Tee, Charles; (2023) Supporting student transition to Higher Education: engagement with student support services in a private Higher Education Institution in Singapore. Doctoral thesis (Ed.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

With the massification of higher education opening up more options for students seeking to obtain a university degree in Singapore, the entry of private education institutes (PEIs) in Singapore in partnerships with overseas universities have grown exponentially. This study highlights the challenges in transitions in a PEI in Singapore and the participation of these students in social support provisions based on the differences in student demographics and characteristics that PEIs attract. A significant number of students come from the local polytechnics and they seek to ‘upgrade’ their status from a diploma to a degree and so many PEIs working with foreign university partners offer lower entry requirements, shorter study durations, flexible assessment methods, along with options for full and part-time studies to attract them and these have an impact on transitions. Using Gale and Parker's (2014) framework on student transitions, the study examines the demographic profiles of PEI students and their engagement with social support provisions, including student life and clubs, learning support programs, and student care services across the three stages of transitions in the framework namely : T1 - Transition as Induction, T2 - Transition as Development and T3 - Transition as Becoming. An online survey with an original population size of 17,542 students from a single PEI was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. This allowed me to analyse participation in three elements of student support; 1) Student Life and Clubs (SLC), 2) Learning Support Programmes (LSP) and 3) Student Care Services (SCS) . SPSS software was used to generate descriptive statistics for different demographic groups. The study found major differences in participation among international and Singaporean students, students with different prior qualifications, ages, sex, duration of courses, and types of provisions. PEI students were found to be most engaged with Student Life and Clubs (SLC) and Learning Support Programmes (LSP), with low engagement with Student Care Services (SCS). Reasons for non-participation from the qualitative data included lack of time, unawareness of provisions, lack of perceived need, and disinterest. The study suggests that PEIs should always consider the unique and specific demographic and characteristics of their students and their needs during their transitions into higher education when planning the social support provisions. The findings show that the present social support provisions for SLC, LSP and SCS at SPEP have not always met the needs of the students and so more can be done to assist students in their transitions. This study will be most beneficial to the institutions similar to that of the PEI studied to allow them to reconsider their current social support provisions.

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