Research expertise

An award-winning educator and internationally recognised researcher, Sarah applies sociological perspectives to the study of higher education equity. Building upon Bourdieusian social theory, her institutional and nationally funded projects advance understanding of how under-represented student cohorts enact success within university, navigate transition into and through this environment, manage competing identities and negotiate aspirations for self and others. She has held numerous university leadership positions, which have directly informed changes across the Australian higher education sector, particularly in the field of educational equity.

Along with an extensive publication record, Sarah has been awarded nearly $AUD4 million in grant funding since 2009, also managing over $AUD10 million in Federal Government funding. She has conducted research across the UK and Europe collaborating with colleagues in numerous universities (E.g., University of Surrey; Manchester Met; Sheffield Hallam; Vienna University). Leadership in research is also demonstrated through regular invitations to speak internationally (n=16) and nationally (n=46) on educational equity issues, including 22 conference keynotes.

Educational equity and inclusion

Sarah’s ongoing commitment to the field of educational equity and inclusion is unquestionable: recognised by numerous awards and ongoing funding.

Internationally,she has been awarded a prestigious Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, with assessors commending efforts to ‘make a difference to the quality of the student learning experience…not only at your institution but both nationally and internationally.’ A Churchill Fellowship funded an international visit to the UK, Canada and the US to research best practice approaches to retaining students from marginalised backgrounds whilst a national equity fellowship enabled research on the vocational and industry outcomes for graduate students / alumni from a diversity of backgrounds.

In 2023 she was awarded a prestigious Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) Fellowship with Surrey University to interrogate conceptions of learning space and relational belonging for marginalised student cohorts.

Research impact

The impact of her work has been acknowledged by numerous awards and recognition at a national level including a Life-time Achievement Award for Contribution to Equity: ‘for impact on equity outcomes of students’ and more recently a National STARS Fellowship Award (2022) for ‘sustained national contributions to student equity policy and practice’.Throughout her career, Sarah has also worked to enhance the learning expertise and professional development of staff, students, and colleagues more broadly. This has included leading a HE Academy of Teaching and Learning Excellence (UOW), as well as engaging in female leadership activities designed to build the careers of early career academics.

A significant part of her ongoing research activities and leadership include effective translation of research into impact and policy change. For example, Sarah has contributed to the policy and practices related to post-graduate destinations of university students, her empirical work has informed a Career Development Hub for students with disability; best practices in careers advice for students from low socio-economic backgrounds and interrogation of how academic success is conceived by students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Alongside this, Sarah has nearly thirty years of teaching that spans all levels of education and convened the Adult, Vocational and Higher Education postgraduate programs for over a decade, whilst at University of Wollongong. As part of this role, she redesigned all course offerings and created pathways for students across programs, co-designed student support strategies and led various student mentoring programs to support learners as they transition into university.

Higher education research

Sarah’s expertise and contributions to the field of higher education research have also been recognised via various esteem factors. In terms of metrics, she has H-index of 35, with a quarter of publications in the top 10 per cent of journals worldwide (CiteScore) and a third in the top 10 percent most cited publications worldwide. She has nearly four times the citations per publication (27.6) compared to her closest discipline (Sociology and Political Science: 7.0) with an overall Field Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) of 2.38 compared to 1.07 for this discipline. She also regularly contributes to broader media via invited editorial (n=29), newspaper articles (n=15) as well commentary via blogs and, online events. However, notwithstanding these academic endeavours, Sarah regards her involvement in the establishment of an alternative high school for young people disengaged from schooling as one of her proudest career achievements, the school graduated its first Year 12 cohort in 2023.

Listen to Professor Sarah O’Shea’s interview conducted with Virginia Haussegger AM, an award-winning television journalist, writer and commentator. In this extract, Sarah discusses her focus on enriching the higher degree by research student journey, encouraging students from diverse backgrounds to take the higher degree by research pathway and, ensuring that Charles Sturt is known for widening participation in higher education.