Success in tertiary studies is often measured using quality indicators (e.g. grade point average) and completion rates. These measures are particularly difficult to use in many non-degree programmes where completion can be very low (often due to high levels of mobility across institutions and in and out of the workforce). This study uses student…

This article examines the policy framework and national structures that have shaped the development of higher education in Scotland's Colleges. It is suggested that these have helped create a higher education tradition that is in significant ways different from that which exists in the further education sector in England. The emphasis on…

In this paper, a framework for developing first-year students' learning is proposed. Its aim is to increase university managers' and teachers' awareness of two issues: (1) that the currently predominant "skills" approaches to the enhancement of student learning are based on a deficiency model and achieve little more than remedying the overt…