In considering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher degree completion rates in Australia, which (like Indigenous undergraduate completions) continue to be a concern, a number of explanations are offered. Such explanations identify student characteristics such as non-traditional educational backgrounds, mature age, and family and community responsibilities, in relation to whether Indigenous students are likely to successfully complete research degrees or not. Indigenous higher degree students are imagined as emerging, perhaps tentatively, from ‘the community’ to knock on the forbidding doors of academia. We argue that, contrary to this imagery, many such ‘students’ are already an integral part of the scholarly world, holding positions of considerable responsibility. Our own research reveals that those higher degree Indigenous students are often, in fact, our own academic colleagues. They are student academics (or academic students), simultaneously wearing two hats, and dealing with a correspondingly complex set of challenges. Our findings relating to academic workloads, career imperatives, and personal motivation are briefly analysed. We look forward to discussing these and related issues with other conference delegates.

Keywords: Indigenous academics, research, higher degree