ABSTRACT
The pre-entry period has been identified as a critical stage in preparing students for their higher education experience. Significant problems exist where students accept places on programmes taught by distance learning and subsequently fail to engage with the programme. A lack of contact prior to entry has resulted in students failing to enrol and increased student attrition rates during the programme. To maintain contact with applicants prior to entry and, importantly, to begin the process of student induction, students were sent monthly e-newsletters to their email accounts. Essentially, the newsletters contained items such as previews of programme activities, details of staff and programme materials. Evaluation revealed that the newsletters were welcomed both by students for their information content and also welcomed by staff since it reduced the volume of enquiries. The newsletters prepared students for the learning environment and reduced the numbers of non-enrollers. In response to implementation of the newsletter, only 2 per cent of students failed to enrol, an improvement on the 9 per cent the year previously. The cost of this initiative was minimal and would have been outweighed by student fee income if only one additional student had been encouraged to enrol. Pre-entry information represents a continuum of ongoing student orientation in higher education institutions.
