Editorial Comment:

Focus of the Study

The project aimed to assist higher education institutions in their response to changes in the student population by the development of co-ordinated guidance provision for both students and potential students, including a staff development function and the development of feedback mechanisms. A total of 65 institutions participated in the project, submitting information about their guidance activities and six institutions undertook development work to bring about change and improvements in guidance provision.

Key Findings

The project demonstrated that the quality of guidance offered to students before, during and at exit from higher education was closely related to the quality of their learning experience.

The development of Access Courses brought about an increased awareness of the value of guidance both at entry and within the HE curriculum. Without guidance learners could undertake courses that are unnecessary or unsuitable.

The 65 institutions deemed that guidance about the following was necessary: admissions, induction and familiarisation; course choice; course completion; personal development and well-being; survival; and careers issues.

Guidance activity produces access, curriculum and management outcomes for the institutions as well as guidance outcomes for the learner. Guidance is not just concerned with learner interests, but institutional interests also. For example, guidance can make a significant contribution to the process of feedback from learners, in gauging student satisfaction and identifying unmet demands.

It concludes that a mass system of higher education must be underpinned by comprehensive, effective and impartial guidance and learner support systems.

Additional Comments

Once again, although institutions identified that guidance was necessary at a number of stages in an undergraduate programme and that there were some clear benefits for both the student and institution to be gained from guidance, institutions were not able to articulate their rationale for the provision of guidance.

Guidance is intrinsically linked to the widening participation agenda.