A collaboration for impact evaluation of student equity programs across the Go8

This is a final report from a 2025 ACSES Capacity Building Grant project led by The University of Melbourne with Group of Eight (Go8) institutions: The University of Melbourne, The University of Adelaide, Monash University, The University of New South Wales, The University of Western Australia, The University of Queensland, and Australian National University.

The initiative enhanced evaluation capability and practices of equity programs by developing a strong partnership for knowledge sharing about current evaluation approaches, findings from existing evaluation processes, and learnings from undertaking evaluations. The programs that this initiative focused on were:

• academic preparation programs (both pre- and post-enrolment)
• first-year transition programs for targeted student cohorts.

The report details the initiative’s work to:

1. share the design of the focus initiative via a Program Logic Model (PLM);
2. discuss approaches and insights from existing continuous quality improvement (CQI) processes
3. produce an action plan for an impact evaluation of the chosen equity initiative (packed scholarships) into 2026.

An accessible Word doc is available here: A collaboration for impact evaluation of student equity programs across the Go8.