ABSTRACT
Educating a massified and diversified student body at higher education (HE) level has benefits for the individual, society and the economy. It is for these reasons that governments have been committed to increasing and widening participation. The modern student body today includes ‘students from different ethnic groups and non-English speaking backgrounds, international, lower socio-economic backgrounds, mature aged students, students with disabilities, as well those for whom higher education is the first family experience’ (Crosling et al., 2008:1). Higher education study is also known as tertiary and postsecondary education and is delivered via a range of institutions including further education colleges and universities. However, the recruitment of a massified and diversified student body and the ‘changes in curriculum design, delivery, assessment and evaluation, has added complexity to the delivery of the efficient and effective provision of HE’ (Morgan, 2012a:1).The backgrounds and life experiences of our student body bring richness to the higher educational environment (university or college) but also challenges for those responsible for retaining students, helping them to succeed and delivering them a high-quality experience. The demise of a homogenous student body, which existed 30 years ago, means that we can no longer adopt a ‘one size fits all’ approach in the effective delivery of academic and non-academic support to our students.
