Education Policy Outlook 2021
Shaping Responsive and Resilient Education in a Changing World
Education systems operate in a world that is constantly evolving towards new equilibria, yet short-term crises may disrupt, accelerate or divert longer-term evolutions. This Framework for Responsiveness and Resilience in Education Policy aims to support policy makers to balance the urgent challenge of building eco-systems that adapt in the face of disruption and change (resilience), and the important challenge of navigating the ongoing evolution from industrial to post-industrial societies and economies (responsiveness). Building on international evidence and analysis from over 40 education systems, this framework endeavours to establish tangible, transferable and actionable definitions of resilience. These definitions, which are the goals of the framework (Why?), are underpinned by policy components of responsiveness (What?), which define priority areas for education policy makers. Policy pointers for resilience (How?) then illustrate how policy makers can apply these components in ways that promote resilience at the learner, broader learning environment and system levels of the policy ecosystem. Finally, a transversal component looks into the people and the processes undertaken in order to reach a given purpose (Who?). The report has been prepared with evidence from the Education Policy Outlook series – the OECD’s analytical observatory of education policy.
Australia
The Australian Government provides funding to universities via the Indigenous, Regional and Low Socio-Economic Status Attainment Fund (IRLSAF) to support an increase in higher education participation for Indigenous students, students from low socio-economic status backgrounds and students from regional and remote areas. One of the IRLSAF components, the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP), assists universities to conduct activities and implement strategies to improve access to undergraduate courses for students from the identified groups and increase their retention and completion rates. Universities receive HEPPP funding via a formula based on the share of students from the three identified cohorts at each university. An evaluation from 2017 found that universities use HEPPP funds to deliver tailored and targeted programmes to current and prospective students across the various stages of the student lifecycle: pre-access (including raising aspirations); access; participation; and attainment and transition out. These appear to have contributed to an increase in the number of disadvantaged students applying for, being offered a place at, and enrolling in, university, as well as an increase in completion rates, for the period 2010-15 (ACIL Allen Consulting, 2017[6]).
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