1 Foundations for change, confidence, and new opportunities: impacts of a university enabling program in north-west Tasmania, refereed paper Foundations for change, confidence, and new opportunities: impacts of a university enabling program in north-west Tasmania Nicole Crawford, Susan Johns, Lynn Jarvis, Cherie Hawkins, Mike Harris and David McCormack Division of Students and Education, University of Tasmania Abstract University enabling programs develop students’ academic skills and understandings of the academic culture and environments, facilitating students’ transition into undergraduate courses. In addition to confirming these short-term benefits of enabling programs, this research explored the medium and longer-term impacts of the University of Tasmania’s University Preparation Program (UPP). Past cohorts of successful UPP students from 1996 to 2007, in north-west Tasmania, were targeted. The study used a mixed methods approach, with surveys (quantitative) and interviews (qualitative). The findings are described in terms of three inter- related layers: foundations for change, confidence, and new opportunities. Developing academic skills and an understanding of the new culture led to students developing confidence, which empowered them to undertake undergraduate studies; this step, in turn, flowed on to further new opportunities, such as employment and leadership roles. This study illustrates that enabling programs are a transition strategy with multiple benefits, especially for students from under-represented backgrounds. Keywords Enabling program; preparation program; bridging course; transition to university; academic skills; confidence; transformation; leadership; regional education Introduction Enabling programs 1 have been operating in universities in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA for several decades, in some cases, and for only a few years in others. They provide a pathway to university, especially for students from under- represented backgrounds. In Australia, enabling programs play an important role in regional areas where educational attainment in secondary school and participation in higher education are low. The University of Tasmania’s (UTAS) Cradle Coast campus in Burnie is located on the north-west coast of Tasmania, an area with some of the lowest levels of educational attainment in Australia. In this region, university participation is significantly lower than state and national averages; for example, the percentage of the labour force with a university-level qualification is 8.7% in the north-west region, 14.3% in Tasmania, and 18.8% Australia-wide (ABS, 2011). The 1 Enabling programs are also known as bridging courses, access programs, transition programs, preparation programs, and foundation courses.