University life—perhaps not exactly what your children were expecting     053

Universities now have extremely high numbers of students. Indeed the percentage of young adults with a university degree would range from 20 to 40 per cent depending upon which part of Australia you are looking at. At many schools going to university is quite normal and expected. However making the transition may not be as easy as you or your children think. It’s not just gaining the necessary academic skills. It’s being more mature and responsible, and being able to develop and manage career prospects. Often students worry about not being clever enough. In this blog post I go through a number of areas in which your children may experience disappointment and even distraction, and suggest directions in which solutions can be found.

General university context
Universities are very large places and the sheer numbers and size can be alienating. Sydney University for example, with some 60,000 students, covers an area of approximately one square kilometre, and is still growing. A small high school may only be five hectares, so the university is 20 times larger. In population alone the university would be more than twice the size of Goulburn.

Lecture theatres, libraries and even footpaths can be very crowded. This can take a little getting used to. Sometimes the general environment can be quite degraded with bubblegum and graffiti on lecture desks, footpaths and walls. Universities these days have heightened security with doors kept locked, electronic swipe cards necessary to go almost anywhere, and even grassed areas in quadrangles roped off. All these changes have come only in the last one to two decades, and collectively they can produce a very different environment from the high school your children attend. Your children may feel justifiably disappointed.

Academic culture shock
This is a term commonly in use in the literature and refers to students worrying about achieving academic performance in the new environment. Moving from the secondary education context involves adapting to a far more indirect teaching style with students having to take almost complete responsibility for their own progress. Perhaps making things worse is that universities make very extensive use of information technology so students are expected to use large volumes of material. For some students this can create an organisational problem. The amount of material in high school is nowhere near university level so with hard work students can still achieve well at school even with poor organisation skills. The university environment will demand an improvement.

Divergent values and beliefs
A university is a huge community but within that community there are many groups separated by different contexts, values and beliefs. Groups can be in conflict with each other, or with the university community in general, sometimes about the use of university resources, or the achievement of group focussed outcomes. There can be bullying and harassment of different types. At times these conflicts can involve unpleasant incidents with the risk of career damage for those who become involved. Actual violent student protests, including forced entry to parts of the campus, are an associated feature of university life.

The moral values and general behaviour of some members of the university community can also be a disappointing for your children. University tutors for example can use language which your children would have never heard spoken by any teacher in their life. University publications, including student magazines, can publish material which comes extremely close to legal obscenity and pornography.

Recently, at the Australian National University, the editors of the student newspaper, wanted to have an issue written and edited exclusively by ethnocultural students. A previous issue provided a section written only by homosexuals called the ‘queer pull-out’(see article by Ean Higgins, Ideology ousts news at ANU paper, Australian, 1 Apr 2017, pp. 1, 4). Now this type of thing is not new. University communities have always consisted of a marked divergence of opinions and perspectives. As explained below in the ‘Solutions’ section, your children need to be clear and strong in their beliefs and values, and simply get on with being successful at university, achieving good academic results and strong personal development, the two things future employers want to see.

Group work and other student problems
One very common teaching learning activity in university courses is the use of group work, in various formats. Group work can be quite instructive and beneficial. Generally a group of student works on a project, assignment or presentation, over a period of time. While there can be an individual component there is always a group assessment, and this feature can cause problems.

When students form groups sometimes one or more students will have difficulty in being effective team members because their knowledge and skills are at a lower level. Unfortunately some of these students will expect and indeed ask the other team members to help them with their work, or even to do it for them. While most university students try to be friendly and helpful to others there can be resentment. And all this is in addition to other types of interaction problems in groups.

Solutions
You can improve your children’s transition to university life with a number of measures. Children should be attending university information days during Year 11 and Year 12, and this can serve as a useful introduction. After a while the size and complexity of the university environment becomes of no importance. Students simply navigate around the very small part of the university that concerns them and their courses. The other 95 per cent of the campus may never be visited, even during the course of an entire degree. It’s exactly like living in a large city.

Academic skills and information organisation can be greatly improved during Year 12, and of course during the first year of university. If your children are having difficulty there are many sources of help provided by the university. Within the library, staff can also be approached. Your children should not feel that they are not clever enough, and should not be constantly comparing themselves with other students. University is an opportunity for bringing out the best in students, and this applies to everyone.

At university I think it is important for your children to make good friends, other students who can be supportive and who share similar values and beliefs. Your son or daughter should not wander over the campus feeling alone. If there are specific problems or issues they need to be addressed quickly. However many worries are, in reality, trifles. For example, during the first weeks of term your son or daughter may notice other students actually sleeping in lectures. Quite different from high school but it is a new life at university now.

Student protests and activism should not involve or concern your children. They are not attending university to change the values, beliefs and behaviour of others. Your children are there to attend lectures, do their study and assignments, pass their exams and generally qualify themselves for successful entry into their chosen career or professional area. This is what they need to be focused on. They must understand and accept that university communities have become extremely large and very divergent in a number of ways, just like a large global city. So, if for example they see nursing students openly smoking during lecture breaks, then it is nothing to do with your children.

The problems with group work at university are not going to disappear. However there are friendly methods of managing the situation, and there is no need for your son or daughter to feel resentful. The general principle is to avoid the situation happening in the first place. This means being extremely well organised in advance of the project or task beginning. This could involve choosing a team themselves and then making progress. Your son or daughter, and their friends, should be able to think of other strategies themselves.

So in summary, strong values and beliefs, good friendships, and a career preparation focus will enable your children to avoid any distractions. Progress and engagement should be very positive if they remind themselves of why they are at university. They need to understand how university courses and assessment procedures work and use this understanding to avoid problems in advance.

There is a great deal of information on all this in recently published material. Best wishes for your children’s success at university.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services