scholarly journals Ignorance is risk: An exploratory investigation of students’ perceptions of their education–employment pathways

Author(s):  
Edward Lock ◽  
Kate Kelly

The widely held view that higher education constitutes a gateway to employment has underpinned the dramatic widening of access to university in recent decades. However, globalisation and technological development have complicated the task of enhancing the employability of students, as the future world of work has become ever-more dynamic and unpredictable. Given such conditions, the delivery of employability teaching has become a central focus of many higher education providers (HEPs). To meet their responsibilities, HEPs must understand how students perceive their respective courses in relation to the employment pathways that they seek to follow. The present study aimed to gain an understanding of prospective students’ perceptions regarding this, but also to evaluate the accuracy of these perceptions. Because some course types are more narrowly vocational than are others, a subsidiary aim was to investigate whether or not student expectations and knowledge varied depending on course-type. The findings gathered from 462 students enrolled into a wide range of courses at 15 Australian universities were profound. They highlight that, while most students commence university with a career goal in mind, many have a poor understanding of the education-employment pathways on which they have embarked. Students demonstrated a limited understanding of the careers to which their courses might lead, and of the relevance of postgraduate study to their chosen career goals. These findings varied significantly across different course-types. Overall, these findings highlight the need for HEPs to educate their students explicitly about the education-employment pathways that are available to them.

Author(s):  
Edward Lock ◽  
Kate Kelly

The widely held view that higher education constitutes a gateway to employment has underpinned the dramatic widening of access to university in recent decades. However, globalisation and technological development have complicated the task of enhancing the employability of students, as the future world of work has become ever-more dynamic and unpredictable. Given such conditions, the delivery of employability teaching has become a central focus of many higher education providers (HEPs). To meet their responsibilities, HEPs must understand how students perceive their respective courses in relation to the employment pathways that they seek to follow. The present study aimed to gain an understanding of prospective students’ perceptions regarding this, but also to evaluate the accuracy of these perceptions. Because some course types are more narrowly vocational than are others, a subsidiary aim was to investigate whether or not student expectations and knowledge varied depending on course-type. The findings gathered from 462 students enrolled into a wide range of courses at 15 Australian universities were profound. They highlight that, while most students commence university with a career goal in mind, many have a poor understanding of the education-employment pathways on which they have embarked. Students demonstrated a limited understanding of the careers to which their courses might lead, and of the relevance of postgraduate study to their chosen career goals. These findings varied significantly across different course-types. Overall, these findings highlight the need for HEPs to educate their students explicitly about the education-employment pathways that are available to them.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-27
Author(s):  
Gurmak Singh ◽  
◽  
John O'Donoghue ◽  
Harvey Worton ◽  
◽  
...  

The Internet is a technological development that has the potential to change not only the way society retains and accesses knowledge but also to transform and restructure traditional models of higher education, particularly the delivery and interaction in and with course materials and associated resources. Utilising the Internet to deliver eLearning initiatives has created expectations both in the business market and in higher education institutions. Indeed, eLearning has enabled universities to expand on their current geographical reach, to capitalise on new prospective students and to establish themselves as global educational providers. This paper examines the issues surrounding the implementation of eLearning into higher education, including the structure and delivery of higher education, the implications to both students and lecturers and the global impact on society.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Moeniera Moosa ◽  
Dale Langsford

Prospective students have both expectations and anxieties about what their imminent university experiences might entail. In this study, we compare first-year students' expectations with their experiences of being included and excluded while settling into university life. Our participants in this qualitative phenomenological research study were 322 first-year students. We use insights from social and pedagogic inclusion to critique Tinto's (1983) model of the transition of students from schooling to higher education settings. The findings indicate that participants experienced mastery of knowledge, procedures, and structures of the institution as a point of exclusion almost 8% more than they expected. The participants also experienced personal disposition and relationships to be a point of exclusion 24% less than they expected. We recommend that university orientation programmes place more focus on the academic expectations of university since this was an aspect on which participants did not focus much. In addition, these findings also have implications for how universities conceptualise and implement the move to online learning which is often viewed as the solution to increasing access to higher education.


Author(s):  
Sarah Parkes

AbstractSince the Widening Participation (WP) policy of the New Labour Government (1997-2010) and the increased market-like environment created by raised tuition fees, institutions are increasingly focusing significant effort on enhancing the student experience in order both to retain existing students as well as competitively market themselves to prospective students (Brown, 2011; Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 2011; Thomas, 2012). Pre-entry activities that include Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG), supporting social and academic integration, managing student expectations and encouraging the development of appropriate academic study skills (Gorard et al., 2006; Crabtree et al., 2007) have thus been utilised to engage new learners in the experience of Higher Education (HE), with the potential to influence their progression and retention once on-programme (Thomas, 2002; 2011; Yorke and Thomas, 2003; Thomas and Quinn, 2006; Thomas and Jamieson Ball, 2011). Thomas (2011, p.45) suggests that evidence does indeed indicate that such pre-entry interventions ought to influence retention and progression yet it is still not clear how such interventions affect a student’s experience of HE.Drawn from interviews conducted in 2012, this paper discusses the experiences of students participating in HEADstart; a two week pre-entry blended learning course at Newman University, Birmingham. Using notions of belonging, this thematic analysis explores the extent to which participation supports the early formation of a sense of belonging in HE, which is a key element to successful student progression and success (Thomas, 2012).


JCSCORE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-41
Author(s):  
Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero

Race has been one of the most controversial subjects studied by scholars across a wide range of disciplines as they debate whether races actually exist and whether race matters in determining life, social, and educational outcomes. Missing from the literature are investigations into various ways race gets applied in research, especially in higher education and student affairs. This review explores how scholars use race in their framing, operationalizing, and interpreting of research on college students. Through a systematic content analysis of three higher education journals over five years, this review elucidates scholars’ varied racial applications as well as potential implicit and explicit messages about race being sent by those applications and inconsistencies within articles. By better understanding how race is used in higher education and student affairs research, scholars can be more purposeful in their applications to reduce problematic messages about the essentialist nature of race and deficit framing of certain racial groups.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1329878X2110058
Author(s):  
Neil Selwyn ◽  
Chris O’Neill ◽  
Gavin Smith ◽  
Mark Andrejevic ◽  
Xin Gu

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen the rapid but sometimes controversial take-up of ‘online examination proctoring’ systems by universities keen to maintain their assessment schedules during times of campus closure. Following the theoretical tradition of media ‘domestication’, this article examines the mainstream adoption of different online proctoring systems in Australian higher education during the first year of the pandemic. Through analysis of interviews, documents, news, social media and marketing materials, the article examines the ‘appropriation’, ‘objectification’, incorporation’ and ‘conversion’ of proctoring technology from the perspective of commercial providers, university authorities, university staff and student groups. This raises a number of critical issues underpinning the adoption of this exam surveillance technology – not least the surrender of control to commercial providers, the hidden labour required to sustain ‘automated’ systems and the increased vulnerabilities of ‘remote’ studying.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097215092110153
Author(s):  
Sudhir Rana ◽  
Amit Kumar Singh ◽  
Shubham Singhania ◽  
Shubhangi Verma ◽  
Moon Moon Haque

The present study revisits the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice (FIT-Choice) framework and explores what motivates business management academicians in teaching virtually. The revisit is based on a quantitative cross-sectional research design using 256 responses collected from in-service business management academicians teaching post-graduate business courses in India, through a structured questionnaire. The exercise of revisiting the FIT-Choice framework in the context of virtual teaching in business management courses led us to find four new variables, that is, task demand and expert career, teaching efficacy, knowledge assimilation and institutional utility value, as well as suggest revising teaching and learning experience, task returns and values. The results reveal that some additional factors motivating business academicians are teaching efficacy, content expertise, learning of new technology, futuristic growth and opportunities, alternative career opportunities and personal branding. The study provides suggestions to the apex bodies, regulators of higher education and institutions to take a call on motivational and influential factors while drafting the job requirements in business schools. Finally, the study emphasizes the importance of infrastructural and technological development required to be achieved by higher education institutions.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1537
Author(s):  
Aneta Saletnik ◽  
Bogdan Saletnik ◽  
Czesław Puchalski

Raman spectroscopy is one of the main analytical techniques used in optical metrology. It is a vibration, marker-free technique that provides insight into the structure and composition of tissues and cells at the molecular level. Raman spectroscopy is an outstanding material identification technique. It provides spatial information of vibrations from complex biological samples which renders it a very accurate tool for the analysis of highly complex plant tissues. Raman spectra can be used as a fingerprint tool for a very wide range of compounds. Raman spectroscopy enables all the polymers that build the cell walls of plants to be tracked simultaneously; it facilitates the analysis of both the molecular composition and the molecular structure of cell walls. Due to its high sensitivity to even minute structural changes, this method is used for comparative tests. The introduction of new and improved Raman techniques by scientists as well as the constant technological development of the apparatus has resulted in an increased importance of Raman spectroscopy in the discovery and defining of tissues and the processes taking place in them.


1973 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-304
Author(s):  
Daymon W. Thatch ◽  
William L. Park

Rutgers University was chartered as Queen's College on November 10, 1766. It was the eighth institution of higher education founded in Colonial America prior to the Revolutionary War. From its modest beginning in the New Brunswick area the University has grown to eight separately organized undergraduate colleges in three areas of the State, with a wide range of offerings in liberal and applied arts and sciences.


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