Files and links (2)
Published (Version of record)CC BY-2.5, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY-2.5, Open
Journal article
Transforming Selves and Building Communities: Defending Regional Humanities and Social Science Studies Through Student Stories of their Benefits
Australian Humanities Review, Vol.73(73), pp.150-168
02/2025
Appears in Recent Faculty of Education Publications
Metrics
38 File views/ downloads
52 Record Views
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
Source: InCites
Abstract
Non-metropolitan HASS students face intersecting educational challenges in a higher education landscape that duplicates entrenched inequalities already experienced in the regions. The Australian Universities Accord drew attention to the ‘compounding disadvantage’ (O’Kane et al. 266) of regional students, yet little material effort has been yet made to reverse the barriers to higher education for regional students, including the introduction, in 2021, of the so-called ‘Jobs Ready Graduate’ legislation, a government- sponsored campaign that has been directly responsible for $50,000 humanities degrees in Australia.
In this environment, the vulnerability of HASS programs in the regions has never been more evident. Across Australia, HASS programs face mounting challenges: low levels of public funding for tertiary education, increased student contributions to HASS degrees with the Jobs Ready legislation, and the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation is even more dire in regional universities, with a system driven by school leavers’ demand prompting decisions to reduce HASS offerings. Moreover, metropolitan universities’ online offerings of HASS programs have persisted after the pandemic, enabling regional students to enrol in programs that provide them with greater choice. With this endangerment of HASS disciplines in regional Australia, we risk ceasing to teach vital skills and knowledge that support equity, social justice, belonging, and truth-telling essential to regional communities and students.
HASS disciplines have the potential to address disadvantage and transform the lives of precarious and marginalised students, yet despite rhetorical platitudes defending the social value of HASS more broadly, these benefits are rarely articulated and even more rarely evidenced. In this essay, we foreground regional graduates’ voices to reflect on how regional students understand how studying HASS strengthened their individual capacity and identity to shape their lives and communities. These graduate stories suggest that the critical, reflexive, and communicative skills provided by a regional HASS program assist in addressing compounding disadvantages. They reveal ways that HASS plays a key role for this cohort of students in building confidence, equipping students for employment, connecting people and ideas, and promoting social cohesion to strengthen regional communities.
Details
- Title
- Transforming Selves and Building Communities: Defending Regional Humanities and Social Science Studies Through Student Stories of their Benefits
- Creators
- Erika Kerruish - Southern Cross UniversityMandy Hughes - Southern Cross University
- Publication Details
- Australian Humanities Review, Vol.73(73), pp.150-168
- Publisher
- Association for the Study of Australian Literature; CANBERRA
- Identifiers
- 991013261009802368
- Copyright
- ©Australian Humanities Review all rights reserved
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education; Humanities
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article