UOW has a proud history of working closely with its communities to drive increased participation and attainment among underrepresented groups in higher education. These groups include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, those with disabilities, from low Socio-Economic-Status (SES) backgrounds and regional, rural and remote areas. The University has developed the ’Access & Participation Enabling Plan for Student Equity: A Framework for the Implementation of HEPPP 2018-2020’ to improve access to undergraduate courses for people from low SES backgrounds, as well as improving the retention and completion rates.

In2Uni activities engage with students in targeted schools and communities to enable their awareness and aspirations towards higher education. Our strategic aim as an institution is to increase the proportion of domestic undergraduate students from low socioeconomic backgrounds to 21% by the end of 2020, through providing targeted outreach and pathways programs to the community, and seamless transition activities and support to UOW students.
 

Governments around the world are increasingly looking to new and sophisticated technologies to automate and streamline the delivery of social services. These ‘digital welfare’ innovations are ordinarily touted as a means to improve efficiency and quality of service delivery, but can also be a source of injustice and deepen inequality. This empirically-grounded, interdisciplinary research project brings together legal scholars, social researchers and systems analysts to examine the social implications of the digital welfare state for vulnerable communities in Australia.

Now a fixture on UOW’s Orientation week calendar Goodwill Hunting attracts hundreds of eager students aiming to collect free household items, donated from the UOW staff and community members. In 2019 over 1000 students participated.

Led by Dr Farzana Tanima, this project is working alongside feminist activists and not-for-profit women’s microfinance organisations in Bangladesh, to investigate how conventional accounting and accountability systems in microfinance organisations reinforce structural barriers disempowering women.

UOW’s Dr Sanja Pupovac investigates the social and environmental impact of multinational corporations on vulnerable groups in developing countries. Her research is investigating the role of accounting in human trafficking in an economically poor post-conflict Kosovo.