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Staff adapting to changing needs of students
13 June 2009
Every year at the University there is a colloquium on how we need to adapt our learning and teaching techniques to changing needs of students. The day attracted over 170 people this week and there were representatives from other S.E. Qld universities as well as USC staff.
I attended three sessions where USC staff were reporting on their different research projects, with all of them throwing up challenging insights into the motivations, perceptions, and experiences of students, both school leavers and mature aged, as well as across the years of a degree program.
For school leavers in particular, there is often a huge transition to be made between the way a school works as opposed to the relative independence that is the status of most adult students. Many students benefit from structured advice from sympathetic tutors, but many remain reluctant to seek such advice. Developing assignment work along with time management loom as significant problems, according to the researchers.
Not surprisingly, the financial necessity to work part-time impedes good study patterns, and students face exacting demands, often from varied and frequent assignment tasks. It is a balancing act between study and part-time work for most students.
Being first-in-family to university, is also a huge issue for some students who have benefited from the support of their families in getting to university, but then do not fully understand the issues they face when at university, to continue the support.
These are just some examples of the way in which lecturers are genuinely coming to terms with students’ circumstances and what their preferences are for how they study, whilst always maintaining standards expected of a degree program.
It is these staff-led projects that are ensuring USC is going to be well placed for the sectoral expansion that is forecast, and when so many of those new students will require legitimate support, flexibilities in the way they study, and an understanding of their personal circumstances, because the student body is set to diversify more than ever before.
Professor Paul Thomas AM is Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of the Sunshine Coast.