Collegiate education is a growing trend in Australian higher education, and for good reason, according to the latest briefing paper from the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE).

The AUSSE paper has found that university students who live on campus are more engaged, feel more supported, and have better general development.

Tens of thousands of students live in residence, and there are around 100 colleges or halls of residence at Australia’s public universities. Colleges vary from those that offer a full suite of academic and enriching experiences, to those which focus on providing accommodation. For students, residential life is often seen as a formative part of the overall university experience.

Anecdotal reports have long painted a rich picture of residential life in Australian higher education, and the insights from the AUSSE data support this conclusion.

More than 25,000 students from 29 Australian and New Zealand universities participated in the latest cycle of the AUSSE. About nine per cent of the Australian students surveyed indicated that they lived on campus in a university college or hall of residence.

According to the briefing paper, Engaging College Communities: The impact of residential colleges in Australian higher education, students who live in residential colleges in Australian universities are more likely to be younger, studying full-time, in their first year, and come from overseas or a non-metropolitan area of Australia than non-residential students.

The AUSSE also found significant differences in these students’ levels of engagement and satisfaction with their university study. Students living in residence are often more engaged than non-residential students, particularly in terms of participation in active learning and enriching experiences, their interactions with staff, and their perceptions of support.

Residential students report feeling more supported in a range of academic and non-academic areas than do non-residential students. They also spend more time participating in extracurricular activities.

Research and experience in the past decade has highlighted that the support provided by residential colleges in the first year of university study is likely to be particularly significant. Many entering students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, encounter higher education as a complex and foreign activity. Through integrated academic and support activities, colleges can play an important role in retaining students through the first few weeks of university, easing them into the culture of academic life and setting in place productive approaches to study. By exposing students to new communities and opportunities colleges can, importantly, help shape the goals that encourage students to persist in and excel at their undergraduate education.

The AUSSE data further suggests that differences between residential and non-residential students’ engagement grows between first- and later-year cohorts, that the effects of college accumulate over time.

“These results debunk the myth that residential colleges are tangential to the educational function of universities. For many students, residential life is seen as a formative part of the overall university experience,” says AUSSE Director, ACER Principal Research Fellow Dr Hamish Coates.

“We know that the support provided by universities to their students has a powerful effect on student engagement and retention, and on graduate outcomes.

“The AUSSE results shows that students living on campus feel more supported and engaged, and therefore are more likely to complete and excel in their studies,” says Dr Coates.

The AUSSE is conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research.

Support for this briefing paper was provided by The Association of Heads of Australian University Colleges and Halls Inc (AHAUCHI).

The briefing paper, Engaging College Communities: The impact of residential colleges in Australian higher education can be found at www.acer.edu.au/ausse

« Back to eNews