Proceedings of The International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning and Education
Year: 2019
DOI:
Addressing the anxious reality of first year experience (FYE) in Higher Education: a comparative study of research- informed student support models in two UK business schools
Katharine Brymer and Carol Brown
ABSTRACT:
This paper evaluates the reality of first year experience (FYE) in two UK Higher Education Institutions, highlighting a gap between reported versus experienced anxiety amongst students. The paper draws on contemporary literature exploring the value of high quality discourse, via personal tutoring and coaching models, advocating ‘a whole-of-student, whole-of-organisation’ approach to FYE support within undergraduate business studies. The merits of contrasting an integrative curriculum model of personal tutoring and a coaching process model are considered. Informed by secondary and primary research, both approaches situate rich student-led dialogue central to fully understanding student issues, supporting them through their challenging and transformative first year of study, thus enabling more effective engagement with their learning and support.
Keywords: First-year, student-support, anxiety, personal-tutoring, coaching.