MELBOURNE
When Australian students enrol at university they are generally ignorant of the implications of their decision, according to researchers at the University of Melbourne. By and large, students base their choice of university and the courses they plan to undertake on limited, subjective information. Many hold serious misconceptions about the fields, courses and the institutions they eventually enter.
The study found that not only are a worrying number of prospective undergraduates inadequately informed, but that "it is not obvious they attach much importance to being informed". Students may drift or be pushed into decisions that have little to do with the information available.
"The patterns of prospective students' decision-making, the influences on them and their limited knowledge of important choice factors have many ramifications in a higher education system that is moving to expand the diversity of options and to encourage considered choices," said the researchers at the university's centre for the study of higher education.
They say the key to understanding university choice is to recognise that field of study preferences are the principal factor. And unless there is a major shift in community interest towards broader, non-discipline-specific characteristics, with the benefits provided by universities, student decision-making will be most affected by the institutions' marketing strategies.
Instead, the researchers say students should be encouraged to collect and compare information on the courses and universities they are interested in. Similarly, universities should be more active in advising potential applicants.
Students should investigate issues such as class sizes, learning technologies and work-placement opportunities. They should also consider the skills they will gain and the prospects of finding a job.
"However, it will be no mean feat for universities in a competitive context to establish a three-way balance between accurately informing, advising, and straight-out 'hard-sell' recruitment," the researchers said.
The real problem, though, is that students will always be under-informed because the quality of the experience "is far better understood during and after, rather than before it". Choosing a course and institution, the researchers believe, is a leap of considerable faith in the capacity of the provider to offer a programme of quality and relevance.
Open days, therefore, are extremely limited in giving students reliable insights into what lies ahead. They may be effective recruitment occasions for the universities, but they poorly represent the actual academic experience.