industry & research campusreview. com. au
Studying with conviction
Educating prisoners makes them less likely to re-offend.
By Loren Smith
At a glance, Robert Buckley doesn’ t seem that atypical for a student. He is mature-aged, having only commenced study after a career in the army, and has almost completed a five-year double degree in engineering and business. Buckley’ s striking difference, however, is that he began studying while behind bars.
“ I was serving in the army in 2011 when I went through a psychological breakdown. One thing led to another, and I ended up in prison.“ It certainly wasn’ t planned,” he chuckles. After finishing the prison’ s“ very basic” education offering within six months, he wondered what he could do next. A relatively high achiever at school, he discovered he could commence a degree with the University of Southern Queensland( USQ) by correspondence, through its Making the Connection project. Prisoners aren’ t allowed access to the internet, so Making the Connection delivers study materials to them in 39 prisons in Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory via secure servers and laptops.
Buckley initially chose to study engineering. Now, five years later, he’ s served his sentence and has one year of his combined degree left. He studies at USQ while working in an engineering and compliance role at a defence contractor company.
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