A developmental evaluation of the University of South Australia’s Starting Strong program
Reports on a developmental evaluation undertaken of the University of South Australia’s Starting Strong program, funded via a 2025 ACSES Capacity Building Grant.
Reports on a developmental evaluation undertaken of the University of South Australia’s Starting Strong program, funded via a 2025 ACSES Capacity Building Grant.Reports on a developmental evaluation undertaken of the University of South Australia’s Starting Strong program, funded via a 2025 Read more
Author
MacGillivray, M., Smith, L., Weiler, T., Devis, D. & Leonard, S.N.
Published on
November 30, 2025
Read time
20
min
This evaluation report presents the initial formative evaluation of Starting Strong, a University of South Australia (UniSA) widening participation program delivered in the participatory student life stage as outlined in The Student Equity in Higher Education Evaluation Framework (SEHEEF) (Johnstone et al., 2021). The program is designed to provide an opportunity to address the norms and expectations anticipated of students within academic spaces of the university (Weiler, 2020).
The evaluation serves three key purposes:
1. To construct a clear and testable Theory of Change for the program along with the
assumptions on which it has been built.
2. To identify initial tensions and enablers in the program as indicators of the key relationships, activities and mediating factors that influence how the program operates in practice.
3. To inform ongoing program development through the use of evidence-informed insights and recommendations.
