What Barriers Prevent Foundation Year Students from Attending Academic Support Sessions and How Might These be Overcome?
Abstract
Engaging students at all levels of Higher Education (HE) study with the different aspects of university life is vital to ensure they can get the most out of their time at university. One crucial area that underpins success at university is mastery of academic skills, such as assignment planning and critical thinking, and engaging students with this throughout their time at university must be considered a priority. This study puts into context engagement from Foundation Year (FY) students with taught skills sessions, and draws upon the views of both FY students and staff in order to make pragmatic suggestions for ways that practice may be improved to become more inclusive and promote student engagement with academic skills sessions and resources. Online questionnaires were sent to all FY students and teaching staff at the university in order to gather both quantitative and qualitative data in relation to student engagement with academic skills support. Results highlighted the need for greater visibility of the Skills Centre for students to be more aware of the sessions and resources on offer. The research contributes to the wider understanding about how to further engage FY students and makes recommendations about how engagement may be improved.