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The paper compares South Australia (SA) and New South Wales (NSW) by examining the similarities and differences in regional students’ experiences of secondary-to-higher education transition. Evidence from two studies shows how state-specific geography, demography, and higher education infrastructure shape attitudes and decisions. It argues for more nuanced national policy responses to improve equity of access across states.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-impact-of-regional-diversity-on-higher-education-participation-a-comparison-of-two-australian-states/205865/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-impact-of-regional-diversity-on-higher-education-participation-a-comparison-of-two-australian-states/205865.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Mabel","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-01","2026-09-05",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",12,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What is the main focus of the paper?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"The paper compares barriers to higher education participation among regional (non-metropolitan) students by contrasting findings from South Australia and New South Wales.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"Why do state differences matter for regional student transitions?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"The study argues that geography, demography, and the availability of higher education infrastructure within each state influence regional students’ attitudes and decisions about progressing to higher education.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"What policy implication does the paper propose?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"It calls for a more nuanced national policy response that considers multiple factors within each Australian state affecting the transition from secondary school to higher education for regional students.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},205865,1788585477,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":56,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},7971474920318,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/74000ee537e6b0ca360?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1788430171632181674","The Impact of Regional Diversity on Higher Education Participation: A Comparison of Two Australian States  \nSharron King  \nUniversity of South Australia  \nCathy Stone  \nThe University of Newcastle, Australia  \nAbstract  \nAustralian regional, rural, and remote (RRR) students are transitioning from school to university at lower rates than students in metropolitan areas. This paper examines the similarities and differences between the experiences of RRR secondary school students in South Australia (SA) and New South Wales (NSW) contemplating the transition to university study. Comparing findings from two studies, this paper investigates how the state in which a student lives and studies influences their attitudes and decisions about progressing to higher education (HE). In SA, the compounding effects of low incomes, considerable distances between regional and metropolitan centres, and a scarcity of HE infrastructure outside the capital city imposed more pressing challenges for RRR students than in NSW, where there are fewer remote and outer regional areas, yet more local campuses of large regional universities. This paper argues that a more nuanced national policy response to equity of access for RRR students is required—one that considers the various factors within each Australian state that impact upon the transition of RRR students from secondary school to HE.  \nKeywords  \nHigher education, Regional students, Student equity, University transitions  \nIntroduction  \nThis paper compares and contrasts findings from two research studies examining barriers to higher education (HE) participation in Australia for regional, rural, and remote (RRR) students completing their secondary school education. The term “regional” will be used instead of RRR, referring to all non-metropolitan areas of Australia. These two research studies were conducted in different states of Australia; the first in New South Wales (NSW) in 2015 (NSW Department of Education, 2017), and the second in South Australia (SA) in 2021 (King et al., 2022). Both studies explored why highachieving secondary students in ATAR 1 streams at regional high schools were transitioning from school to university at lower rates than students in metropolitan areas. This paper is one of several that discusses findings from the two studies (see also Stone et al., 2022a, 2022b) . It focuses particularly on data reflecting the extent to which differences in the states themselves—including their distinctive geography, demography, and educational infrastructure—influence the transition from school to HE for regional students. The full and more detailed findings from both studies are available in the final report from the SA study (King et al., 2022) and in the published summary report from the NSW study (NSW Department of Education, 2017) . The specific aspects of these wider studies that are discussed here in this paper raise questions about how national HE policy,  \n1 The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) is a number between 0.00 and 99.95 that indicates a student’s position relative to all the students in their age group. Universities use the ATAR to help them select students for their courses and admission to most tertiary courses is based on a student’s ATAR plus any applicable adjustments (University Admissions Centre, n.d.) . To be eligible for an ATAR, secondary school students must choose certain courses in Years 11 and 12, in which case they are considered to be on an ATAR stream or pathway.  \nincluding funding, is implemented within different regional areas, and the impact of this on the different states and the students within them.  \nAustralian government statistics tell us that, compared with their metropolitan counterparts, students at Australian regional secondary schools are less likely to complete school or to apply to university. The final report of the Australian Government’s National Regional, Rural and Remote Education Strategy (Commonwealth of Australia, 2019)","cbCaifNI5zIHtKkS","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifNI5zIHtKkS","pdf",897955,"English","# Introduction\n## Geographic, demographic, and HE infrastructure contexts of the two studies\n## Comparison of findings across SA and NSW","[{\"question\":\"What is the main focus of the paper?\",\"answer\":\"The paper compares barriers to higher education participation among regional (non-metropolitan) students by contrasting findings from South Australia and New South Wales.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do state differences matter for regional student transitions?\",\"answer\":\"The study argues that geography, demography, and the availability of higher education infrastructure within each state influence regional students’ attitudes and decisions about progressing to higher education.\"},{\"question\":\"What policy implication does the paper propose?\",\"answer\":\"It calls for a more nuanced national policy response that considers multiple factors within each Australian state affecting the transition from secondary school to higher education for regional students.\"}]","The Impact of Regional Diversity on Higher Education Participation - A Comparison of Two Australian States | PDF",48]