3. Completions

3.1 Rise and Fall of Completions

3.1.1 Outcomes

In 2019 there were 99 completions reported for Indigenous students at UNE (Table 18). The number of reportable completions differs somewhat from the number of Indigenous graduands (i.e. 91; See Section 2.2.3) who participated in the three graduation ceremonies held at UNE in 2019. This is attributable to the lag in the ‘report year’ for completions versus UNE student graduation numbers reported per calendar year (see Note in Table 18). This represents an increase in Indigenous student completions of 33.78% from 2018. Moreover, in the five-year period from 2015 to 2019 Indigenous student completions have more than doubled at UNE (i.e. from 48 student completions in 2014 to the record 99 completions in 2019) (Table 18). The percentage of Indigenous students that successfully completed their course represented 2.63% of the total number of completions at UNE in 2019. Moreover, this figure represents 3.91% of total domestic student completions, a proportion that is also above population parity with respect to Indigenous Australians (see Section 1.7.1).

Table 18: Course Completions by Indigenous students at UNE 2015-2019.

Source: ‘Graduations’ Excel Worksheet dated 06/04/2020 prepared by UNE Business Intelligence Unit.

3.1.2 Strategies connecting graduates with employment (both within and outside the institution)

Across the University, a number of services and supported opportunities are available to Indigenous students to enable them to make workforce connections and improve their employment prospects upon graduation. These include:

Services

• The UNE Employability and Careers Team (formally UNE Careers) focuses on (a) embedding employability across the teaching curriculum and (b) on achieving positive graduate outcomes. The team provides services to both on - and off-campus students and mirrors all on-campus services with on online learning platforms for UNE’s off-campus students including: one-on-one consultations, online self-help learning resources, work integrated learning; workshops, and employer seminars. The team also facilitates the Unit of Study titled Work300 Integrated Learning – Professional Skills Development. This unit is an elective available across a range of Courses at UNE. This unit of study is designed to enable students to apply their academic knowledge in a workplace context, and to reflect and report on the experience, thus increasing their level of career readiness. The unit requires (a) 120 hours of fully supervised professional activity, project work or directed investigation in a host workplace; (b) and not more than 30 hours of additional study and assignment preparation including the Online Preparation Moodle unit.

Opportunities

• All graduates from the Joint Medical Program are employed by the State Health Departments to commence internship – as required to gain full registration.
• The School of Health is a member of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) which is the peak body that represents Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nurses and midwives across Australia. The aim of this body is to increase the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal peoples into nursing and midwifery roles across Australia.
• The School of Health also supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing students gain continuing employment via support/promotion of Cadetships available with NSW Health.
• Programs in the School of Education, the School of Health and the School of Rural Medicine require student placement in work/clinical settings for course completions. Indigenous students who participate in placements are supported by the Oorala Aboriginal Centre to apply for ‘Away from Base’ funding through Abstudy to assist students meet the accommodation costs of these placements.
• UNE has supported students to achieve Internships via the Career Trackers Indigenous Internship Program with external recruiters in 2019 including the NSW Environmental Protection Agency.
• In 2019, two UNE Students were successfully supported in their application to the Aurora Foundation Internship Program. One student had the experience of working in the Office of Senator Patrick Dodson, and the other working in the Aboriginal Child, Family and Community Care State Secretariat.
• The Senior Human Resources Consultant, Aboriginal Employment at UNE continues to promote the Aboriginal Casual Employment Register to UNE recruiters as well as to Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander students and graduates.

In the TRACKS Tertiary Preparation Course, members of the Oorala Academic Team get to know their students individually and work with them to make decisions about their future study and work choices. Teaching staff liaise with the UNE’s Employability and Careers Team and set up appointments for those students who would like to further explore their options. In addition, Oorala staff also liaise with course coordinators and academic advisors across the Faculties and similarly set up appointments so that students are fully aware of course requirements and are supported to commence planning their full undergraduate study loads/major/minor options.

3.1.3 Strategies to monitor student outcomes after graduation

UNE participates in the Quality Indicators for Teaching and Learning (QILT) suite of government-funded student and graduate surveys. The latest (2019) Graduate Outcomes Survey (GOS) data indicates that UNE Indigenous graduates reported the following (on an adjusted 5-point Likert-type scale):

• The course provided the adaptive skills (broad general knowledge, ability to develop innovative ideas, ability to identify new opportunities, ability to adapt knowledge in different contexts, ability to apply skills in different contexts, capacity to work independently) required for the job: Indigenous: 4.32; UNE average (Indigenous and Non-Indigenous): 4.04
• The course provided the foundation skills (oral communication skills, written communication skills, numeracy skills, ability to develop relevant knowledge, ability to develop relevant skills, ability to solve problems, ability to integrate knowledge, ability to think independently about problems) required for the job: Indigenous: 4.17; UNE average (Indigenous and Non-Indigenous): 4.02
• The course provided the collaboration skills (working well in a team, getting on well with others in the workplace, working collaboratively with colleagues to complete tasks, understanding of different points of view, ability to interact with co-workers from different or multicultural backgrounds) required for the job: Indigenous: 3.98; UNE average (Indigenous and Non-Indigenous): 3.73
• Qualification Importance: Indigenous: 3.29; UNE average (Indigenous and Non-Indigenous): 3.21
• Course preparation for employment: Indigenous: 3.46; UNE average (Indigenous and Non-Indigenous): 3.34

In each case, the reported score for Indigenous graduates is higher than the combined Indigenous and Non-Indigenous scores for UNE. Indigenous graduates also reported the following:

• Median Salary (at time of survey): Indigenous: $65,866; UNE average (Indigenous and Non-Indigenous): $65,432
• Proportion of graduate in full-time employment:  Indigenous: 61.7%; UNE average (Indigenous and Non-Indigenous): 58.9%
• Proportion of jobs where course was a formal requirement for employment: Indigenous: 43.8%; UNE average (Indigenous and Non-Indigenous): 41.9%

Again, the results for Indigenous UNE graduates are better than for Indigenous and Non-Indigenous combined.