Dean's Lecture — Closing the Gap: leadership, scholarship and Indigenous achievement

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Melbourne Graduate School of Education launches the first Dean’s Lecture for 2022 presented by Professor Marcia Langton AO, The University of Melbourne.

“It is probable that the University of Melbourne leads the sector in Indigenous doctoral student enrolments in Australia.

It is estimated that in 2020 and 2021, Indigenous doctoral students enrolled at the University of Melbourne made up about 9.2% of all domestic doctoral students nationally. At the University of Melbourne, they made up 1.58% of all of our doctoral students. That suggests we are doing much better than other universities in attracting and retaining Indigenous doctoral students.

The growth rate of Indigenous doctoral student numbers at the University between 2015 and 2019 was almost three times (2.91 times) the national growth rate. That growth has only slowed marginally in 2020 and 2021 despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Most (>40%) Indigenous GR students are enrolled at Go8 universities and the University of Melbourne had more GR students in 2018 than any other Go8. These data reveal the progress we are making in Closing the Gap on an indicator that is rarely reported publicly yet is fundamental to the future of Indigenous Australia – building strong Indigenous leaders.”

In this lecture, Professor Marcia Langton AO will look at the factors that she believes have been critical to our success to date, and those that we should maintain and strengthen in creating an Indigenous cohort in higher degrees by research, and the implications of success in this endeavour.

Join us at 5.30pm for refreshments. Lecture commences at 6.00pm.