadine Zacharias
Elisa McGowan
Catie Gressier
Riett Kriel
Katie Douglas
Empowering Collaboration: Practical Approaches to Student Equity Program Evaluation
Student Success
student equity
evaluation
reflective practice
best practice
title Empowering Collaboration: Practical Approaches to Student Equity Program Evaluation
title_full Empowering Collaboration: Practical Approaches to Student Equity Program Evaluation
title_fullStr Empowering Collaboration: Practical Approaches to Student Equity Program Evaluation
title_full_unstemmed Empowering Collaboration: Practical Approaches to Student Equity Program Evaluation
title_short Empowering Collaboration: Practical Approaches to Student Equity Program Evaluation
title_sort empowering collaboration practical approaches to student equity program evaluation
topic student equity
evaluation
reflective practice
best practice
url https://studentsuccessjournal.org/index.php/studentsuccess/article/view/3792
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AT catiegressier empoweringcollaborationpracticalapproachestostudentequityprogramevaluation
AT riettkriel empoweringcollaborationpracticalapproachestostudentequityprogramevaluation
AT katiedouglas empoweringcollaborationpracticalapproachestostudentequityprogramevaluation