Guiding young children towards university

The University of Adelaide is helping guide children in Adelaide's northern primary schools on a path towards university.

A new program, Adelaide Compass: find your way to higher education, is being established in Adelaide's north with a pilot program at Mark Oliphant College, before being rolled out to other schools in the Peachey Belt Cluster.

The program, for school teachers and students, will deliver outreach, mentoring and professional development, with the aim of helping to build school completion rates and attainment, lifting community expectation and helping children aim for higher education in the future.

Adelaide Compass is an extension of the University of Sydney's Compass: find your way to higher education program. An agreement to work together to implement Adelaide Compass has been signed by both universities.

University of Adelaide Vice-Chancellor and President Professor James McWha said: "Research shows that it's vital to start working with children at a much younger age to get them excited about life-long learning and university education, to start building a pathway towards university.

"Sydney has shown great success with their Compass program and we want to use that model to help raise aspirations in Adelaide's northern suburbs where many families have never had anyone at university, and it often doesn't even feature as a possibility, never mind being seen as achievable.

"We know the benefits that university education brings to individuals and to Australia and we are very keen to open up that choice to every child."

University of Sydney Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Professor Derrick Armstrong said: "Social inclusion in higher education requires generational change. It is exciting that the University of Adelaide has embarked on this venture with northern Adelaide schools."

Adelaide Compass will build familiarity between schools and university campuses, staff and students through exchange visits with all activities being supported in class within the curriculum, from Reception upwards. There will be a lot of emphasis on maths, IT and science with older years looking at media and law.

The two universities will share research, data and results to be able to evaluate and further develop the program.

Story by Robyn Mills