Residential college life (Issue 4, 2012)
University students can greatly improve their chance of getting top marks, decrease their risks of failing subjects and boost their prospects of continuing through to graduation.
The secret to such academic success is residential college life, according to a new La Trobe University study.
In research just published in the journal Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, Laura Burge found that students living in colleges, particularly first-year students, outperformed the wider university student body.
‘They achieved 18 per cent more ‘A’s and 21 per cent more ‘B’s. Even more significant is the comparative fail rate, with 49 per cent of residential students achieving fewer fail marks,’ says Ms Burge.
Ms Burge is Acting Co-ordinator of Residential Life at La Trobe. She says another significant benefit is a lower attrition rate for those students living in colleges; 13 to 17 per cent fewer dropped out between 2008 and 2010.
The La Trobe research is particularly significant in the context of Federal Government policy to increase opportunities for non-traditional higher education students – those from rural, Indigenous, first generation or low socio-economic backgrounds.
As universities begin their first year under a new deregulated admission system, Ms Burge says the research highlights the importance of ‘going beyond just providing increased access to higher education’.
‘It is simply not enough to give low-income students access to our universities and colleges,’ she says.
‘We also need to ensure the availability and quality of continuing support programs to enable their success. The study shows there are lessons to be learnt about the importance of college life for improving educational outcomes for under-represented groups in society.’
To find out more about living on campus at La Trobe, visit latrobe.edu.au/accommodation