Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Australian universities, and academic language and learning (ALL) staff, are currently facing the challenges associated with increasing the “participation rate of students from disadvantaged backgrounds to 20 % of all undergraduate students by 2020 ” (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent, & Scales, 2008, p. xiv). Concern about student persistence and success are prompting whole institution approaches to transition support. Sometimes, however, a smaller, more focussed, transition program is required. This paper reports on an early intervention introduced by ALL staff on one campus in one division at the University of South Australia (UniSA) for a cohort that includes many students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. The paper argues that ALL advisers need to ensure that they position themselves to meet these challenges and influence and effect institutional change through communicating the innovative nature of their work and the difference it makes to the experience of students adapting to university study. Key Words: first year experience, retention and success, early intervention, innovation, academic language and learning advisers.
Author: Helen Mary Johnston
Institution: University of South Australia
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2169522764