Barriers Foster Children Are Facing To Tertiary Education

Many barriers stand in the way of a foster care leaver’s access to tertiary studies. Forty percent of the general population enter higher education upon graduation from high school, however the figures for foster care leavers are much lower at a shocking three percent. This is usually because of the lack of academic support for children in foster care, especially in lower socio-economic areas, where university is sometimes not an option. However, the Raising Expectations Project seeks to increase that statistic. 

We were joined by Naomi Tootell, Senior Research Officer atLa Trobe’s Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research, who is involved with the Raising Expectations Project.