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Pan-Canadian Study of First Year College Students - Report 1 Student Characteristics and the College Experience - August 2007


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8. Expectations of College at Entry

The results of the College Entry Survey also provide a sense of the types of expectations first year students have of their programs at colleges and institutes. This section provides an overview of respondent students' reasons for attending their college or institute, how much time students expected to spend studying and preparing for class in college, and the types of support they anticipated they will need and their receptivity to using the support services offered by their colleges or institutes.

8.1 Reasons for Attending Colleges and Institutes

Colleges and institutes are generally recognized as having labour market oriented programs that align as much as possible with the needs of employers in the communities and regions served. Survey results confirm that students at colleges and institutes are largely aligned with this profile, as shown in Figure 4 which highlights the top reasons students identified for attending their college or institute.

The top three reasons identified by respondents confirm that most students are job-focused by either seeking to gain the skills and knowledge for a specific occupation (90 percent), for career advancement (62 percent) or to increase earnings (56 percent). However, a significant proportion of students identified more personal reasons for attending their college or institute, namely to broaden their knowledge about the world or for personal development.

In addition, Figure 4 shows that significant numbers of students viewed college/institute programs as a pathway to university studies by either helping them to prepare for university, in particular in jurisdictions such as Quebec and British Columbia whose postsecondary systems facilitate this progression, or by 'stacking' credentials, first obtaining a diploma and then a degree.

Most students view college/institute programs as a way to get a good job or for career advancement.

Figure 4 Top Reasons for Attending a College or Institute, 2005

Finally, career exploration or career change was reported by one-third as a major reason for attending a college or institute. The former was more likely to be cited as a major reason to attend a college/institute by younger students while the latter was cited more often by older students. For example, only 20 percent of those younger than 20 cited career retraining as a major reason for attending college while 80 percent of those over 40 did so.

8.2 Expected Time on Studying and Preparing for Class

While first-year college/institute students appear to have not studied extensively in secondary school, it seems they were aware that they needed to study more in college in order to be successful. While three-quarters of the respondents reported they studied less than eight hours per week in high school, just over one quarter said they would do the same in college. The largest percentage of respondents (38 percent) indicated that they studied four to seven hours per week in secondary school, whereas the largest percentage (36 percent) said they would spend eight to 14 hours per week preparing for class in college. Clearly, students beginning their programs at colleges and institutes understood that they would have to spend a greater amount of time preparing for class.

8.3 Needs and Use of Support Services at Colleges and Institutes

The findings regarding students' self-perception of their proficiency in various skills suggest they might benefit from the development services offered by most colleges and institutes. The results form the College Entry Survey help to explain the main types of services students expect to benefit from and their openness to accepting such support. The tables summarizing students' responses to areas of perceived benefit from extra support and their receptivity to college support services at college entry are provided in Appendix 4.

8.3.1 Students' Expected Needs for Extra Support

When asked about the degree to which they could benefit from extra support to be successful in their college/institute program, the highest reported need for support was in the areas of study and test taking skills, with 84 percent indicating they would benefit from support to improve study habits and 79 percent for test taking skills. These findings are consistent with those discussed earlier for study habits in high school and self-perceived levels of study skills proficiency.

In the areas of basic skills, 62 percent of respondents reported they could benefit from support in the area of reading skills, 68 percent for writing skills, and up to 67 percent reported the same for math skills.

Another significant area of need, confirmed by 73 percent of respondents is financial aid, as will be further substantiated in the next section of this report on how college/institute students are financing their education.

Two other needs that stood out related to students' plans for future studies or career entry. Up to 73 percent of respondents indicated they would benefit from help to plan future studies, confirming that colleges and institutes are frequently viewed as a step to further PSE.

In addition, 65 percent of respondents reported they could benefit from support in selecting a career. This means that while many students had committed to a program leading to a specific career, a significant proportion appeared uncertain about what the career would be. This is also related to the low level of career exploration activity during high school and, no doubt, to their stage of life-span development (Erikson, 1959; Chickering, 1969).

Some other areas of need to note include, support to improve in a second language or their skills in the language of instruction for 40 percent of respondent students.

8.3.2 Receptivity to Using College/ Institute Support Services

First year students were also asked how likely they would be to accept support in the same areas they confirmed they would benefit from, if offered by their college or institute. In most cases, the percentage of students who reported they would be highly likely to avail themselves of the relevant support service paralleled the percentage of students who reported they could benefit from this support. In general, first-year students expressed openness to using the support services offered by many colleges and institutes to support their skills and personal development needs.

At the same time, overall when areas of need were compared with receptivity to college/institute support services, a greater percentage of respondents said they could benefit from special support from college services than reported they would likely use these services. It was evident then, that a higher percentage of new college/ institute students recognized they could benefit from help developing various skills or coping with particular situations than were willing to avail themselves of the services. Perhaps these students wanted to assess whether they were able to cope with the demands of their college or institute program of studies first, before accessing the on campus supports.

The exception was for respondents with support needs to deal with a disability or to meet child care requirements as the percentage of respondents who said they could benefit from support and would be receptive to college services was essentially identical. This finding might suggest that, from the student perspective, both child care and disability needs can neither be easily denied nor done without.

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Date Modified:
2007-08-29