Refugee transition : school-university partnerships that support refugee students' participation in tertiary education

This paper seeks to discuss a project that supports pathways to enable the successful transition of students from refugee backgrounds from secondary school into tertiary study. Despite aspirations to receive a university education, many refugee students fail to attain the necessary levels of education required for access to and participation in tertiary education. This is a particularly pressing issue for Australian universities as the Federal Government has set an aim that by 2020, 20 percent of higher education enrolments at the undergraduate level will be students from low SES background (Bradley Report, Recommendation 4). Refugees are a specific group within this targeted cohort, yet few universities consider their very particular and urgent needs that differentiate them from many other low SES groups.