Victoria U is catering for students who are “less prepared for higher education” – of those who enter on an ATAR, 60 per cent recently had a score under 50. To improve retention VU has a plan to prepare people for university students and a common first year (CMM March 13).

Early results from the pilot of this VU Enhance scheme are mixed with VU’s Stefan Schutt advising management that half the 138 students who signed up later signed out. In a programme assessment seen by CMM, Dr Schutt reports repeated concerns with the formal structure and content of the programme, especially the TAFE certificate in study prep, which students take in parallel with uni courses.

And the very students who need it do not know it; “teachers and coordinators also confirmed the reports’ statements about the changing profile of VU students: that they are increasingly ill -prepared for tertiary study. They also added  that many of these students do not always recognise their level of ill- preparedness, a factor not helped by having been accepted into a tertiary course. Students, they said, “are not good at self – identifying” as suitable candidates for VU Enhance, and that “those who could most benefit aren’t choosing it.”

But Dr Schutt does not doubt the determination of VU staff involved or of the premise of the programme, that many VU students need help in grasping what university involves.

The issue is whether the structure suits the circumstances.

“Some students are treating (it)  as a form of occasional, just – in  time academic support rather than as a concerted, regular form of skill development with assessment attached. Arts students interviewed at drop – in sessions said they had withdrawn from VU Enhance but were still attending the sessions.”

It’s early days but VU desperately needs to get this right. The new model means big moves of teaching staff into the new programme and potential job losses among those who do not make the cut and academics are watching, wondering, waiting.