Is success a matter of choice? Exploring indigenous Australian notions of success within the context of the Australian university

This thesis is a study of success within an academic institution, a study of success from an Indigenous perspective. The study represents an educational journey that provided a site for the Aboriginal re'searcher to extrapolate knowledge and understanding from a range of eeducational intersections with her Indigenous and non-Indigenous informants as well as with the literature. The study was designed both to enable the researcher to gain a deeper insight into the reality of the university experience for Indigenous Australian students and to clarify Indigenous perceptions of success within the context of university studies. In examining these issues, the researcher sought to determine the degree of choice Indigenous Australians felt able to exercise in their engagement within the academe and the degree of compatibility between what Indigenous peoples want from their university education and what Australian universities and the Commonwealth Government expect of them. <br><br>The research findings indicate that, for those Indigenous Australians who participated in this study, perceptions of success within the context of university education are much broader than those associated with the Commonwealth Government's current focus on completion (of subjects andlor course), likely reflecting the respondents' preference for adopting an holistic approach in considering their university experience. While completion was seen as an important goal, respondents did indicate a concern with their overall quality of life, especially in terms of their desire to achieve greater control over their own lives through the educational process. This study revealed how, having developed the knowledge and skills they needed to engage in tertiary studies, these stuctent respondents had come to realise that they were increasingly able to use that process to establish their own sense of place; to draw upon their own strengths in both a personal and professional sense, in order to achieve the ooutcomes they sought from their university experience - outcomes that better prepared them to make more effective life choices.