AIME is an Indigenous mentoring program; however, it is not a university pathway or outreach program. AIME is a not-for-profit organisation that is independent of universities and so is uniquely positioned to work across educational institutions. The purpose of the AIME program is to support Indigenous students to complete high school and transition to any positive post-school pathway of their choosing (including university, further education or employment). For information about this program, please visit AIME Mentoring.  

Following one internally funded project at UOW and an evaluation of the AIME outreach program (DEEWR, 2012-13), AIME negotiated with the Federal Government for a grant to be allocated to the research team at UOW (AIME Partnership Grant).  In allocating this funding, DEEWR commented positively on the approach adopted in the previous evaluation, which incorporated liaison with Indigenous Australian researchers.  In 2013, a proposal for funding to the ARC was submitted and we were successful in winning funding for the Discovery Project Mentoring and Indigenous Higher Education: Understanding how university students mentor Indigenous school students (Harwood, Chandler, & O’Shea).

Details of the outputs, capacity building and achievements are detailed here.