Dr Brenda Holt, whose PhD thesis has just won the University of Melbourne’s prestigious Chancellor’s Prize (Social Sciences), found that by the early years of secondary school most students have already decided whether or not they will go to university.

Rather than focusing recruitment efforts on students in years 11 and 12 in low socio-economic areas, universities will be more likely to meet their own and government access targets if they start working with students from year 7 upwards, she says.

Dr Holt, who studied in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and is Chief of Staff at the University’s Trinity College, says universities need to partner with under-represented schools much earlier.

"Making information available to under-represented students about ‘access places’ is fantastic, but the range of potential students could really be enhanced if we were able to recruit students who wouldn’t have otherwise considered university," she says.

"Young people construct narratives about themselves from a relatively early age and if that narrative doesn’t involve going to university very little can be done to change the student’s mind once they are in year 11 or 12, no matter how bright they are.

"My research also indicates a tendency to over-emphasise the effect of finances in this debate; the decision to leave a community and go to university is actually very complex. Finance is simply a hurdle to be overcome, rather than a make-or-break factor. More importantly, leaving home, family and community requires a very strong individual who is quite used to the idea of mobility."

Dr Holt’s thesis examined the narratives of rural women who studied at the University of Melbourne. She will receive the Chancellor’s Prize (which recognises the four best doctoral theses each academic year in the categories of: humanities and creative arts; social sciences; science and engineering, and medicine) tonight (Tuesday 27th October).