Abstract
ABSTRACTIn recent decades, the massification and diversification of higher education have generated new challenges for the guidance of university students. The present study focuses on students’ experiences of guidance in relation to their study progress and perceptions of their learning outcomes. The data (n = 4916) were collected from 2010–2013 through yearly Internet surveys whose targeted respondents were the students of a Finnish University. According to the results, general study guidance was a very strong predictor of students’ self-assessed development of their academic and generic skills as well as working life orientation. It also decreased the probability of slow progress in studies. Significant differences between disciplines were found: the Faculty of Education outperformed other faculties in regard to students’ satisfaction with the guidance and the students’ evaluations of their own learning outcomes. The main result of the study is that guidance can play a significant role in students’ academic success.
Highlights
Guidance is an elementary part of organising and supporting students’ studies in any education institution
The students were quite satisfied with the availability of the study guidance
The sample in this analysis consisted of 4806 university students and of whom 1592 (33%) showed slow progress in their studies
Summary
Guidance is an elementary part of organising and supporting students’ studies in any education institution. The number of university students has greatly increased in the past decades, which has resulted in a more heterogeneous student population. Due to this massification and diversification of higher education, the role of guidance in universities has become more significant. The main aims were to make education more effective and to shorten study times. Guidance became one of the main aspects in the process of providing support for the new optimal study times Less is known about students’ experiences of guidance and the relation of these experiences to their learning results. It can refer to a rather specific provision of teaching and learning during a course (Hounsell et al 2008)
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