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As described in this week's lesson content, I see many mature age students in my classes. And as alluded to in the lesson content, they are often women coming into study now that their children are self-sufficient.

Many of those students are almost apologetic that they are there. Often believing that they have less capacity to undertake tertiary study than the ~18-20-year-old students.

In reality, I find them more driven and determined to succeed. I seldom see a mature-aged student just going through the motions. I have never heard a mature-aged student say, "Ps get degrees!"

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On the surface, our first-year cohort of ADF trainee officers appears remarkably homogeneous: almost all 18-22, able-bodied, English as a first language and living in a military "bubble" free from typical civilian work or family responsibilities. However, in reality we teach a diverse mix of first-in-family, private/public school, rural/urban students across SES backgrounds and have the highest proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at UNSW, alongside a small cohort of international trainees and mature-age students. There is a sharp motivational split between those students driven by genuine curiosity and those who view university studies as a "means to an end" for their military careers.  The gender balance is approximately 70/30% male/female.

While the younger majority often defaults to surface learning due to extreme time-poverty, our advanced students - though more mature and motivated learners - frequently juggle family responsibilities and a lower level of academic preparation. Most concerning is a culture where equitable learning needs are likely underreported. In a high-stakes military environment, the fear of perceived "weakness" often keeps students from seeking the support they clearly need.

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Laura: Diversity at The University of Melbourne

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Laura: Diversity at The University of Melbourne

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Diversity at The University of Melbourne is huge. One statistic includes:

-45% of students at The University of Melbourne (53,000+) are international students from over 150+ nationalities

This means teaching must be inclusive, supportive of language difficulties and provide a safe space for people with such diverse beliefs. This is a huge challange as a university educator.

Perhaps unsuprisingly, there is still significant gender imbalances in higher leadership which is concerning.

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Teaching in the bachelor of oral health program, I’ve noticed the cohort is quite diverse in age, cultural background and prior study experience. While some students come straight from school, many are mature-age and juggling work and family responsibilities alongside their studies. We also have a strong number of international students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, which adds valuable perspectives but sometimes means differences in confidence with academic writing or class participation.

One important consideration for my teaching is building in clear guidance and some flexibility, particularly around assessment expectations and learning activities, to better support students who are balancing multiple commitments or adjusting to university study.

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I have recently moved from teaching in the metropolitan campus to the regional campus. I find that the students in the regional campus to be very diverse. I have a large group of domestic students. Interestingly, I also have students who freely express their gender identity in school. This shows me of how the students feel more at home and perhaps the message is better spread in the regional campus.

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Higher education institutions are required to publish student profile data for each course that shows the basis on which the student was admitted within a sample timeframe. eg: those who were admitted in the category 'recent secondary education' in Semester 1. The same table shows the number of international students. That can tell us quite a lot about the likely cohort in a class but since it's retrospective it's an indication only. (Note that my institution is a 'non-ATAR' institution hence the high number of 'recent secondary' student sadmitted under that category.)

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Diversity in a large third year health science unit

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Diversity in a large third year health science unit

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As I am not the unit coordinator, I don't have the data from Blackboad. Because I am traveling, it is difficult to access other metrics.

What I will say is that with large class groups (50 students to two tutors), it is very difficult to get a hold on the true diversity in the class without a specific process in place for students to talk about themselves that will get back to me as one of the tutors. Students introduce themselves to each other in groups, but not to the tutors. Therefore one can fall into the trap of looking at this seemingly young group of high achieving students and notice physical differences as way of identifying diversity.

Some 10 years ago when working in a communication unit, I asked students to identify and articulate their culture and then find their cultural group within the class. I was fascinated to see that students who, from external appearance, may have made a specific cultural group were spread through other self-identifying groups. For example, identifying with other students who went to the same type of secondary school as them. The dangers of judging a book by its cover.

Consequently, one design and delivery consideration in this large class would have been to set up an online, perhaps Qualtrics, survey for students to engage with to provide me with their preferred pronoun and other information that they might want to disclose to make their learning journey easier. Of course, this has drawbacks if students are asked to do this for every nit they are enrolled in.

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I was unable to find the data for my unit however my unit is very small and I could work out the following for this years cohort. 100% female, at least 50% have children, 20% live in rural areas, 8% international. I am not sure how many but some English is their 2nd language. The age ranges from 24 to 40. In design and delivery, I have to consider time zones as not all live in one state, finance as students have to fly if we do any physical labs, give the students plenty of notice as most are working and have children so need time to plan.

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I analysed one of my postgraduate units as a case study. The last cohort was relatively small, comprising 21 students, including those who withdrew. The split between on-campus and online students was 6 to 15, respectively. The on-campus group primarily consisted of international students enrolled full-time, whereas the online participants were domestic students studying part-time from various locations across Australia. The age range was broad, from the 20s to the 70s, with most students aged between their mid-20s and 40s. Although all had completed a bachelor's degree, showcasing a similar level of education, their work experience varied greatly. Through my interactions, I observed significant differences: some were just beginning their professional careers, while others had years of industry experience.

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I have taught a group of international undergraduate students for many years. Although they are from one particular university, the diversity of gender, language and religion is significant. It has informed my teaching so that I make no assumptions and never use Australian specific words or concepts without an explanation and an opportunity to ask questions.

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Where I currently Unit Coordinate and teach there is diversity in representation diversity in age groups. The largest population of students would fall into the 25 - 35 age group. Approx 5% Indigenous and 20% have direct cultural backgrounds from other countries.
I would like to get access to more accurate and descriptive data.

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The unit I coordinate has 162 students:
70% Australian
20% Temporary entry permit
Some humanitarian visas
Widespread age ranges.
95% Female - as with Speech pathology this reflects the current workforce.

Highest reported disability type is Mental Health, followed by neurodevelopmental disability.

This unit is a clinical unit and requires face-to-face learning which I acknowledge can be difficult for the students, but is required to ensure safety to practice.
In the collaborate break out groups we briefly spoke about the challenges of ensuring safety and standards in this type of unit, while still allowing for diversity.

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I currently teach in the undergraduate curriculum of a Bachelor of Nursing Course in South Australia composed of very large student numbers from a range of background. The three years range from 500 to 800 at any given time, in each year, and there is more than one pathway to complete the degree. As a result, the students I teach can be straight from high school and in their late teenage years, mature age and older than me, and range from domestic to international origin.

What surprises me the most is despite the diversity of students, there are similarities between some age groups, and how the students are labelled. I thought each person would be their own unique self more than what I am observing, however, understand once people group together and find commonality, they do have tendencies to mimic behaviours.

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Looking at diversity from my institution – where anyone who is not Burmese is labelled as a “foreigner”. (The words that we use shape our context and what we value.) I teach at a dominantly Burmese school, it’s Burmese owned and managed by local people (independent not government run), and there are only Burmese teachers and students. I am one of only a few “expat” or “foreign” teachers (non-Burmese) scattered throughout campuses around the country. Within this cohort, there is a wonderous range of ethnic diversity – which reflects the socio-historical background of this country, having a rich diversity of local Burmese ethnicities as well as Indian cultural influences (Burma was once considered part of India under colonial rule). Having said that, there is a distinction to be made between ethnicity and culture – as my school is starkly homogeneous when it comes to a shared Burmese cultural identity. This school is quite distinct from previous international schools I have worked at here, where there were many “foreign” or “international” students from South Asia, including Japan, Korea, Thailand and India.

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Divya - Diversity in my BBus and MBA cohort 

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Divya - Diversity in my BBus and MBA cohort 

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I do not have access to the data from my institution but based on my experience and observation I can see a variation in the age range of graduate and post graduate cohort.
In the graduate cohort, most of the students are within the age range of 18 - 25 years. There is a mix of domestic and international students. Around 60% of the cohort comprises of the domestic students ranging between 18 - 20 years. The other 40% comprises of the international students who come from various ethnic backgrounds and countries (mainly China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India and South Africa). They are largely in the age bracket of 20 -25 years. A significant number are doing their second bachelors in Australia or aspire to up skill themselves to secure PR and work in Australia. These students have English as their second language and often struggle to speak fluently. Surprisingly,there are more number of female students in this cohort.

Among the post - graduate cohort almost 70% of the cohort comprises of international students ranging from 23 - 30 years. Occasionally there are students who have migrated to Australia and are in the mid age bracket of 40 -45 years. Most of these students are from diverse educational streams and backgrounds. Their motivation in taking up the course is to up skill themselves and find avenues for getting employment in Australia. 30% of the domestic cohort have got Australian work experience and looking for personal development and improving their knowledge for promotion purposes.

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I do not have access to all the class data and metrics for the first-year law tutorials that I teach, however as I teach all 4 classes, I have had direct experience with all my students. I am therefore aware of a range of diversity through that face-to-face interaction. I would say around 80-90% of the first year students are recent high-school leavers and the remainder are graduate entry/"mature age" students. Through my class-lists I am only really able to see data recording such as gender-diversity (although the uni only records M/F/X). Some students have shared personal details with me, such as preferred names or pronouns. Overall the capacity for my classrooms to be a safe space is heavily reliant on my ability to make the classroom feel like safe space where diversity is celebrated. In the evening classes, I have more mature age students, meaning that I structure those classes differently to the other ones. Recognition of diversity impacts every component of teaching.

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Diversity in my course and units: social work has quite different cohorts to other courses at my university - while I was surprised to see the numbers of women students consistently higher than men, social work is about 92% women and gender non-binary. As a new program, we have a lower number of international students, so it is integral for me as a UC to remember to centre the experiences of all learners, not just domestic, white learners.

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Diversity in my course and units: social work has quite different cohorts to other courses at my university - while I was surprised to see the numbers of women students consistently higher than men, social work is about 92% women and gender non-binary. As a new program, we have a lower number of international students, so it is integral for me as a UC to remember to centre the experiences of all learners, not just domestic, white learners.

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Upon reviewing the analytics of my unit, I have noticed that 55% of the unit are considered mature-aged students. I have not collated data surrounding race, ethnicity or sexuality. The key influence from this within the design of the unit and delivery is that students may not be able to attend the class due to work or placements, therefore, I record my workshops for students to be able to review at a later date. It also allows for students who did attend the workshop to review again and ensure they have absorbed the teachings from the session, which addresses different learning types and provides an andragogical approach.

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Diversity in year 3 Curtin Physiotherapy students

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Diversity in year 3 Curtin Physiotherapy students

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The unit analytics does not appear to be complete for my unit (undergraduate physiotherapy third year unit - management of pain at Curtin), although over 200 are enrolled into the unit (and appear on blackboard), there are currently 141 students that show up the analytics.  Of the 141 I have available data on, there is a CWA of 75% 10 students are in the Honours stream.  Over 3/4 of the cohort are Australian citizens, only 1 student has a registered disability (registered as mental health not physical health, but this is not a surprise as physiotherapy is a very hands on profession and it is difficult to work with a physical disability). All students are onshore, due to the number of hands on classes for study of the third year physiotherapy units.  Age ranges from 19-44.  35 students have English as a second language, with languages varying from Bosnian, Mandarin, Vietnemese and Burmese, Cantonese, Pursian and Dutch.  When I use analytics there are not any students from Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island background. Our international student cohort is reduced this year as many students that could not make it back to Australia last year due to the pandemic and were unable to complete the prerequisite units (which are hands on units) before they can enter the third year of their study.  It was difficult to count the male to female ratio with such a large cohort, physiotherapy always used to be a female dominated profession we are roughly usually 60% Female : 40% Male on the programme these day. We usually also have a few students that are full time athletes and study part time (but they appear to be missing from the analytics).

None of the data surprised me (apart from how much was missing). I've taught on the programme for 14 years and I try to learn something about the students every year. The rising numbers of students makes this more challenging and I feel like I do well to remember 220 students every year. I also think it's difficult to support students effectively if you just give them generic advice and don't support their learning in a way that is tailored for their needs (it would not be the way I would manage a patient either).

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I am new to the world of teaching outside of learning and development as part of my previous career in travel where I was responsible for the L&D of my staff, so I don't have access to any data that is relevant from where I work; so I have looked at the stats for Curtain over the last 5 years. It is interesting to see that there is quite a large number of female enrolments opposed to male enrolments for 2020 (33,552 female to 25,625 male) suggesting that classes may have more females than males in them. Overall the percentage of International students is 23% which is nearly a quarter. I was surprised at the number if students who are partially online, fully online or external - equating to nearly 20,000 students in total. From these numbers, as a teacher, I would be pushing for the utilisation of online resources more and more so that students who are unable to come to campus are still able to complete a degree. I would also ensure that counselling services and help for those who don't speak English as a first language are available online too. I agree with Jaqueline Boaks that the stress of being in a strange country and away from everything that is familiar to you can impact your studies. Given that we are living in a Covid world, I think it is only fair that all services are available online so that students can reach out to them and not have to be face to face.

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Tass Holmes: Diversity in my fellow-student cohort at Swinburne Uni, and my student groups at University of Melbourne. 

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Tass Holmes: Diversity in my fellow-student cohort at Swinburne Uni, and my student groups at University of Melbourne. 

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I'm currently completing a Master of Teaching (secondary) this year at Swinburne Uni (in Melbourne's east), which has a fabulous preponderance of Indian-origin students. I've taught classes as a uni tutor, from 2009 to 2020, for 3 universities, especially for Uni of Melbourne (in the city).
In my 'pre-service teacher' cohort, there are numerous students from distinct ethnic backgrounds (mainly from Indian, and south-east Asian, and some from Pacifica, Chinese and Japanese families), who've usually been in Australia since childhood or are international enrolments paid for by their families. The number of Chinese students appears somewhat reduced since Covid, however there were still many (as international) students at Melbourne Uni last year (I did wonder about the 'legality' of this). Some unis get a lot of income from international students.
In classes I've taught, there was always diversity, with numerous locally-diverse and international students, including first and second gen migrants. I particularly enjoyed teaching students from low socio-economic backgrounds, and some with (mainly mental) 'disability'. Some of the latter group were struggling with health issues, but definitely usually up with the bunch in terms of quality of their assessed work, although quite a few from this group dropped out over time and across numerous different units, because they ran out of extra time they needed, and even 'special consideration' approvals couldn't accommodate their difficulties). I recall helping one bright young guy who was really sick one semester and effectively dropped out. I instructed him carefully how to seek medical certs and apply for special consid (they don't usually receive specific detailed instructions, and just think they have to fail), and to submit 'draft' work late (all components were required) without a mark, to gain an overall pass in one subject. This was frowned on, but was very satisfying for me to do so.
Consequently, I think the tertiary ed system could be improved by having greater flexibility with respect to students with disability who require extra time to keep up with their classwork and to complete assessments. Another problem is that they might struggle with full-time study loads, but not be eligible for Centrelink pensions, or student payments unless they undertake a full-time load. This latter requirement could be waived or lessened for students with disability.
Sometimes I had ATSI students - I noticed some of these tend to overburden themselves, as they really are trying to achieve against a too-high 'internalised' expectation arising from racist social opinions.
In some units, I really also enjoyed having the occasional older student, such as one mum of teenagers I remember, in a second year anthropology class. She was truly excellent and very committed, although she couldn't attend class as regularly as the run of other Bachelor students, due to family committments. As per the Curtin uni stats, bachelor students (mostly 17-21 yo) vastly outnumber others, and uni is mainly geared towards meeting their needs (as it should be).

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In the unit I have been tutoring within for 3 years, I regularly have a high number of EAL/D students. As an online unit, most of my correspondence with students is written. Therefore, this semester I have started posting a video with my written forum discussion, as well as including an audio recording with their assessment feedback. While the written and video/audio information is basically the same, I have read a few research papers that support this multimodal delivery as beneficial to all students, EAL/D or otherwise. Anecdotally, so far this semester it appears to be having a significant positive effect.

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Within the Master of Speech Pathology course, there are 60% Australian enrollments, 15% PR, 30% international, 5% not reported and only 1 ATSI student who has recently withdrawn. The majority of enrolments are female (94%) which is not surprising and reflective of the industry distribution between male and female clinicians.

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Most students in my Master of Networking Capstone Project Unit are from overseas, mainly from the Indo-subcontinent. This region includes countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh. Even within India, there are local language groups as well, so the student cohort is very diverse. Because most of these countries had been British colonies in the past, it surprised me that their English literacy vary in large extent. Many of my students struggled to write a proper academic report on their capstone projects. We introduced micro-modules within the capstone unit to provide students with trainings on how to do literature review, and how to write academically.

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I teach a first year, discipline specific unit.
During class I make it a priority to learn names and a bit about each student as I assist groups over the semester - nothing formal. As I have taken on a course coordination role - the more involvement I have with university analytics, Ive noticed the diversity within the cohort. There are a range of ages within the class, predominantly health Sciences across the board has higher female students however this course is closer to parity, international students and students from a variety of ethnic origins. A large range of previous educational experiences - straight from high school; post gap year; a few years working in a similar industry; post TAFE diploma and work; career change.
The varying levels of education experience (wanting to build on previous knowledge and remain engagement but also keep a nice pace for those that the information is completely new for) and previous learning experiences (high school is very different to university which is very different from some who have course switched) presents a challenge to design and deliver curriculum.

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Diversity at Curtin and in my Business Ethics unit 

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Diversity at Curtin and in my Business Ethics unit 

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First of all it's remarkable that I did not know the Student Background reports even existed in Blackboard.
While I expected to see the large number of fee paying overseas students, I was struck by just how many are on temporary entry permits and what that might mean for their general lived experience as well as their student experience. I often speak to students who are far from home and their familiar support networks, and I am sure COVID will have exacerbated that stress due to not being able to even visit home.

I was also struck by how many first year students we have - this is particularly an issue because the unit is nominally a 3d year unit and requires a higher level of skills and experience of the course material than a first year student would be expected to have.

One thing for me to consider is that we already use anonymous, real time surveys such as Mentimeter to ask students about whether they have previous experience with the unit subject matter. I think there is good scope to expand this to include other elements of Student Background and diversity covered in this module. I will need to think about how to do that sensitively and respectfully.

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My Brief Definition,
A none gender specific collective group of people composed of varying ages, ethnicity, and beliefs about religion, politics and society, who originate from various parts of the world.

Curtin University Definition as a contrast.
In the Curtin context diversity encompasses the understanding that each individuals’ lived experience is unique and that a person may identify by using one or more of the following attributes: sex; age; race; colour; national or ethnic origin; marital or relationship status; pregnancy or potential pregnancy; breastfeeding; political conviction; religious conviction; impairment; need for carers, assistance animals and disability aids; family responsibility or family status; gender; gender identity; intersex status; sexual orientation; gender history.

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At a university where I sometime do guest lectures, I see the standard 19-22 year old age group in the under graduate classes. However, they are no all Japanese, as one might expect in Japan. While the majority of the cohorts are Japanese, I would say there is a foreign cohort of between 10 - 20 %, depending on the class.

At the post graduate course level, especially in the MBA course, that percentage flips, with only 20% being Japanese.

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Pauline - Diversity in my previous teaching context

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Pauline - Diversity in my previous teaching context

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I was the only fulltime expat member of staff in a small school in Burkina Faso. The other fulltime staff members were the Director, a member of the local dominant ethnic group (age and success also gave additional respect), and an admin assistant from a different group (younger, but since university educated was up a bit on the hierarchical pole). The other difference was their church origin, which had different educational routes. Part-time staff were a mix of different ethnic groups, different church backgrounds (influencing input content and style) and expats of several different nationalities. Students were diverse: only 5 came from the same ethnic group and country; 4 came from different countries; the Burkinabé were all of different ethnic groups, denominational backgrounds and educational pathways. There was also a large socio-economic range .As well as course content, the first weeks in class were a time to get to know each other and learn that their unique input was valued and sought, and to respect others' views, especially as many cultural and religious issues were discussed.

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Elizabeth - diversity of my teaching context

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Elizabeth - diversity of my teaching context

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Looking at diversity from my institution – where anyone who is not Burmese is labelled as a “foreigner”. (The words that we use shape our context and what we value.) I teach at a dominantly Burmese school, it’s Burmese owned and managed by local people (independent not government run), and there are only Burmese teachers and students. I am one of only a few “expat” or “foreign” teachers (non-Burmese) scattered throughout campuses around the country. Within this cohort, there is a wonderous range of ethnic diversity – which reflects the socio-historical background of this country, having a rich diversity of local Burmese ethnicities as well as Indian cultural influences (Burma was once considered part of India under colonial rule). Having said that, there is a distinction to be made between ethnicity and culture – as my school is starkly homogeneous when it comes to a shared Burmese cultural identity. This school is quite distinct from previous international schools I have worked at here, where there were many “foreign” or “international” students from South Asia, including Japan, Korea, Thailand and India.

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I am unable to access the data from my institution, but have made the following observations of my current classes. Most students are within the age range of 18-22, with a couple of notable exceptions: one man of retiring age, and a woman in her late 30s who are completing the Diploma for interest’s sake. We have a mix of first-in-family students; students who have disclosed experiencing social/peer issues during high school which affected their final grades; students who had no interest in education at a young age but now have a new-found interest; students who struggled with standardised testing; and in the Diploma of Arts, we have many students who want to become teachers themselves.
In terms of design and delivery, the content needs to speak to a broad spectrum of ability and interest, whilst also meeting the learning requirements for a Diploma of Arts. The activities need to be scaffolded to meet the abilities of those who might struggle with the challenges of tertiary education, whilst also remaining relevant for those who are more comfortable with the demands.

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I currently teach 18 students. Within this group  there are 33% of students who are indigenous. Over 50% of our families have either Government Pension or Health Care cards. 40% of our children have additional needs. There are 25% of our families are single parent families. 25% of the students are repeating their kinder year. 9% of our parents are University trained.
One Thing to Consider in Design and Delivery:
My educational program needs to be very broad. It needs to cater for differing levels of ability. One of the real challenges is that I need to be able to design and deliver something that I can critically reflect on and also accurately measure what is successful and working, and/or what I need to adjust. This is something that I must do every single day. It is also important for me to communicate with my families in a way that caters to their needs. For example, I need to share information with my families that they can understand, and I also need to be available to support them in any way they may need, and for them to feel comfortable to ask me for support.

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Graduate Entry Masters - Coursework unit

Average CWA 79

Diversity:

60% Australian, 15% PR, 30% international, 5% No response, 1 ATSI student withdrawn

Week 6 - 783 visits 97.8% engagement

Performance report - No students at risk
Report does not pick up other influencing factors, e.g. students with CAPs, complicated family dynamics, P/T versus F/T enrolments