Responding to Student Needs: The Student Responsibility

There has been much focus over the last decade or so on the need to respond to the wide variety and many needs of students now accessing higher education. The elite system which could be argued provided students who were prepared for the rigours of real higher education has been replaced by a mass higher education system that encourages everyone to come to higher education whether or not they actually have the ability or motivation to succeed. This shift in emphasis has proved problematic in that many students are now under prepared for the experience and/or need a large amount of support once they start. This has caused higher education institutions to alter dramatically to cope with this phenomenon. This workshop wants to address the responsibility on the student him/herself in providing for their own needs and will consider whether institutions can or should actually be expected to cater for the needs of all students. We will consider whether students should be taking more of the responsibility themselves before and during their time at university or college and indeed of how they might do this. There will be a brief introduction to the session but the participants will be expected to undertake much of the work of the workshop. The workshop is specifically designed to encourage students to attend in addition to academics and support staff so that a more representative opinion might be formed.