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Learning Journeys

The report Learning Journeys:Student Experience in Further and Higher Education in Scotland looks at how students choose what and where to study their experiences of studying and their transitions between different levels of study as well as their hopes for the future. The findings are based on a survey of over 1 600 college undergraduate and postgraduate students in Scotland.

The research shows a majority of students reported positive experiences in college and university but highlights some key issues.

Key findings are:

  • Students from more 'deprived' backgrounds reported feeling less confident to play an active role in their education and were less likely to feel they were achieving their full potential;
  • Students on 'direct-entry' routes to university [entering university in second year of a degree or later] were the group of university students most likely to have found settling into studying at university challenging and reported issues fitting in with other students and difficulty adjusting to different ways of learning and teaching;
  • Negative perception of college or university may be affecting students' choices in education: college students reported they felt university would be impersonal difficults and intimidating while university students reported they saw college more as a 'back-up' plan or somewhere students would go if they didn't get the grades for university;
  • Both college and university students felt that university was seen as the 'normal' option after school or a superior option to college.
learning_journeys_2013_0.pdf
07/10/2013
learning_journeys_2013_0.pdf View Document

The materials published on this page were originally created by the Higher Education Academy.