In many countries, girls are outperforming boys in educational outcomes. In Australia, gender issues emerge among male learners, which offer challenging and new ways of approaching pedagogy and assessment tasks. Collaborative learning partnerships can identify problems in higher education and future assessment strategies will need to be sympathetic to male learning. Despite the success of the majority of students attending Victorian schools, data illustrate that male learning outcomes are below those of females and not all students make a successful transition within years, between years, between school and university as well as to the workplace. School retention rates are declining, despite a period of dramatic growth in secondary school completion in Australia. Male participation rates in schools are falling below female rates and males are early school leavers at twice the female rate. Young people should be assured of the opportunity to engage and succeed in a social setting that is increasingly promoting lifelong learning. Government responses to change the trends rely on collaborative partnerships of education, training and employer networks to prevent youth falling through the gaps. However, the north-east provides particular difficulties in overcoming present trends.

Keywords: gender; collaborative learning; higher education