Student perspectives on transitioning to university in South Australia: exploring skill needs identified by commencing enabling program students

Abstract

Widening university participation is arguably one of the largest changes occurring within the contemporary university (Biggs and Tang 2011); with many universities offering enabling programs to provide a supported transition to university for students from equity groups. In order to better inform enabling program curriculum, 2012 commencing students at UniSA College were surveyed to determine the skill needs they identified as important. These needs were compared to a known framework for university preparedness. There was found to be a significant match between the students’ identified skill needs and Conley’s framework (2008) with regard to academic literacy. However other enabling program student identified skill needs, such as personal development, community input, and career preparation, were not supported by the framework. The research concludes that a separate framework should be determined for enabling program student skill needs and that academics should engage in regular dialogue with students to develop curriculum which meets the specific needs of this growing cohort.