2024 Student Voice Summit Panel: Equity and Access: Breaking down barriers and building inclusivity

all right so we're really excited for the next portion of our day today we're coming up to the panel discussion and these three wonderful people um we've been in contact a couple of times before this in preparation they're amazing they're super interesting they all have such great backstories um and also coming from three very diverse and different backgrounds and experiences so I'm excited to be facilitating this session um and I'll just grab my note that I give them Justice while I'm introducing them but on the panel today we've got Casey dyes she's the co-chair of the students with disability leadership Collective at SBA uh she's also studying a bachelor of Aviation management at unsw yeah Casey is a proud Ackle woman growing up on an Angus Cattle farm near Lake MC studying a bachelor of Aviation management Casey accumulated and revoked four expulsion from the prand since 2017 due to complex illness these illnesses accounted for over eight months in hospital in 42 surgical procedures between 2017 and 2022 she is now one of the founding Executives of two advocacy University groups with two successful industry internships all whilst maintaining the highest grade point average of her life we're really excited to hear from Casey today we'll give her a round of applause and then we'll move on to great we've got Jan Logan how do you pronounce that yeah great J is the student president of the flenders University Student Association studying a Bachelor of Computer Science in artificial intelligence at flenders University he's the current president of the fenders University Student Association Janna is also the first international student to hold this position at Flinders University originally from Sri Lanka Janna initially pursued online studies for a year before relocating to Australia in 2021 to further his education as an international student Janna feels very passionate about advocating for international student rights give a round of applause for Janna and right at the end we have Lucy barowski she is the chair of the sit student council she's an advisory Council student representative at cber Institute of techn techology and doing a certificate for in work health and safety at cber Institute of Technology so Lucy has had a long history of student advocacy especially within the tape space she completed her year 10 certificate at CIT going on to complete studies in animal technology and pathology whilst sitting as the chair on the Sida student council and the student representative on the CIT at visory Council before going on to complete a bachelor of nursing at ACU Lucy has also completed a graduation a sorry a graduate certificate in nursing majoring and advanced practice through jcu she's now studying a certificate for in work health and safety um and has a strong passion for lifelong education social justice and Community safety let's give a round of applause for Lucy so the purpose of this panel discussion today is to break down barriers um and build inclusivity looking at Equity better equity and access so I'm going to take the floor with our wonderful panelists and just double check that you can hear me yes okay so there are several intersecting barriers that all students face we're excited to explore and experience these ones together um through each of you um so I'll start with Casey very first Casey could you please well access to Aviation for people with disability and University policies in supporting these students um have led you to facing so many barriers yet here you are so could you please share your takeaways from working closely with your faculty um and reviewing University policies that could help students at this Summit advocate for their own and other student rights in my check do I have yeah there's a lot of context here um to how I've done what I've done um I failed seven out of seven units in 2022 which is almost impressively bad um it does get better with the impressively bad I finished 20122 with an overall weighted average Mark out of 100 100 keep this in mind of 17 I was told it was irrecoverable I had support staff tell me I did not belong in this space as I was academically inadequate and in previous DV history that I had I was told by my abuser that I would never Graduate University and I would never be a contributing member to society well damn her and damn that because I will be and I am I had the 180 of a life time in 2023 I was homeless at the end of 2022 I spent six weeks in and out of shelters across Sydney both DV and general homeless shelters um and time in hotels I grew up in foster care I never got my after care plan that the state was supposed to provide which is a legal um allocation at the age of 17 my parents that raised me were denied a state adoption why because at the age of 17 I found out I was a first Nations Australian and the care system had hid that from my family and I for 17 years they did some damage more damage than most people will ever face in their entire lifetimes in probably the seven Worst Years of my entire life between the age of 17 and 24 so as you can see I was on a back foot um but move hell in high water I was not sitting down and taking where I was in the gutter and the pits at the end of 2022 I sat down I begged the unsw enrollment board to not terminate my enrollment I begged them I don't even think I could explain to you the desperation of the letter I sent that tribunal I said please this is not me this is my circumstances I don't want to be here I didn't ask to be here give me a chance please and they did unsw Aviation also moved hel in high water to give me a chance Pilots have to pass Medicals how much and how often do you think a school of aviation would see someone in pal of care they don't but do you know the perks of being a student in paliative care I don't have to do group assignments so do you know what we're going to take that win and we're going to run with that win because that's how I entered 2023 I went to Equitable learning at unsw and I said please I need your help what can I do what can you do for me and they sat down and and they took time and they wrote out an absolutely fantastic Equitable learning adjustment plan the problem with that is Aviation had never seen an ELP to the level that my El was needed for Equity of access I went and I talked to the head of school I took the time to speak to my lecturers and I explained to them hey I might need a little bit of extra time to do things in fact my e allows me a minimum of two weeks which is already twice the amount anyone else has allocated and this is why I want to give this my best shot are you going to take a chance on me and they did I finished 2023 on an 84 and a 98 the highest grade I got the year previously was a 24 24 to a 98 180 of a lifetime that school at the start of this year after I was the only Equitable learning adjustment plan student for the entire 12 months we now have seven students on Els with a - group size of 80 with three years running concurrently all at the same time so out of those 240 kids we went from one El student to now at least seven Brett molesworth the head of school realized that he could not do this and it takes a hell of a soul to say I can't do this as someone who is a clinical psychologist and head of school to admit that he couldn't do it respect he Vanessa Mama Vanessa sits in that school she looks at our eops and this lady moves damn mountains I do not know what Vanessa has done to twist that entire school around her little finger but if SE if she says get that student recordings that student has recordings he got the best Advocate we could ever possibly have on side I have now interned twice in Industry I had to come off medication hence why I have a feeding tube in my nose because at medication I'm held to the same rules as Pilots staff within my school made sure I had extra allowances because I had to go back onto schedule eight medication that made me more drowsy every day they moved mountains again go in and speak to your teachers they can't help you if you don't ask that is the bravest thing I have ever done is walk to that faculty and say please I need your help I can't do this by myself all of the things they did for me and the work I put in myself it turned everything around if I didn't face and if I wasn't in the pits and the depths of hell I don't think I would have asked for help I was so desperate and they came to B for me so please any students facing academic barriers that you think are utterly impossible the best advice that I can give you is go and speak to your faculty go and get that ELP plan because once they have an equitable learning plan in place don't get me wrong there have been teachers that have not followed that plan but do you know who heard about it Vanessa Brett and stuff got escalated to the diversity and inclusion uh Vice Chancellor of the University um what her name Cara cross is her executive assistant I have her phone number if I need help I call Cara she's the best protected person I ever had in my life she go straight to faculty and things are done in minutes why no one messes with car cross Leanne halt as well is her boss absolute Legend she is on the now on the University chancellory board and she is there to bat for Equity diversity and inclusion and now with her going and speaking with her we have now managed to do a whole system Overlook on the support services available for indigenous students at University of New South Wales because of issues that I had highlighted and other students had highlighted to that board of diversity and inclusion people at Uni are there to help you they're paid to help you that's their job they will help you really just need to ask for it go to the chancell go find your University's Cara cross and when someone doesn't do your EOP like it said you go to your Cara and you say hey Cara I need some help I have this in my plan and they didn't listen to me and what can I do that can also circumnavigate needing to put in formal complaints because who wants to sit there and write a 1500w essay on how much their life sucks right now it's not exactly fun and it's kind of traumatic so having someone on the board like within the chancell that knows my circumstances I don't have to write those 1500w essays anymore because Cara does it for me I don't have to keep rehashing my trauma over and over because I found my person that knows what I'm going through and her entire job is literally to bat for us please find those people within your faculties go to chancell ask for the help if you don't ask they can't do it there's a lot of teachers that are a lot better than you think you have no idea I now have two teachers that have got students sorry they've got their own children who are now enrolled in University that have massive disabilities two of two of my teachers have wheelchair bound children that are now at Uni I never would have known that if I never had a conversation with them about my own needs it's like finding those champions those teachers get it and I never would have known that if I never asked find them they really are there you so much good job I I just have one follow-up question so it is one thing to go to somebody and to ask but what do you do in the situation when you're getting a lot of push back from the people who are asking drop their policy right back in their face uh I I started my academic journey in law actually and I have neurod Divergence for aircraft so that didn't really last however I learned some skills that I am so grateful for because the minute I get pushed back or someone is not listening to this is why Cara goes to bath for me because Cara knows I'm a policy knowing Nightmare and if someone doesn't do their job and she doesn't follow it up it will end up with unw Al because I will do that I'm done I don't I don't mess around anymore for example last term I had my group alternative assignment was allocated as the group alternative was the group assignment I did the work of six people by myself and no one thought it was a problem until I had a mental breakdown mid law exam at the end of the term because I just couldn't I was burnt out and then when I turn around and I say how did this happen it's oh my God how did the policy allow this to happen and so in instead of getting angry at the teacher themselves because you know they obviously didn't have the support to come up with an alternative at the time we now look at the policy and go back and say how do we make sure this doesn't happen again and so the best thing that you can do is find the policy and find what should be also go and look on the national standards you can find legislation on the Internet it's very easy go and find your States Discrimination Act go and have a look at your University's policy see what the law says see what the policy says and then turn around go back to faculty present it back to them and say no you and your policy says that you need to do this so there you go if you give them the rules they can't it's a fact so know the policy thanks so much let's give another round of applause for Casey thank you okay I don't think this works but that's right so Janna you're next so International students space many barriers in Australia things from Financial challenges limited job opportunities Etc you've had a unique experience and opportunity to support and for international students locally at your University but also nationally nationally thank you oh great also nationally at the Australian Parliament what is an example of creating opportunities locally for international students and then scaling this at the national level to advocate for broader international student needs and rights and first I'll ask you to share your story if that's okay all right perfect so first of all my name is jno surprise and I am the President of flers University Student Association but today I'm an innal student so in 2021 I started my academic journey in Australia online because Co and then 202 by the end of 2021 I I think I moved on Shore um when I came on Shore I quickly realized that oh there aren't many jobs for international students when you come on Shore because you don't have references you don't have local experience so I had to get my hands on anything and anything I could get my hands on so I started off as a cleaner and also a kitchen hand um because I had to keep myself financially afloat I didn't want to go break although I was slightly broke at the time but um later I realized that I was being exploited because I wasn't paid the minimum wage and that's you know most International students when they do come on Shore they don't realize that there is a minimum wage standard here in Australia and most International students are uh paid cash in hand um so over time that happened but on the other end I also had to study full-time and I was on a scholarship with a very high GP requirement so I had to um put my time into that as well so that's when I realized there are other opportunities within the University as well so I started applying for a few opportunities and then I started working in International Education with the university I worked for recruitment um to admissions although I was a full-time student I was doing some part-time gigs around the area and then I worked for student administrative services and also business intelligence planning so which is around data and computer science which very well goes with my degree so um but I was also very interested in F student elections I ran a couple times I lost but the third time I gotten as the president of the Student Association um during that period is when you know International Education had some major policy changes um currently if you have seen it's the esos uh amendment to 2024 Amendment quality and integrity bill which is currently being uh debated in the upper house um and I got a shoulder tap from the nus to because I had the experience in the National Education area I was working in the industry but also I was a Student Association president so I got a Sher tap to Tech and I became an accidental lobbyist so I would like to call myself an accidental lobbyist so um so I went to Parliament um I spoke to the Senate um regarding there was a senate inquiry so I spoke to the Senate everyone was speaking data but then I was like well data is not just you know it's not the only deciding factor it's also about the perspectives of students you know it's about students who are currently offshore Who currently here in Australia who's going to go through those struggles is about those personal stories as well and I think I took that to the Senate as well um over time there's even more lobbying happening um I was able to meet the politicians I was able to present myself in different media um so it was quite a few effort and here I am speaking to you today awesome and what would you say are the primary challenges that International students are facing at the moment definitely um something I'm pretty sure if you're international student you can relate is the financial difficulties as international student it's very expensive study as an international student here in Australia very expensive and once you move in come to Australia and then you quickly realize that you need local experience and referees to get a job which most of the time most students will not have as International students um that is something that I really find um you know a lot of students find of you know hard to go day by day like um running a Student Association we see a lot of international students coming in looking for food security program and stuff like that so like that is definitely a big issue we see with International students the second thing is the adjustments you know when you move from a different country a different culture and you're here by yourself and at a comparatively young age as well so you need to get adjusted to the new culture new academic requirements which might have which might be very different from the country that you come from and learning a new language and adapting and also blending in which is really hard really hard and I think all International students go through this phase of wow what I've I've got myself into like crash and then they just pick uh pick them up pick themselves up from there onwards so I think that's a big uh challenge as well yeah great thanks for sharing I've got one last question so what have you done as president of your student Association and what were the specific steps that you took to progress that to Parliament um I'll talk to talk about a few local things that I did I think a lot of student leaders if you're from Student Association I think a lot of us can do that as well for international students is that when we talk about that financial difficulty um it's really hard to connect those employers for genuine and are willing to accept International students and you know when International students come in they probably won't know who they are so we started a work while study event specifically C for international students uh where we found employers through our Career Services they helped a lot um so we got them on board we got a few other stakeholders on board as well and we hosted that event about 150 to 200 International students were able to find jobs and that's something that I would really really take my you know like um that's something I wanted to do all the time but I didn't have the resources or the connections back then but then as I became the student president I was I had the connections in the funding as well so which is really nice and I think now it's it's become a yearly program so every year International students do get to participate in those programs cated for them um the second one would be the esos bill change oh my God international students are a how do you call a political football right now you know um with the all the changes that's happening it's very political driven one of the blames the international students get is that they take up the housing market and I asked a few people like do you happen to know any agent who would accept an international student over a family for housing here in Australia if you do please let me know I'm finding housing and I couldn't find anyone who' do that um and on top of that um the Australian property Council also states that only 4% of the housing market is is occupied by International students the rest stay in chare houses or purpose built accommodations so it's driven by politics so it's it's about bringing that perspective and sharing those emotional stories sometimes helps as well working in data everybody was going to throw data like at Senate inquiry everyone's like oh$ 48 billion industry boom and like 50% hit in the budgets for the University boom I'm like what about the people involved you know we're talking about people who are waiting to get their visas who waiting to come on Shore they're just stuck in limbo they don't know what to do at least give them a decision and none of these policies were grandfathered none of these um policies were even for costed by treasury like didn't didn't do the financial modeling for the country what would happen to the country if this policies go through it was there was a lack of grandfathering and a lack of uh strategic thinking in this policy so we just had to point that out I guess so yeah wonderful thank you so much jna everyone give a hand for jna I don't know this work does it no no thank you all right Lucy so we've been talking a lot about student experience at universities yet there is a big proportion of higher education students currently studying at TA different course durations and modes of study numerous different age groups and study periods that aren't aligned with um I guess the university schedules can create difficult environments to engage students um in governance and student life activities sitsa is the current only Student Association um in ta institutions so my question for you is what does the student voice look like at TA and how have you been shifting from a tokenistic representation to actionable representation at sza and first I'll ask who is sits that and what role do you hold that t those are some loaded questions um so hi my name is Lucy I've had a chat to some of you today um I'm just going to hit this right on the head I am an anxious anxious Queen you know and and I'm a jittery jittery girl so please forgive me um and I ramble like nothing else um I'm just going to admit it now because otherwise everyone's GNA like why is she still ring um I just wanted to get that over thank you for your patience um so sitsa is uh a acnc registered charity um so we are the only uh Student Association who is sitting as a nonaligned body from aave so we are a separate entity uh so we run Commercial Services and offer support support services to support the student support officers so we run in line with them but we don't take over their services we run to support their services that are already available um something that we have picked up recently is we are now running the accommodation for CIT so cit's camber Institute of Technology um flash way of saying TA in the ACT we have to have an acronym for everything we are the capital of acronyms um if nothing else I'm going to give you a laugh in this thank you thank you um so what does the student voice look like at T how would you explain that a bit of everything really like so my journey specifically like back in 2009 um I had undiagnosed endom metriosis and I was failing hard at mainstream schooling and also had super undiagnosed uh neuros spice uh just wasn't Computing why I hated mainstream school and then I ended up doing my year 10 at ta uh because I just could not COPE in school anymore and it just didn't align with my hyper fixations just own it um and um like I was suddenly in a class where you know academically if I was interested in subjects I could perform very well and if I didn't good luck maintaining my attention because I didn't have ADHD meds back then um and you know I was in a classroom with students who range from 17 like me up until their mid-20s who had come back to do their year 10 certificate and you know a lot of the students there had been lumped as behavioral students because it's easier to say that someone is a behavioral problem rather than you know for example one of the students I was sitting with him this one day and he would come into class every day and he'd play up and you know would get kicked out of the classroom for causing a ruckus and then the day would go on and this one day I I stepped in as we're sitting down we're doing our work and he starts playing up and pardon my French but the the [ __ ] you miss started and it was oh get out of the class and I I went and sat with him I was like hey dude what's what's going on like do do you need a hand and I sat with him and that's when I picked up that he couldn't read and this guy was 18 he had grown up in Australia and he could not read English that wasn't his fault we had failed him and it's easier to play up in class and make a show of I don't want to be here because I'm too cool for this like this is below me then admit that fear of you know I'm I'm less than I'm lacking and that really sparked something in me and I worked with him and I worked with quite a few of the other students and my group was the first group of year 10 that every single student finished that year and after that you know some of them went on to year 12 and I was meant to go on to year 12 and again mainstream really didn't interest me I really wanted to do animal technology and it was oh no you can't do that because you don't have a year 12 you have to do year 12 and I was really lucky that I had an advocate in my youth worker and she pushed and went well you know can't she do the entry test for literacy and numeracy and I did and I passed and I got in and I was exposed to an even more broad group of students and it was then that you know I got the tap on the shoulder of hey I love supporting other students I I I love watching people learn I I love you know seeing the growth in people when they're given a chance to flourish so I got involved with sitzer and then I got to see all the student voices I went out and spoke with the tradies you know and every different type of trade because there is so so many um and you know go and see you know the short courses that they run where you know there's a lady there that's in her 80s and she's got like six phds but she wants to come back and do a cooking class like the the the voice at TA is such a broad extensive diverse Divergent group of people and there's not a way that like yes I've been in this role twice now I I was in the role of chair and you know student rep on the board 10 years ago and I'm back now but I know that my one voice can't cover all of them you know like 10 years ago I was out pounding the pavement talking to all of them but like I still can't represent all of their voices and to expect that is tokenistic you know and and for me it's it's raising that awareness within the policy makers that like oh yeah hey look I can give you my thoughts and like 10 years worth of like views CU I sat as the secretary at you know signo Student Association back at ACU and CRA when I did my nursing so I've I've sat in both sides of the higher education space but like it's just me in that like I can't speak for Janna and I can't speak for Casey and I can't speak for any of you because we're all so diverse yet we're meant to represent all of our groups and it's having that space to acknowledge that we can't just have that hat of speaking for everyone we have our hat of hey this is my experience or you know this is what I've seen or this is what I've heard but it's not my story yeah wonderful thank you so much Round of Applause for Lucy thank you for putting up with my rambling and bearing with me to get the message out there thank you awesome so we actually have 15 minutes and we wanted to pass the time over to you guys if you have any questions for our panel members um yeah take the time to just raise your hand I'll come over with a mic or yeah I'll come over um or one of the orange shirts will so we do have our first question CH at the front please um my questions for Lucy so with the current changes that's going through government and everything one of the things they're looking at is a Australian tertiary education commission atch and they love the acronyms um one of the things out of that yeah yeah one of the things that uh is part of it is they're talking about harmonization between universities and taes do you think it will be good to have that harmonization to benefit the students of ta as much as what it will to benefit uh the students of University like give you guys more of a voice in the TA realm of things yeah I one of those hard ones like it's you don't want to water down either side but you want to support both um but I think there would definitely be a benefit in having that Harmony there and even like the examples of our Institute in the past and you know moving forward have had M with Unis to support students so they can have a further pathway in their education space so for example you know you're doing like assert three in it and then that continues on and then you're doing your Bachelor um but then that goes back the other way of you know hey I've got all these uni degrees but I haven't got the practical skills to the level that I'd like them to and you can go back and do like even just doing a statement of attainment just rocking up and having that industry knowledge there it makes such a difference and to be able to support that space of having both institutions you know supported for that I think it's worth a shot thank you are there any other questions right next to all hi uh my question is for Casey um thank you for your share because um I actually um could take away quite a bit because I'm the the convener um BL sorry of the disabilities Collective here at the University of Sydney and as part of the process um it's part of the disabilities inclusion action plan implementation team um the thing that we come up again and again is the way that we want it obviously we've got these lofty goals but if University executives are only willing to go so far if they're only willing to comply with the minimum standards like we've asked this question again and again does the University of Sydney want to just comply with legislation or do they want to go above and beyond and make sure that everything in this University is inclusive and unfortunately in a lot of the cases it's just comply um so do you have any tips and tricks or more tips and tricks on actually you know knocking some sense into the heads of of these people I think that's why I show up to chancell re mid mental breakdown post burnout in a lore exam I walked into that office a hot damn mess crying and I was like this is on you this problem me is on you like standards were not followed that are the base minimum standards and you need to see the potential repercussions of your lack of vigilance in maintaining the bare minimum continuing on from that um I have recently become a co-chair of of student voice Australia's uh disability leadership Collective and that again is a similar uh vein of trying to establish what are the state and National standards versus what are the university standards and the reason why we are going to be you know a voice of disability leadership is so that those people who have actually experienced the system can have that voice and petition for change this is the way I've uh approached avation for myself I've done two internships I said throw me on the floor throw me in day-to-day operations why because if I don't know what the daytoday looks like how can I manage something so how can we create policy as policy makers if we have no idea what the hell is even going on if you've never had a feeding tube why can you tell me what I can and can't take into an exam you're not a doctor and this is again an issue that I have raised with special considerations within my own institution is I hand them across highlevel medical documentation and their lack of ability to understand it means that they deny my special considerations I wasn't why am I expected to be a doctor and explain high level medical stuff so it's for me putting a face to the problem I go in as a person that is disabled that has faced these issues and I show them what it does and by doing the comeback that I have done I found that making such a change has given weight to what I say because everyone knows that I have given 130% when I only had 85% to give and so when I turn around and say no you didn't do this right you screwed me over but I still did what I needed to do they're listening and so not everyone has the strength and tenacity to do that nor should they be expected to so I think it's finding those Champions amongst the challenges and sending them forth per se as the lamb to slaughter if you want to be a better of word because we need these people we need those we need the Champions amongst these challenges and so if you've got that experience and you've seen those challenges do not shut up don't sit down don't let them tell you how it should be when you know how it is awesome thank you is there any other questions yeah sh question for Jana sorry um would you be able to elaborate more on the like the uh International work program or the skills program to that you got um up on running at your University um so that was one of the many initiatives but that one was really successful so what we did was we contacted our career services and so that's a part of you know being a Student Association president is that you can you have the platform to now build strategic relationships with the key individual so I was um talking to the director for career services and I was just mentioning that you know it'll be cool to do something I have an idea I'm not sure whether we have the resources but I think I can also chip in some money you can chip in some money we can try to do something and um so what we did was then know Career Services usually has heaps of contacts with the industry different areas from aged care to retail to everything so they already have those contacts they because there are people within Career Services their literal job is just to talk to employers like literal job is just to talk to those employ I it's about tapping into those connections and um then we all sat together us um St Association uh Career Services stud aty which is like study New South girls um you know Victor I'm not sure but uh s Adela also is a or not for-profit government agency um that helps International students so we all sat together and international student services as well this is the plan what can we do so we ran through a design thinking session um and then we created a map and then over time a long-term strategy is to have personalized support for international students in the um Career Services but shortterm uh we'll do these um networking sessions or uh job like they were hiring like people were hiring on the spot as well so um there were some major industries that were very keen to high International students with aged care um a light health services and Retail um so those were the three major industries that was very keen to hire International students but also cash will work around like for example uh if there's like a major event event happening um in the in the city they will also be looking for casuals so the recruitment companies will also be looking for international it's it's about tapping into those connections creating an event such that you know it has an impact but also making sure that it runs every year yeah is this an initiative you think could go like National are you guys going to try and get it more like available to other International students across different streams or is this just for uni of SAA that you're with So currently we are funded by the student services and amenities fee um the you know all University students pay So currently it's only within Flinders because it's funded by the FAS fee so that's the issue but um I feel like if you see this issue anywhere in the student associations it'll be good to have a chat with the career services and see what kind of opportunities that can be you know looked into and also if you're doing food programs a lot of student unions will be doing food programs like emergency food assistance financial assistance make sure that it's visible and available for new students as well great thank you so much guys can everyone put their hands together these amazing people all honestly so amazing and so inspiring um and every time you know we meet with them I'm just more and more Blown Away Blown Away by your story so thank you so much