ABSTRACT
The Learning and Teaching for Social Diversity and Difference in HE project was divided into two phases. The first phase was designed to provide an insight into pre-entry students’ conceptions and expectations of university. Data were collected from students at four ‘pre entry’ institutions (one school, a sixth form college and two further education colleges local to the two universities in the study) in the year before they went to university. Each institution had a diverse population in terms of class and ethnicity. Between them they offered a range of entry routes to university including A-level and vocational qualifications. Four broad disciplines were covered: communication and information technology (CIT), science, health and social policy, and business. These subjects provided a mix of science, technology and social sciences as well as academic and vocational subjects. We worked with staff in these institutions to identify suitable groups with whom to work. Teachers encouraged student participation in the project and both students and teachers saw it as an opportunity for students to reflect on entry to HE. In total 225 pre-entry students completed questionnaires; around 100 participated in ten activity-based focus group sessions. From these groups, we interviewed fourteen students either individually or in pairs outside class (see Hockings et al. 2007 for an exploration of pre-entry students’ expectations of HE. See also Bowl et al. 2008b for an exploration of the research process in the early stages of the project). Findings from this phase were compared to the experiences of first-year university students in phase two, and shared with the eight university teachers who would be working with us in phase two to inform the re/development of their first-year modules prior to the start of academic year 2006/7.
