The Role of Diversity for the Transition to Higher Education
(2018) EARLI SIG 4 — Location: Giessen (28.August.2018)
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- Increasing student numbers and diversity in European higher education (HE) have reinforced political concerns about study success (Vossensteyn et al., 2015; Wolter, 2013) and have led to institutional attempts to better accommodate students’ needs, especially in the first year of university. The growing body of research on the transition to HE (Coertjens et al., 2017; Jenert et al., 2015; Kyndt et al. 2017), however, results in difficulties to integrate the findings and to discuss practical implications. Apart from particular thematic strands, Noyens and colleagues (2017) point out differences in the focused time-span, the research design and the investigated outcomes. Furthermore, there are studies that rather focus on the micro-level of student development, the meso-level of the learning environment or the macro-level of the educational system . At the same time, investigations differ in the priority assigned to individual, organisational and social diversity such as students’ motivational beliefs, field of study and educational background (Bosse, 2015). While this analytic distinction may serve to map the landscape of current research, a clearer view of how to link the different levels is needed. For a fuller understanding regarding the role of diversity for the transition to HE it seems necessary to integrate the findings across single studies and to de-pict the interplay between diversity related factors. Through this collaborative space, we therefore seek to bring together different research examples and to compare our approaches, methods and findings. Furthermore, we aim at exploring the interplay of the different levels of HE, following the notion of Bronfenbrenner (1979) that individual development is shaped by multiple contexts, ranging from the immediate learning environment to the wider educational system. Finally, we intend to discuss the implications of our research for academic development, quality management and educational policy.
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De Clercq, M., & Bosse, E. (2018). The Role of Diversity for the Transition to Higher Education. EARLI SIG 4, Giessen. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/52927