ABSTRACT
For over half a century in Australia, university-based widening participation pathways to higher education (HE) have enabled hundreds of thousands of students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds to participate and achieve at university. This chapter outlines the important role of these university-located preparatory programmes which are focused on enabling both the educational development and performance required for achieving equitable access to and subsequent success in HE. These programmes enable students from a wide variety of educationally disadvantaged backgrounds to transition effectively to university-style learning because they are: free; inclusive; flexible; situated within university systems and environments; are closely aligned with the programmes to which the students will progress; and include a broad range of study units from other key areas should participants be unsure about the future programme they are interested in pursuing. In addition to the structures identified as critical for programme efficacy in achieving both equity and subsequent success, the specific student groups discussed in this chapter are mature-age, first-in-family, regional, and online students.
