Every day, prison inmate Nathan wakes up inside his small jail cell and looks ahead to another day as a university student.

Key points: Inmates, whether they are studying or not, have no internet access

Inmates, whether they are studying or not, have no internet access Research questions are submitted via corrections officers

Research questions are submitted via corrections officers Studies have found prison education programs are central to reducing reoffending

Before he was sentenced for drug dealing, he worked in the mining industry in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

Since late 2016, he has been an inmate at the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison, where he is studying for a bachelor's degree in business and economics.

The 40-something-year-old does not worry about being late for lectures or even what to wear to class each morning.

Instead, disruptions usually come in the form of security lockdowns, or the prison officer strike that saw about 50 prison staff walk off the job in January.

With no internet access, he conducts research through a corrections officer — a cumbersome process where he submits a list of areas of interest and waits patiently for the results.

Sometimes they are not what he needs, and so the process starts again.

"To be honest, I initially thought that studying in prison would be easier because of the amount of time," he said. "But it turns out that it's radically more difficult."

At the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison, two thirds of inmates are enrolled in education courses. ( ABC Goldfields: Tom Joyner )

At the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison, 251 inmates (or two-thirds) are enrolled in education courses, most of them TAFE certificates ranging from horticulture to sport.

Nathan was the first at the prison to enrol in a university degree through a program tailored for incarcerated students around the country.

It is offered through a partnership between the state's corrections department and the University of Southern Queensland.

A laptop with course materials pre-loaded onto it is provided by the university, and an education officer from the prison provides individual support where needed.

In spite of the difficulties, the program has left an immense impression on Nathan, who is using it to plan his life after release.

This semester, he has begun a unit on microeconomics and admitted he has "really been taken by it".

"I wasn't in a good place when I came to prison, and this has given me the motivation to start something new," he said.

'You can't teach them like you do children'

Nathan, a white man, is one of four university students at Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison, two of whom are Indigenous.

In Western Australia, Indigenous people are incarcerated at the highest rate of any state or territory in the country.

More than half of total students in education programs at the prison are Indigenous.

The largest cohort of students are Aboriginal men, many of whom come from the remote Ngaanyatjarra Lands, an area the size of Syria and the country's largest native title determination.

"There are just all these gaps that you're filling in [the prisoners' education]," said Leonie Whyte, a former school teacher who runs the prison's education program.

Head of education at Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison Leonie Whyte is a former school teacher. ( ABC Goldfields: Tom Joyner )

"You can't teach them like you do children because they come to you with a whole lot of experiences children don't."

Many are missing the literacy in English and computer skills that are required for tertiary education, so the prison offers basic education classes too.

"They talk about closing the gap. Well the more that's done online, the more the gap is open," Ms Whyte said.

"Not a lot of the fellows here have really come across computers because they're out in the [Ngaanyatjarra] Lands, they're out in the bush."

Across Western Australia, there are 132 prisoners currently enrolled in university studies; 10 of them are Aboriginal.

The Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison began offering university programs 20 years ago, but its first enrolment was in 2015, according to the Department of Justice.

"Staff work towards assisting prisoners to acquire, develop, practise and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to take responsible control of their own lives," a spokesperson said.

Incarcerated students often perform well

Prison educator Ange Leech with inmates who take part in a music education program that encourages them to record an entire album. ( ABC Goldfields: Tom Joyner )

Researchers have long pointed to prison education programs as central to reducing reoffending and improving inmates' reintegration into society after release.

Incarcerated students often make better progress than non-incarcerated students, said Stephen Seymour, who coordinates prison education programs at USQ.

Mr Seymour met Nathan on a visit to the Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison in 2017.

"[Nathan was] very enthusiastic. It's encouraging for us as educators to hear that student is continuing in his studies," he said.

But without access to internet, study can be a very difficult proposition, according to the president of the Australasian Corrections Education Association Ray Chavez.

"It's actually an international [issue]. Getting access to the internet for prisoners is quite problematic," said Mr Chavez, who also works for the WA Department of Corrective Services.

"They're worried about prisoners getting access and not using it for the reasons that they're supposed to."

But Mr Chavez said attitudes towards prisoner education have come a long way since he first began working in the area 30 years ago.

"It used to be a flat out no. Basically, it's too much of a security risk. But as time has gone on, [things have changed]."

As for Nathan, the inmate at Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison, if it was not for his imprisonment 20 years later, he said he may not have given it another shot.

"That's the crazy thing. Coming here has been a blessing in a way, because it has given me the opportunity to start something I'll finish now," he said.

"Look at the benefits of a dollar spent on rehabilitation versus a dollar spent on incarceration and how that affects an economy."