Student Perspectives in Higher Education: some implications for future university planning

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents some of the findings of a small‐scale interpretive study of student reactions to the introduction of a modular structure in a non‐vocational undergraduate course in Education. The findings‐‐covering such issues as student expectations, needs for detailed course information, and the sources of student decision‐making‐‐are elaborated and set in the context of current university planning. The tensions between coping with present financial stringency and preparing for the potentially new situation of the 1990s are also brought out. Conclusions are reached in terms of issues which should be central to university planning and attention is also drawn to the lack of appropriate information on student perspectives. The need for large‐scale studies, based on interpretive as opposed to traditional quantitative analysis, is seen as a fundamental requirement, if an adequate basis for forward planning is to emerge.