1 INTRODUCTION

This thought piece provides reflection on how universities can better engage with diverse learners and support underrepresented student groups, in the face of a pandemic. COVID‐19 has, and will continue to have, a profound impact on access to higher education. Students from underrepresented backgrounds are the most adversely affected by school closures, shifts to remote learning and shifting higher education policy environments. Whilst the full impact of the pandemic is yet to be fully realised, early international research is indicating that for students from underrepresented backgrounds there are risks to long‐term educational disengagement (Drane et al., 2020), barriers to accessing learning through technology (Montacute, 2020) and uncertainty over post‐school futures (The Smith Family, 2020). Whilst these challenges are not new, they are exacerbated and have the potential to widen inequalities within the education system and between students. This piece explores the role of universities in empowering underrepresented groups of students to access higher education in the face of a pandemic, with a specific focus on how partnerships have been understood and constructed in this environment.

中文翻译：

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面对大流行：考虑建立伙伴关系以扩大澳大利亚高等教育的参与

1引言

这篇思想文章反映了大学在面对大流行时如何更好地与多样化的学习者互动并支持代表性不足的学生群体。COVID-19已经并将继续对高等教育的接受产生深远影响。代表性不足的学生受学校停课，转向远程学习和变化的高等教育政策环境的影响最大。尽管尚未充分认识到这种流行病的全部影响，但早期的国际研究表明，对于背景不足的学生而言，长期的教育参与可能存在风险（Drane等人，  2020年），这是通过技术获取学习的障碍（蒙塔古特（Montacute），  2020年）和课后期货的不确定性（The Smith Family，2020）。这些挑战虽然不是新挑战，但加剧了，并有可能扩大教育系统内部和学生之间的不平等。本篇文章探讨了大学在面对大流行的情况下，在赋予代表性不足的学生群体以接受高等教育机会方面的作用，特别着重于在这种环境下如何理解和建立伙伴关系。