About and within enabling learning contexts: student perspectives of the Monash Access Program

This paper explores student experiences in the learning context of an enabling program at an Australian university. Access and equity have long been policy goals and institutional ambitions in Australian universities. Enabling programs are an institutional response to bringing in those who otherwise would not have the opportunity to attend university. In this paper, we present findings from a qualitative study that explores how students who participated in the Monash Access Program negotiate and reconcile the idea of university study with the actualities of becoming a university student. Pedagogies in enabling programs are organised around supporting students to develop the capabilities to know themselves as learners and to experience connections to a learning community and thus, the institution. This paper, drawing on research into student experiences in such programs, illuminates the component characteristics of such an enabling pedagogy.