La Trobe University > About learning and teaching > Student Success > School Partnerships Program

School Partnerships Program

Our Mission

The mission of the School Partnerships Program (SPP) is to bring awareness of higher education and its possibilities to first-in-family students and those from low SES communities across metropolitan and regional Victoria to enable them to consider higher education as a viable option as part of their future career plans. By providing students with a greater knowledge and understanding of what it means to go to university, we help students to develop informed aspirations and greater confidence in their ability to successfully participate and engage in higher education. The SPP is a Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP) funded initiative.

Inspiring aspiration towards higher education among students from diverse backgrounds.

Impact and Achievements

  • Program partners with 33 schools across Victoria and 2 flexible learning  centres
  • 74 SPP events held by end of may 2019
  • 3551 student attendances at SPP events by end of may 2019
  • 88% of teachers surveyed report that SPP activities helped students understand the value of attending university
  • 73% of students surveyed report that SPP events helped them feel more confident about going to university in the future
  • 39% of students surveyed report they are now more interested in going to university after attending an SPP activity/event

Student Feedback

Feedback from La Trobe students working as School Partnerships Facilitators:

“For me personally in high school I was never exposed to this sort of information that we’re providing student now and I never got the opportunity to have one on one time with university students to ask them questions and see their perspective from being previous high school students to uni students and what the transition was like for them.”  

“Also from the verbal feedback that we receive a lot of students who never considered going to university before the sessions end up considering by the end of the session. Because for them (and for me before) university is something scary and only very high achieving students could enter. So simplifying it for them really did make it an option for them. "