Abstract
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This nuts and bolts session will report on preliminary findings from
research currently being conducted with older, first-in-family university
students. This student cohort often has family commitments and so the
research was specifically interested in the impacts of returning to
education for both the students and their family members. The study is
significant because mature age/first-in-family students are often at risk of
attrition and they also represent a growing student cohort; hence higher
education institutions need to be actively engaging with this group to
improve retention and explore the possibilities for intergenerational
educational participation. This research has been funded under the
Office of Teaching and Learning Seed Grant initiative and is a
partnership study between University of Wollongong, University of
Newcastle and Open Universities Australia. The project is innovative, as
it not only focuses on the students’ experiences but also, more
significantly, their families in order to better conceptualise family
discourses around how knowledge and learning are negotiated.