A persistent issue in Australia, and globally, is how to improve participation rates in higher education for students from regional and rural areas. In this paper, we tackle this challenge by exploring the idea of a Community Embedded University (CEU). We draw on empirical data from three participatory co-design workshops with university students…

Rural and remote communities are challenged by an incongruous combination of poorer health and deficits of health workers. Health professionals working in rural and remote practice contexts are largely educated with standardised curriculum content designed for urban-dominant systems, even though non-urban populations account for approximately half…

Successful transition from education to the workplace is vital for young people, particularly Indigenous students from remote communities, to support their long-term economic and emotional well-being, social inclusion, physical and mental health. This paper reports findings from a three-year study undertaken collaboratively with young people at a…

Over recent years a lot of attention has been given to education for First Nations students living in remote communities. The quest for improved outcomes, better attendance, retention and year 12 completions disguises other perhaps more important issues. During the 1970s and 1980s the homeland movement 'return to Country' created opportunities for…

Recruiting and retaining professionals such as doctors, allied health professionals, and teachers to rural communities has been a significant issue in Australia for decades. Research has established that a successful rural clinical placement, delivered in a rural setting, can significantly influence a graduate's work location choices. However,…

Australian higher education participation continues to expand, yet in unequal ways. Regional, rural, and remote (RRR) student participation is stubbornly stalled, despite sustained research and policy initiatives to support these cohorts. To address this complex issue, we interviewed 10 RRR principals in Queensland and Victoria to explore specific…

Geographically unequal distribution of opportunities for participation in post-school education particularly affects young people in rural and regional areas of Australia. This study contends that the perception of opportunities by young people from low socio-economic status backgrounds should be considered alongside the distribution of…

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything about the world we live in, in 2020. It is having obvious impacts on the way we teach and the way we learn. In Victoria, Monash Rural Health Bendigo is one of the few places that has managed to continue clinical health education and clinical placements throughout 2020--albeit in modified…

A small-scale pilot study was conducted in north-west Tasmania to investigate adolescent girls' willingness to participate in informal STEM education, through exploring their perceptions and experiences of computer science (CS), and their future aspirations. This pilot study was funded by an Inspiring Australia Public Science Event Grant, enabling…

This exploratory study investigates aspects of sleep quality and some of the potential impacts of sleep complaints for 168 male boarding students from regional and remote communities in Years 7 to 12. An online self-report questionnaire was used to examine the relationship between sleep quality and participants' sense of academic self-perception,…

This article outlines the rationale for, and development of an online support system (OSS) for teachers of mathematics in regional, rural and remote (RRR) Australia as part of an ongoing longitudinal project, "Regional Teachers of Mathematics Networks" (RTMN). The OSS is designed to assist development of interconnected collaborative…

The research, focused on parents with children in years 5-10 in three low-socioeconomic rural and regional communities, drew on an understanding of educational aspiration as culturally and socio-spatially embedded to develop practical strategies for parents to engage with their children as they made education and career pathways choices. It draws…

Education provides opportunities for adolescents to make developmental gains. Remote Indigenous adolescents not engaged in education programs need alternate learning opportunities to reach developmental goals. This review identifies attributes that contribute to an alternate model of education within the existing literature and reports on the…

A doctoral study of a program designed to provide access to secondary education for children from a remote Indigenous community was completed in 2014 (Hunter, 2015). This paper reflects on the ongoing commitment of members of this community to a partnership that uses interstate boarding schools as a means of educating their children. It reviews…

The term 'choice-less choice' in education arises from the ethical dilemma where parents are left with no option other than one they do not want to choose. In this article, we draw particularly from David Mander's (2012) use of the term, where he applied it to First Nations students from Western Australia. In Australia, choice-less choice applies…