Planning for Equity at the University of South Australia

This paper details the approachtaken by one of Australia's newer universitiesto ensure institution-wide commitment to theUniversity's mission to provide educationalopportunities ... to meet the needs of groupswithin the community ... who] have suffereddisadvantages in education ...'The paper places the University's approachwithin the context of a national policyframework for equity and access in highereducation which aims `to change the balance ofthe student body to reflect more closely thestructure and composition of the society as awhole' (DEET 1990, p. 2). This framework hasrequired all federal government-fundeduniversities to prepare annual equity plans. The allocation of federal equity funding hasbeen tied to these plans.The University of South Australia's approachhas embedded planning for equity and accesswithin the University's comprehensive annualplanning and review processes, to the extentthat each academic school and administrativeunit is required to address equityconsiderations in its annual and medium-termplan.