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The Class of 2007
10 November 2007
Every second year, we have been conducting a major survey of first year students to supplement our knowledge on what the new student population looks like and whether it’s different to the cohorts that came before. Around 1200 students completed the survey this year and there were some surprising results that reinforce just how much change is taking place in the University community.
As could be expected for a region that didn’t have a university until 1996, the majority of our students have come from families with no prior history of studying at university. The figure is 52 per cent of the current year. We are proud of this first-in-family tradition and it is a feature of how the University profiles itself with governments and the community. It also guides our approach to student support services on campus and programs such as Headstart that provides high school students with a University experience, or Keep PACE that informs families about the University.
With this year’s survey we were able to look at the characteristics of the non-first-in-family students. For the students who indicated a member of their family had attended university in the past, USC was the most commonly identified institution, accounting for 22 percent of respondents. Our alumni, now numbering around 5000, are clearly engaging their own families with the USC experience. We could expect this figure to grow steadily in the years ahead.
Another 28 percent of students had family connections with Brisbane based universities but had chosen to study at USC. The expanding range of degree programs available here over the last few years probably explains much of this pattern. In particular, the introduction of professional programs in areas such as social work, regional and urban planning, teaching and nursing has attracted many students who otherwise would have moved to Brisbane to study, as their siblings or parents had presumably done. Another factor here would be the movement of people from Brisbane to the Coast to work and live.
There is, of course, rapid population growth in our region and a substantial proportion of this is linked to migration from other parts of Australia and indeed overseas. For new arrivals, the reputation of the local university will be the key determinant of whether or not they choose to study there. With regard to this, it is gratifying to witness the growing profile of USC in the national rankings as a provider of quality education.
The educational profile of our region is changing quite rapidly and the University’s first-in-family statistic will be a useful measure of how things evolve.
Professor Greg Hill is Acting Vice-Chancellor at the University of the Sunshine Coast.