The massification and diversification of the student population who enters university has become a challenge for Higher Education institutions. A better consideration of this diversity could help to gain a greater understanding of students' achievement process, and this requires observing situations where this diversity is substantial. Thus, in…

Considering the importance of digital skills in university education, this article reports on a study which examined access to technology among first year students at a rural South African university. The study focused on the digital readiness of students prior to their admission to the university, since many universities provide access to…

Disciplines such as Geography are well placed to respond to the changing needs of society and the effective application of geographical knowledge to real-world problems. This project surveyed first year Geography undergraduates' understanding of "What is Geography?", both before and after an exercise in which geographic topics were…

In spite of sustained efforts tertiary institutions implement to try and improve student academic performance, the number of students succeeding in first-year mathematics courses remains disturbingly low. For most students, the gap between their mathematical capability and the competencies they are expected and need to develop to function…

This study aims to describe the language learning backgrounds of Turkish pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) with reference to their perceived language competence and satisfaction with perceived speaking ability. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a questionnaire that was administered to 365 first-year…

Supplemental Instruction (SI) can be an efficient way of improving student success in difficult courses. Here, a study is made on SI attached to difficult first-year engineering courses. The results show that both the percentage of students passing a difficult first-year engineering course, and scores on the course exams are considerably higher…

An online Maths Skills Site was developed as an integrated support programme for first year Chemistry students, the content of which, was based on an analysis of their high-school mathematical backgrounds. This study examined the students' perceptions of Maths, their patterns of usage of the Maths Skills Site and whether there was a relationship…

Health Science students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal perform better in their professional modules compared with their physiology modules. The pass rates of physiology service modules have steadily declined over the years. While a system is in place to identify "at-risk" students, it is only activated after the first semester. As a…

While leadership development is considered an important goal of education on many campuses, very little is known about how leadership skills develop in a diverse environment, which most colleges will be in the future. We compare causes for Socially Responsible Leadership (SRL) at the end of college students' first year in one diverse liberal arts…

This paper is a summary of a small-scale research project carried out to investigate the transition from A-level to university physics, with a specific focus on practical or laboratory skills. A brief description of the methods used precedes the headline findings of the research. A non-evidential discussion of the possible reasons behind any…

This paper presents a prospective study aimed at identifying the predictors of academic achievement among first-year university students. It tries to develop an inclusive view of academic achievement by taking into account the possible differential impact of several predictors in two different faculties of the university. Some 317 university…

Introduction: The study seeks to answer two questions: How do university students learn to use correct strategies to conduct scholarly information searches without instructions? and, What are the differences in learning mechanisms between users at different cognitive levels? Method: Two groups of users, thirteen first year undergraduate students…

Based on a cognitive motivational process model of learning, the impact of studying behavior on learning outcome is investigated. First-year students (N = 488) participated in the study. Two research questions were addressed: (1) Can cognitive-motivational variables and objective study behavior predict individual learning? (2) Which factors drive…

This study examines university students' pre-university exposure to extra-curricular English instruction in tutorial or other private supplementary institutions in Korea and abroad. A questionnaire and an in-depth interview were administered to forty-three freshman students enrolled in a foreign language program at a comprehensive university in…

The main objective of our study is to determine the challenges faced during the process of teaching Computer Science in a university of a country in transition and make suggestions to improve this teaching process by perfecting the necessary conditions. Our survey builds on the thesis that we live in an information age; information technology is…