Closing the gap in tertiary education between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australians has been an explicit policy objective of the Commonwealth Government since the 1988 Hughes Report. Whilst progress on COAG Closing the Gap targets is mixed and there are profound gaps in Year 12 attainment and ATAR rates, we know that once Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students get to university, success rates are approaching those of non-Indigenous students. However, there is little research on how social capital, or networks and accessible resources, plays a part in the success of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in tertiary education.  This paper addresses that gap by exploring how social capital, and the mobility it indicates or enables, supports or inhibits the tertiary education experience for Indigenous students. The implications of this exploratory analysis are tentative, but support a shift in focus from measuring how few Indigenous students are obtaining undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications, towards the design principles and practices that support successful completion.

Dr Nikki Moodie is a Lecturer in Policy, Practice & Social Innovation at RMIT University.