Universities in Developmental Transition

This chapter interrogates the benefits that would accrue to and challenges faced by universities in their developmental transition from being an ivory tower to engaged and people-centered institutions. The chapter argues that universities should consider themselves as vehicles of socio-economic change by participating in the process of forming values and setting reachable goals for the benefit of larger society. University of Botswana (UB) adopted ‘Strategy for Excellence: University of Botswana Strategic Plan to 2016 and Beyond' while the University of KwaZulu-Natal has adopted Strategic Plan 2017-2021 with eight goals. Through these plans, the universities seek to have a more direct impact within communities and society. Community engagement or service learning is adopted as one of the vehicles to fast-track the transition process in this chapter. This chapter is qualitative and has made use of UB and UKZN as the case studies to deliberate the university transition from ivory towers into engaged, responsible, and people-centered institutions.

Topics of interest to the MSOR community: evidence from the first 20 years of MSOR Connections

Topic modelling, an automated literature review technique, is used to generate a list of topics from the text of all articles published in previous issues of MSOR Connections. There are many topics of consistent popularity, including assessment, employability, school-university transition and the teaching of specific subjects and skills with the mathematics, statistics and operational research disciplines. We identify some topics that have waned in popularity, especially following the demise of the MSOR Network, including organised book and software reviews, conference and workshop announcements and reports, and articles focused on staff development. In its present form as a fully peer-reviewed practitioner journal, there appears to be a shift in focus from personal reflection to evidence-based research. There is a high focus on innovative practice using technology in the publication, though with less focus on specific software over time. Similarly, more nuance appears to be entering the discourse over maths support and e-assessment as these topics mature. We note a rise over time in student-centred approaches and a sudden rise in the previous issue of digital and remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We speculate about future trends that may emerge, including an increased focus on digital and remote learning and an increase in content on equity, equality, diversity and inclusion.

Trajectories of Health Status during the Transition from School to University: Piloting the Method of Biographical Mapping in German Medical Students

Health status and health behavior change during the transition from school to university. However, it is still unclear whether these changes occur at specific points in time, and whether these changes are stable. Therefore, our aim was to conduct a pilot test on biographical mapping (BM) for the first time in this research area in order to map the trajectories of the health status of university students over time. This enabled us to also test the practicability of BM, and to assess the agreement of the findings of BM with those of a standardized questionnaire. We included 30 fourth-year university students. First, they filled in a standardized questionnaire on their sociodemographic information, current health status, and health status compared with that for their final year of school. Second, they filled in a BM grid that allows for drawing the changes in health status that have taken place over the transition period. The health status changed during the transition (e.g., slight decline in general subjective health), and was related to specific events before and after the transition (e.g., examinations), showing that all health variables were not stable over time. The findings of BM were also reflected in the standardized questionnaire. Using BM revealed the changes in health during a six-year-period, including the school–university transition. The identified changes in health during transition and at specific time points underline that not only assistance before the transition, but also psychological support during studies, seems to be important for the health promotion of students. Besides this, BM seems to be a useful, although time-consuming, instrument for which the results were similar to those in the questionnaire.

School-to-University Transition: The Paradox of Motivated but Undecided Students

Educational research on university transitions has repeatedly highlighted that inequalities related to cultural origin still persist even though intergenerational upward mobility has been facilitated over the last fifteen years due to the huge enrollment rates documented across countries in the Western world. In contrast to this line of research in which differences between social or cultural groups are investigated, the unit of analysis in this article is a demographically homogeneous group of families in which the parents invest in university studies as the main route for their children’s post-18 pathways. Through a variable-based research design we explore the conditions which affect high-school students’ motives for following university studies. The main finding has to do with the fact that it is how late or early students make their decision that is the factor differentiating the families within this group and affecting the students’ transition to university.

Geometrical optic learning difficulties for Moroccan students during secondary/university transition

<p><span>To remedy the difficulties encountered by Moroccan students in geometrical optics during the transition from secondary to higher education and for an efficient education system, we propose this study to investigate the causes of these difficulties as well as their impact on the quality of the secondary/university transition, and come up with a remediation device to overcome them. For this survey, we adopted a mixed method to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The research tools used are semi-directive interviews with thirty high school and university teachers; questionnaires and exercises were administered to 120 of first year university students. The results of this study revealed the persistence of difficulties in geometrical optics and particularly in geometric construction whose origins are attributed to the misrepresentations and low prerequisites among students as well as a break in the curriculum and teaching methods during the transition from secondary to higher education.</span></p>

Student Success and the High School-University Transition: 100 Years of Chemistry Education Research

The 100th anniversary of the first article (published in 1921) examining student success and the high school to university transition in chemistry provides an excellent opportunity to consider what has...

Mapping the evidence regarding school-to-work/university transition and health inequalities among young adults: a scoping review protocol

IntroductionSchool-to-work/university transition is a sensitive period that can have a substantial impact on health and health behaviour over the life course. There is some indication that health and health behaviour is socially patterned in the age span of individuals in this transition (16–24 years) and that there are differences by socioeconomic position (SEP). However, evidence regarding this phenomenon has not been systematically mapped. In addition, little is known about the role of institutional characteristics (eg, of universities, workplaces) in the development of health and possible inequalities in health during this transition. Hence, the first objective of this scoping review is to systematically map the existing evidence regarding health and health behaviours (and possible health inequalities, for example, differences by SEP) in the age group of 16–24 years and during school-to-work transition noted in Germany and abroad. The second objective is to summarise the evidence on the potential effects of contextual and compositional characteristics of specific institutions entered during this life stage on health and health behaviours. Third, indicators and measures of these characteristics will be summarised.Methods and analysisWe will systematically map the evidence on health inequalities during school-to-work-transitions among young adults (aged 16–24 years), following the methodological framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley. The literature search is performed in Ovid MEDLINE, Web of Science, International Labour Organization and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, using a predetermined search strategy. Articles published between January 2000 and February 2020 in English or German are considered for the review. The selection process follows a two-step approach: (1) screening of titles and abstracts, and (2) screening of full texts, both steps by two independent reviewers. Any discrepancies in the selection process are resolved by a third researcher. Data extraction will be performed using a customised data extraction sheet. The results will be presented in tabular and narrative form.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval is not required for this scoping review. The results will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal and presented at international conferences and project workshops.

Transition to university: contributions of a specialist mathematics school

School-university transition in mathematics is of global concern, with multiple cognitive, social and affective disjunctures evidenced. Access to, successful participation in and retention on, competitive mathematically intensive degree courses remain particular challenges in England, especially for disadvantaged young people with high mathematical aptitude. One response has been to establish mathematics specialist schools aimed at such students aged 16–18. Early cohorts have achieved encouraging progression to and through such university courses, but more qualitative and longitudinal outcomes have been less well evidenced. The reported study harnessed a student lens and documentary scrutiny to analyse the contribution to building for successful transition of the particular approaches used. Data suggest that the model adopted has initially supported transition to target degree courses well. I relate the findings to known transition challenges in the global issue of successful passage into and through university mathematics education. I argue many of those are in principle transferable to other post-16 contexts. The study therefore offers evidence suggesting broadly applicable specific strategies that can begin to address widely problematic disjunctures in transition.