Don’t be afraid to give it a go, at the end of the day it will have been a great experience to have taken part in and you will find yourself more capable than you realise. In Australia university is extremely accessible to a diverse range of students and situations and it can be possible. (Grace)

When it comes to university, absolutely go for it if you are in that position because you won’t regret it at all. It’s a great opportunity to be able to see what else is there outside of your town and really try and spread your wings. There’s so many opportunities available at uni to meet new people and to try things that you may never have had the opportunity to before. Yeah, my advice would be to if you’ve got an idea or some kind of career path that you’d like to follow but you’re not sure, absolutely go for it (Cassie)

Just to do it. Stop thinking about it and just do it. That’s what I did. I acknowledge that there will be challenges and that there’s challenges in life anyway and the time is going to pass anyway – just do something. If you’re passionate about it, you’ll get it done and at the end of it, you’ll have a degree to be proud of. (Carly)

There’s a willingness by some of the students to want to work in remote areas and help people. And that’s non-Aboriginal students as well. So, there is that “closeness” with some of the students who really do have that interest (Colin, staff)

Resolve. Regional students aren’t likely to flip in and out of studies. Once they have committed to a degree they will most likely see it through. (Sharon)

I think they’re also tactile with their ideas and their focuses and I just find that they’re generally friendly people as well because they usually know everyone in the communities they live in (Freya)

I think just generally country kids are really friendly and I think that’s a really good thing, you know, happy to have a chat about any random thing and that’s something I’ve noticed (Bianca)

I found regional students are good with money; they don’t have disposable incomes, so they’re money type of smart because they’re having to budget more for, you know, travel and all that stuff. (Freya)

For some of the older students, there’s a real commitment to being a role model for their own kids and grandkids but also for the wider family and the wider community. They have a real pride and love of sharing their culture, a great sense of humour, and I think just a real hope in terms of real openness to connecting with good people, really loving and open, really thinking about the future and wanting to have a role in what that looks like for them (Alison, staff)

We are resilient, know what it’s like to truly struggle. I come from a farming background, so grew up helping parents work in paddocks. Taught me about hard work and respect for how lucky I am

Regional students have their own grit, they have their own determination to make it work and I think it’s because they know how to persist if something doesn’t work or if they get stuck on something, they know now to stick with it. And if they don’t know, they’re happy to ask and they know who to ask because they know us. But yeah, I think that resilience is definitely a big one.

Learning … it’s all ongoing and you’re never too old. (Colin, staff)