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I have just been re-reading the final report for an Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching supported project – A collaborative multi-faceted approach to address the gaps between student expectation and experience at university (SSEE).

I first heard about this project during its dissemination phase when project team members presented findings through a workshop held at ECU in Western Australia. Over 16,000 students participated in the project via survey responses.

The findings are concerning and confirm what I have observed through my own teaching of students in their first year – that many struggled to adjust to university life. The project identified that this struggle may be related to students’ expectations of university not matching up with their actual experience after commencing their studies.

To me, some of the most interesting insights yielded by the study include:

• 70-80% of students reported that the standard of university work is different or extremely different to school work and less than 50% of students believed that secondary education adequately prepared them for university.
• There is a major discrepancy between expectations and reality in terms of formative feedback, with 94% of students expecting to be given feedback on drafts but only 24% receiving it.
• 80% of new students indicated that having a supportive group of friends at university was important but many found it difficult to establish friendships.
• Promoting awareness of the differences between school and university in senior secondary school could help students be better prepared for the transition.
• Some differences were found in the responses of students from public, Catholic, and Independent schools. For example, more students from public schools experienced the amount and standard of work at university as different to school, whereas Catholic school students were more likely to experience the level of independent learning as different. (Brinkworth et al, 2013)

This project took place between 2010 to 2012. Has the situation improved? I am now working to update my knowledge of this area through more recent literature. 

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

Office of Teaching and Learning. (2013). Student and staff expectations and experiences: Final report of the project A collaborative multi-faceted approach to address the gaps between student expectation and experience at university. Retrieved from http://fyhe.com.au/expectations/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CG9-1158_Adelaide_Brinkworth_Final-report_2013.pdf