Supporting higher education participation across equity groups has long been a directed effort in global higher education practice and policy. However, to date, there has been little improvement in the rates of Australian higher education participation by equity groups such as regional/remote, low socioeconomic, and Indigenous Australian students. In this study, we visited four outer-regional communities in Victoria, Australia to utilise participatory design methods as an approach to explore participants’ ideas on the optimal nature of early-stage higher education outreach interventions and how future resources or programmes can be designed. Our case study of four schools showcases how participatory design with students (Year 7 and 8), school staff, and carers (e.g. family, community leaders) (n = 101) helped to elicit participant feedback and ideas as well as support the subsequent co-design of future resources and outputs. Key findings included the need to address information gaps on the daily life of university students and the importance of context-specific advice and interventions.

中文翻译：

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社区研究的参与式设计：区域学生高等教育途径研究

长期以来，支持平等群体参与高等教育一直是全球高等教育实践和政策的直接努力。然而，迄今为止，地区/偏远地区、低社会经济和澳大利亚土著学生等公平群体对澳大利亚高等教育的参与率几乎没有提高。在这项研究中，我们访问了澳大利亚维多利亚州的四个外围社区，以利用参与式设计方法作为一种方法来探索参与者对早期高等教育外展干预的最佳性质以及如何设计未来资源或计划的想法。我们对四所学校的案例研究展示了学生（7 年级和 8 年级）、学校工作人员和照顾者（例如家庭、社区领袖）（n = 101）帮助引发参与者的反馈和想法，并支持未来资源和产出的后续协同设计。主要发现包括需要解决大学生日常生活中的信息差距以及针对具体情况的建议和干预措施的重要性。