Kelly Alford Director - Durack College
BIG
THE SHIFT
Receiving the news that you have been accepted into university is typically a very exciting time. For some it is affirmation that one’s hard work and dedication throughout secondary schooling, particularly Year 12, has paid dividends, while for others it is sheer relief that there is something concrete about one’s immediate future. They can now answer the dreaded question: ‘What are you doing next year?’ Starting university means new beginnings and marks a significant milestone in a young person’s life. Such milestones are bound to present challenges for some students and their families but for most it is an intimidating leap into the unknown. The abrupt shift from the controlled environment of school and family to an environment in which students are expected to accept personal responsibility for both academic and social aspects of their lives can create anxiety and distress, undermining their normal coping mechanisms. It is this dramatic departure from the familiar and comfortable that plays a significant role in a school leaver’s ability to transition to a new educational landscape. As such, there are some startling statistics around university course completion. According to Universities Australia’s July 2019 report, Higher Education: Facts and Figures, presently, the attrition rates for Australian public universities is 15 per cent but the ‘drop out’ rate for school-leavers in their first year of tertiary study is close to 20 per cent. They report the latest research that a current student has just a 42 per cent chance of completing their bachelor’s degree within four years, a 64 per cent chance of completion if one increases their time to six years and better again (74 per cent) if one wants to be at uni for nine years to complete a bachelor’s degree!
SUNATA 2
With just shy of 99 per cent of Year 12 St Margaret’s applicants receiving a university offer, the need to prepare them for a new and vastly different stage in their educational journey is real. Considering both this data and the current research regarding attrition and course completion rates, St Margaret’s has introduced some innovative programs and initiatives to assist girls prepare for the transition to tertiary education and to succeed with their chosen studies. Programs commence long before Year 12 and focus upon academic and social skills, both of which are known to be contributing factors in the successful transition to tertiary education.
With the highly successful implementation of the innovative and award-winning Academic Advising Program, students across the secondary school are not only learning how to receive and apply feedback for their current learning, they are honing critical life-long learning skills such as selfawareness and self-regulation. Like a university model, when girls are not with their advisor, they have a block of time to use appropriately. It provides them with the responsibility and freedom to practise skills of self-monitoring and selfregulation. One of the key differences between high school and university is the amount of independent learning required in higher education. Many subjects have minimal contact hours; one or two hourly lectures per day makes a marked change to having an eight-hour pre-organised school day. The problem of students being unprepared for the required level of autonomy has been highlighted in other countries. In the UK, 62 per cent of universities believe the ability to think and learn independently is missing from students, according to an annual admissions survey (2017) conducted by ACS International Schools, the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IB), and International Baccalaureate Schools and Colleges Association (IBSCA). When learning at school is so heavily structured, students can struggle with the unstructured, highly independent nature of university. Many degrees require students to find their own reading material or other sources to complete assignments, and, in general, young people are expected to take much more control over their own learning. Effective time-management, motivation and the ability to transfer their knowledge are examples of skills that girls are developing and refining throughout the academic advising process, setting them up to become effective and independent learners and better prepared to navigate life at university. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the reliance on routine, face to face contact with educators and peers, and the compulsory attendance of some classes were illuminated. With much of the structure surrounding university studies eroded by the crisis, students reported heightened difficulties in sustaining levels of motivation, and maintaining important connections with their lecturers and tutors as well as their classmates. A realisation that nothing substitutes for a face-to-face learning environment became glaringly apparent. Universities reported
