Dr Sally Ashton-Hay

Attention to students and their education experiences has become increasingly important in the 21st century. Student experience - particularly active and agentic practices captures in terms like 'student voice' and 'partnership' - was an obvious choice in response to Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice (JUTLP) editors' commissioned series of  literature reviews analysing 20 years of the journal's publications. A hybrid method for the systematic review was guided by the question: What has been published about student voice and partnership in JUTLP, and how has this scholarship evolved over the journal's 20-year history? A student voice and partnership framework adapted from Fielding (2004, 2012) was developed to provide theoretical guidance for the review. In total, 92 publications were identified and described quantitatively (year, country, research design, etc) and qualitatively using reflexive thematic analysis. Overall, the findings show increased publications over time that document active student involvement in developing, shaping ,designing, evaluating or researching alongside staff. The upward trend of partnership is a marked change from early JUTLP publications that studied students as objects of research and sources of data with passive roles in education practices and student life activities. The trend is toward students as active, agentic participants, partners and leaders in shaping and influencing their education experiences. Moving into the next 20 years, the JUTLP community is urged to engage with students as co-authors, co-researchers, and co-designers to report on educational praxis with staff and to open up new avenues for student contributions to knowledge and the mission of JUTLP.

Learning Advisors (LAs) are uniquely well-placed to discover what lies behind students' difficulties with reading and writing for their discipline subjects, and these insights have driven their efforts since the 1990s to establish collaborations with discipline lecturers in order to develop academic literacies within their subjects. To determine the effects of university management decisions on LAs’ ability to communicate with students and discipline lecturers so as to fulfil these goals, Academic Language and Learning (ALL) advisors across the Australian higher education community were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey of six questions relating to how their management encourages or discourages collaboration across the university. Our research questions asked how respondents have experienced effects of management decisions, whether helpful or obstructive, in relation to their communications with students and lecturers. The survey findings indicate that most ALL staff have been encouraged to collaborate with students and discipline lecturers but that the support from management to facilitate this teamwork was mixed. The reasons cited were incompetency and micromanagement, ongoing re-structures, poor location of services, lack of understanding of the nature of ALL work, and lack of priority for collaborative processes. The results indicate that ALL support could be more effectively located and integrated into university systems, preferably with managers recruited from ALL backgrounds, in order to enable and sustain a virtuous circle of communication with students and lecturers.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of bilingual learning strategies designed to support Chinese undergraduate business students facing significant learning challenges in an Australian university capstone curriculum delivered at their Chinese university. These challenges include the students’ difficulty understanding discipline-specific English terminology, using this terminology to discuss disciplinary concepts with their instructors and stress caused by an abnormally high study load. Design/methodology/approach: In response to these challenges, the project team implemented a suite of bilingual strategies to reduce cognitive load and enhance learning, which included Chinese-English glossaries to build disciplinary-specific vocabularies; a bilingual teaching assistant to enable students to communicate in their language of choice; the use of WeChat to connect students to staff and to provide translanguaging opportunities; and bilateral managerial and academic support for strengthening the institutional cross-cultural relationship through staff exchange and language learning programs. A series of surveys were administered to measure the impact of these strategies on students’ learning, and WeChat logs were analysed to determine students’ linguistic preferences during discussions with staff and students. Findings: The results of this project show strong support for each bilingual strategy, high academic performance amongst the student cohort, the positive contribution to learning and connection provided by social media technology, students’ language of choice preferences and chosen translanguaging styles and the important role of teaching staff in supporting international students’ intercultural learning and adaptation to a foreign university learning system. Originality/value: This original evidence-based study helps to address the gap in bilingual education in Australian higher education demonstrating a successful strategy for dealing with language and discipline-specific challenges confronting EAL students.

The higher education sector's reliance on international students, including Australian postgraduate tourism programs, impacts students and staff. Teachers' stories contribute to understanding the complexity involved. This exploratory study collected stories from classroom experiences of a sample of teaching staff working in majority international classrooms. Using narrative inquiry the teachers' revealed experiences ranging from surprise through to challenge. Drawing on assessment feedback as an example, staff were confronted with unexpected situations and a student learning deficit. Their views noted the absence of preparatory advice on student readiness for postgraduate study and learning. Staff created new avenues for students to access learning.

In the Australian university context, Academic Language and Learning (ALL) entails advisors working with academics and students to enhance learning. It is a relatively new area, beginning around the mid-1980s, and ALL units developed within their respective institutions. Since early 2000s, there has been an increasing amount of literature discussing the work of these centres. Significantly though, academic support services remain on the periphery of higher education. This article seeks to define the dynamic role of academic skills advisors. In late 2016, we distributed a questionnaire to ALL unit managers at each of the 39 Australian universities, receiving 29 responses. Combining multiple-choice and open-ended questions, the survey investigated the location of the unit, the role of ALL advisors, the qualifications and experience asked for at recruitment, the training required, and pedagogy when working one-to-one with students. A consistent picture emerged in the responses. One key point is a growing demand for advisors with eLearning and eTeaching skills, indicative of broader changes in Australian universities. This article describes the unique set of professional and personal attributes that ALL advisors bring to the role. The survey results found that ALL advisors are responsive to change; broadly use constructivist approaches; have an extensive range of skills, experience and competencies; and are knowledgeable across a range of disciplines. Further investigation comparing the scope of work done in countries such as the UK, New Zealand and Canada could shape and define the changing role of ALL advisors in Australia.

Online academic skills support in higher education and the ways that students use such support is seldom researched. “Ask a Question” is part of one Aus-tralian university’s online academic support service for students to upload as-signment documents for review or to ask a specific question about their work. With a view to fine-tuning the online academic support service, this study in-vestigated the types of questions students ask and the ways that students use and, at times, misuse such online academic support. A mixed method corpus analysis of 600 student questions showed frequency patterns in ten categories of question types. An Academic Skills staff survey identified three main chal-lenges in meeting the needs of online student learning support. The findings revealed that students most sought general feedback about being on track for an assignment and secondly, referencing assistance. Academic Skills staff challenges related to time constraints as well as some students misusing the service through unrealistic expectations and repeated requests for assistance. One unanticipated finding was that some students voiced dissatisfaction with generic feedback from an outsourced after-hours online tutoring service and returned to Academic Skills for detailed in-depth, focused feedback. Further research may help to clarify the differences between generic and unit-based feedback in an online academic support environment provided for students. Recommendations to improve the in-house service include extending staff/student consultation time, limiting repeat appointment availability and promoting clearly the type of academic support services provided.

As Australian higher education institutions seek to internationalise and increase enrolments of international students, the student experience is crucial for ensuring a sustainable future via delivery of quality learning, development of English language standards and retention of enrolments. This project aimed to capture student voice in order to better understand the early challenges students face, the support they value and the adequacy of current services benchmarked against the Good Practice Principles (GPP) (DEEWR, 2009). With a focus on English language proficiency, a mixed method approach surveyed 140 students across three campuses, followed by focus groups to capture student voice and provide a current snapshot of international student experiences and perceptions. The key findings confirm that international students are challenged with writing, speaking and listening and also that they believed more opportunities to interact using English would benefit them. Another finding indicated the incongruity between prior learning experiences and basic academic literacy skills as well as technology for learning skills. The project found that although the university has taken steps towards meeting the GPP, a broader university-wide approach is needed. Recommendations include providing technology-essentials seminars; embedding opportunities in the curriculum for students to develop communication skills, cultural competence and academic literacy; and increasing collaboration between content staff and academic language and learning specialists. Academic Skills support was one of the university services most valued by international students, and they particularly appreciated team teaching by Academic Skills staff and content lecturers together.