In modern times, people realize the importance of higher education or having a good degree from a reputed university. The number is increasing day by day gradually. The main reasons people interested to start their education in higher educational institutions because it is an opportunity to enhance people’s knowledge, enhance self-confidence, chance to meet new people, helps to achieve important skills that help to build a better career. A student must have the following Study Skills for Higher Education.
Study Skills for Higher Education
In this particular study, the researcher is going to discuss the importance of foundation year for the new University students, what type of challenges people face when they start their degree and how to study skills helps people to overcome their problem. The Different University of the United Kingdom introduced a program called foundation year for those students who do not have formal education, did not attend colleges, long study gap and they have practical work experience.
Foundation year
This course is designed for those people who did not complete their formal degree, long study gap but currently they interested to start a course at University. Universities also offer this course to their international candidates because they are not aware of the British academic styles. In this one year program, University staff helps their new mature or international students to adapt to Uni life and understand the UK style different assessments. This one year students get all kinds of training that help them to write their assignment, organize themselves with study environment, and able to works under pressure (Naylor, 2017).
Significance of foundation year for mature and foreign student
Helps to adapt people to adjust with University life
Students that attend foundation year did not attend school or college before so they do not have an experience of University life. That specific period students just need to study a couple of subjects and teachers and other members of the university helps them to do their assignments and other tasks (Deardorff, 2018). University people give all the facilities to their students teach them every single thing very carefully so they can able to do all their academic tasks in the future.
Decrease the gap of knowledge
UK academic degree is very popular in the international job market for their academic excellence. Every year a large number of people come to UK to start their courses at different Universities (Deardorff, 2018). There is a big knowledge gap between UK home students and international students. Reputed institutions introduced foundation year so the foreign people can understand the course curriculum which also decreases the study gap and assists students to continue their study in UK universities successfully.
Learn academic writing skills
As a part of assessment and class study in the students are required to sit for the class exam, write the academic paper and most of the people who have formal education they can easily do that but people who do not have formal qualification they struggled a lot. Foundation year is a great chance for those students because in this period university teaching staff teach them how to write an academic paper, do reference, text reference, etc. Students also can share their knowledge with their classmates and learn different types of writing techniques (Deardorff, 2018).
Learn how to do a better presentation
Do a presentation in front of other students and teaching staff is very hard and a matter of fear for many peoples. In this beginning year, teachers teach every single student how to present a topic in the class and help to develop public speaking skills (Deardorff, 2018).
Helps to get University admission
There are many students that did not obtain better marks at their o level and a level most of the cases they cannot get the chance at their chosen University. But studying foundation year in the University any people can secure their position in their good ranking University and their chosen field of study (Deardorff, 2018).
Challenges that people face in the foundation year
The majority of the people are doing a foundation course in UK educational institutions they are from different foreign destinations and they did not finish their formal education courses. Because of getting better jobs in a better position nowadays, a large number of people join in foundation year to complete their undergraduate courses. In this particular period, most of the people struggle a lot which is discussed in the following part of this study-
- This program is designed especially for students who are not from UK institutions, or they are those students who have a study gap for a long passage of time. So, when there is a large gap in education life, there has study gap of students in their educational life, or students are not habituated with UK education system, then they face adaptability problem to cope up with the new environment, new culture, new education system, new friends and also language barriers. Moreover, there are so many students go to UK from Asia or Africa. And then they face problems while they start the courses initially. (Ashley, 2004).
- Apart from the consent of students, it is also faced major challenges by the teaching staff. The reason behind this is all about cultural differences. A teacher must have to take time to cope up with the students from different cultures. It is very common that students are from different countries and they have different cultures, then it will take time for better adjustment with this new environment as well. (Ashley, 2004).
- Shyness is a common problem in foundation year students because at that time they cannot adjust to new environments as well as new people. Students from different cultures come to the UK for taking a higher degree from a good university and they got admission just because of improving their skill level as well as knowledge level. In that case, they feel shy at an initial stage and they look for a partner who came from the same country because they feel that it will be more comfortable form them to talk to them and they prefer to spend time with the people of own country and this limitation becomes a problem for communication effectively (Ashley, 2004).
- Writing skill is also another challenges in the foundation year for students because sometimes they face problem to write well in UK based writing. Meanwhile, from this frustration or inefficiency of writing, some of the students quit their studies. (Hirt, 2005).
- Presentation skill is also another problem in the foundation year for students because it is seen that many students have no idea about presentation preparation, making a presentation for class presentation, making a slide for presenting. Therefore, in all these aspects, students are from different cultures and who have a study gap, they face the real problem and they also feel difficulties as well as uncomfortable speaking in the classroom.
- The gap of student age among junior student and the mature student is also considered as a problem in foundation year because a student who has study gap are sharing class lectures with junior students, sometimes mature students feel awkward to share a class lecture with the. Even, sometimes they feel frustrated in the classroom, therefore there class participation may decrease (Ashley, 2004).
- Students of UK or students coming from different culture or countries in UK, they basically do the part-time job beside their regulars study, In that case, it becomes a problem for them to concentrate on full study in their foundation program because they have to work hard to manage work-life, daily life, university as well as study life by doing their part-time or somehow it is a full-time job (Hirt, 2005). Most of the cases, they face problems with study while they are involved in part-time jobs.
- UK learning style in the institution of UK is totally different compare to other countries. Therefore, the learning style would be a new one for those international students or mature students or students who have study gaps. Then, they will face problem to cope up with this learning style initially at foundation year. In addition this, maximum courses of UK institution are from practical circumstances because they focus on giving lectures by analyzing the current business world, in that case, new students fac problem to cope up with that subjects (Hirt, 2005).
- English skills from other countries students came to the UK is also limited and initially, they face problem to know or understand the class lecture, class notes clearly or effectively. Just not being efficient in the English language, they cannot write a good assignment or cannot prepare class notes very well (Hirt, 2005).
Study skill helps students to overcome their challenges
The study skill course is very advantageous for the student of foundation year to develop their writing skill, language skill, presentation skill, speaking skills as well as listening skill.
The schedule of study skills is designed for the foundation year students to improve their knowledge level as they can understand teacher lectures, or class lectures very well. Even, study skill also helps them to prepare assignment or class note very well.
Study skill also gives them a scope of adjustment to adjust with the new environment time to time as they can exchange their cultures with others and they can reduce their cultural gap. Overall study skill helps to develop cross-cultural activities in UK education Institution.
In another way, the schedule of study skills helps them to be skilled in critical reading, critical writing, presentation by which the adaptability of those students is increased with university assessment.
As students of UK University are almost mature students who are sharing class lectures with junior but they do not have UK educational experiences, therefore it becomes mandatory for them to involve with foundation year. The reason behind the involvement with foundation year is that unknown concept about UK academic styles, inappropriate English language skills, poor skills in reading level, and writing level. To overcome those challenges or problems, study skill play a great role and those are mentioned below:
- Essay writing skill is highly developed when students take part in study skill course. This course helps students to know how to write an assignment with proper format and with proper referencing styles. Teachers teach students regarding assignment preparation with full details format. Teachers teach students how to search for information by using internet sources and how to make references from those internet sources. In this course, the week areas of a student regarding reading, writing, speaking as well as listening all are identified. Grammatical error is the common problem for foundation year student, in that case, the study skill course help largely to diminish grammatical error. (Shivalingappa., 2012).
- Study skills increase the adaptability of the students in University life because when students are participating in the session of regular classes, class tests, writing assignments, class presentations, then they can adapt to the situation easily.
- Study skills develop critical thinking ability because teachers are providing the lectures on the full business module while they are giving a lecture on particular subjects (Shivalingappa., 2012).
- The level of confidence of the foundation year students increased because the course of study skill has the practice of sitting for the exam for the evaluation of their skill form that course. While they are a certified form exam, the confidence level will be increased as he or she came from competitive exams (Shivalingappa., 2012).
- Study skill helps to increase the referencing skills while they are preparing an assignment for class and it also increases analytical ability they have to solve some real case studies in the classroom (Shivalingappa., 2012).
- Study skills help to find out the strengths and weakness of the students because this course is designed with full details by which student can particulate in all steps in which they will go through with own practice. This own practice from the study skill course helps to address the weakness level and then they got the suggestion for the teacher in which way he or she will overcome it to build a brighter future (Shivalingappa., 2012).
Conclusion
Study skill is the program of developing knowledge level initially because it prepares the foundation year student in different areas to develop their writing skills, grammar skill, reading skills. It also helps to increase adaptability skills with the UK university environment. So, skill students develop the basic skills of the students, and teachers have equal participation in that course where he will provide logical feedback regarding the assessment of students by which teachers will help to identify their strong level as well as a weak point. Overall this course is very effective for foundation year students.
References
Ashley, T. (2004). Foundation Year: new challenges, old problems. Skill Development, 15(10), pp.3-3.
Deardorff, D. (2018). Exploring the Significance of foundation year for a student. New Directions for Student Foundation, 2018(160), pp.41-51.
Hirt, J. (2005). Challenging and Supporting the First-Year Student: A Handbook for Improving the First Year of College. Journal of College Student Development, 46(5), pp.561-564.
Naylor, R. (2017). First-year student conceptions of success: What really matters?. Student Success, 8(2), p.9.
Shivalingappa., M. (2012). Study Skill Development – A Psychological Study. CODS Journal of Dentistry, 4(1), pp.51-52.
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