The following notes were taken during a recent presentation given by Rod Carr, Vice Chancellor at The University of Canterbury.

How well do we prepare them/how should we prepare them?

Dr Rod Carr (Vice Chancellor UC)

At UC there is a 85% completion rate with success in year one. But a 35% completion rate in year two. It appears they either bail or fail, university is not for them or other things get in the road. So making the right choice—is uni for me is crucial.
UC has 14000 students with 3500 course combinations. Its bigger and there is more choice.

Skills Needed

1. On-line capability, being able to sort stuff, analyse it.
2. Time management
3. Peer support - being able to work in teams is vital, work with others, group work is an increasing part of the university process.
4. Academic ability helps, but a healthy lifestyle and stable mental health are crucial, and the ability to ask for help.
5. There are more pressures, and more choices, so the ability to develop criteria for making choices and making decisions greatly assists. Big place with huge choices.
6. Having a balance between the core activities of the 1200 hours/year of university study with part-time jobs, and with building a CV to give you a better chance at graduation time. The “smarter”, not brighter students take on leadership on campus, do extra curricula activities to get that edge when graduating. The “race” for a good job starts on day one at university, developing that CV.
7. New environment - many have moved away from their local town or city.
8. Digital and numeracy skills. Have to be numerate in the data rich world. A student needs to do Maths for as long as they can, or are able to cope with. Analysing data mostly needs maths.
9. Literacy—students at UC engineering school can barely write. Communication skills of literacy, listening, speaking, multi-media learning opportunities.
10. Team skills. Empathy skills.
11. Diversity of learning environments to cope with. Lecture, tutorial, group work, search on line.
12. Motivation skills and being curious about the world around them.
13. NCEA does not facilitate that “failure is an option”. Get re-submissions. At university fail an exam and you repeat the course / year.
14. Encourage the STAR courses for seniors to go to University.
15. Get students into the University as early as possible, Year 10 is not too early. (Bm –RaHS recently took students of Maori or Maori students at year 10 there.
16. School to University can be better for Maori and Pasifika students.