Shaping the 21st century student experience at regional universities. Final report.
The Australian higher education system operates in an environment increasingly influenced by complex sociocultural, economic and political forces. As a demand-driven system, it offers choice and flexibility about what, where and how to study. However, census data show that participation and attainme...
| 要約: | The Australian higher education system operates in an environment increasingly influenced by complex sociocultural, economic and political forces. As a demand-driven system, it offers choice and flexibility about what, where and how to study. However, census data show that participation and attainment rates for bachelor-degree qualifications for people in inner regional, outer regional and remote areas continue to lag behind metropolitan areas. Furthermore, national data show that students enrolled in regional universities have higher attrition and lower completion rates than students who study in capital city universities. The poorer outcomes were a motivating concern for the project, which sought to thoroughly investigate the under-researched reasons underpinning the regional student experience using a three-stage research design. To investigate the many complex elements that influence the student experience, the project adopted a comprehensive framework of student engagement as its conceptual and analytical foundation (Kahu, 2014). In stage 1 of the project we used this framework to assess the types of information collected and determined that critical indicators that describe student experiences were missing from the existing national data sets. Stage 2 of the project sought to identify the unique features of the 21st century experiences of regional university students, and to reveal practices and insights not previously discovered. Stage 3 of the project focused on highlighting robust transferrable practices shown to improve the student experience, and to foreshadow emerging innovations and trends essential for strengthening the 21st century student experience. Stage 4 of the project refined and presented the five key findings, expressed as narratives about the 21st century student experience and their implications for practice. Additional Good practice guides for this project SP14-4602 are published below: 1. Focus the culture, policy and curriculum on engaging students. - 2. Aim to lessen access to challenges by increasing student engagement. - 3. Leverage quality teaching, staff engagement and student support to positively impact on student emotion. - 4. Programs which activate students’ motivation and self-efficacy assist in building identity and engagement. |
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| ISBN: | 9781760515034 (PDF) 9781760515041 (DOCX) 9781760515027 (print ed) 9781760515034 (PDF) 9781760515041 (DOCX) 9781760515027 (print ed) |
