Flinders University

AUSSE - The Australasian Survey of Student Engagement "is developed and managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and was designed to stimulate evidence-focused conversations about students' engagement in university study."

FYE Curriculum Design Symposium with keynote speakers Professor Vincent Tinto, Distinguished University Professor; Bill Johnston, Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement; and Professor Sally Kift, ALTC Senior Fellow, Queensland University of Technology and is intended to support the sharing of information, networking and dissemination of practice related to FYE Curriculum Design.

Kerri-Lee Krause has written extensively on the experience of first year students. Many of her publications are available online from her publications website at Griffith University.

The National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) is a research centre established to facilitate the study of student equity policy and practice in Australian higher education and in related fields, and to lead the development of new knowledge in these fields. The centre is funded by the Australian Government's Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and is hosted by the University of South Australia within the Hawke Research Institute.

The FYHE website provides details of and access to a range of materials related to the First Year in Higher Education including

the Pacific Rim FYHE conference site where details of current conferences are made available and papers from past conferences may be accessed;
details of the International Journal of First Year in Higher Education are available, and
information about the transition pedagogy may be accessed.

The first year experience in Australian universities: Findings from 1994 - 2009
The study examines the experiences of first year university students from 1994 to 2009 and tracks the changng social and academic experiences of first year students studying at Australian universities. It reports on university responses to issues such as transition, support, engagement, teaching and curriculum.

Over a ten year period and reports on six key areas including aspirations, change and uncertainty in the first year; student expectations and adjustments to university study; engaging with learners and learning at university; managing commitments in the first year; perceptions of teaching and satisfaction with courses; and the first year experience of significant student groups. An important finding of the report is that the 2004 respondents continued to rate both interest-related and job-related reasons as important in their decisions to enrol in university study together with an increased sense of purpose. The respondents also revealed a greater clarity about occupational aspirations compared with their peers from 1994 and 1999 and were less likely to have come to university directly from school.

Flinders University

Further resources and reading

Further reading