1st Year Experience (FYE)

What is first year?

The First Year Experience (FYE) is a generic term used to describe students' experiences in their first year at University. A good FYE is critical to all students irrespective of their discipline, course, level of study or mode of engagement.

Student engagement and the AUSSE

In 2011, over 40 institutions across Australia and New Zealand participated in the AUSSE. During late July and August over 100,000 students and 7,000 teaching staff were invited to participate in the AUSSE. The 2011 AUSSE Institution Reports and institution data files are now available from the AUSSE website.

Student engagement is linked with high-quality learning outcomes. Understanding and effectively managing students' engagement in higher education plays a significant role in enhancing learning processes and outcomes for students. Data from the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) provides information on the time and effort students devote to educationally purposeful activities and on students' perceptions of the quality of other aspects of their university experience. The information collected by the AUSSE can be used by higher education institutions to improve student outcomes, manage and monitor resources, programs and services, and help identify how to attract, and importantly, retain students.

Examples of first year experiences

At CQUniversity, we have taken a holistic approach to helping first year students make the most of their opportunities. These include the following activities:

• Orientation (online and face-to-face)
• Student mentors
• First year coordinators (check with your School)
• First year program planners
• Student user guides

Community of practice - FYE

Focus

To build awareness and understanding of first year issues and make contributions to the development and enhancement of first year programs and practices across the university.

Significance

University staff play a positive and critical role in connecting learning to the lives of our students. We share responsibility for cultivating learning environments that engage, support and respond to the diverse needs of students.

First year is a time of transition. The experiences students have during this time are pivotal in establishing values, attitudes, and approaches to learning that will endure throughout their tertiary experience and beyond (McInnis & James, 1995).

By creating a network of interest through the FYE CoP, members can make valuable contributions to institutional discourse about the first year and disseminate information, innovations and best practice throughout their schools and divisions.

Goals for the FYE CoP in 2012

1. Connect staff working in the first year space from each school and relevant division to share and disseminate effective first year practice.
2. Develop resources for staff that build awareness of student issues in the first year and provide strategies to improve transition in the first year.
3. Provide opportunities for academic and professional staff to work together in improving university processes, policies and practices relating to the first year.
   

FYE resources 

• The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education (Int J FYHE) focuses on research and practice about enhancing the experience of commencing students. The Journal's audiences are academic and professional staff involved in first year programs as well as senior managers with responsibility for first year policies and strategies.
• First Year in Higher Education Conference. The conference provides the opportunity to disseminate research and practice for enhancing the first year in higher education.
• Professor Sally Kift presentation to CQUniversity. Sally is a champion of the First Year Experience in higher education and has published and presented extensively on her research interests which include student transition and the first-year experience, curriculum design to embed and assess graduate attributes as well as criminal law and legal education. Sally is also co-editor of the International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education.
• Professor Kerri-Lee Krause. Strategic approaches to enhancing engagement in the first year.

References

Kift, Sally M. (2008). The next, great first year challenge: Sustaining, coordinating and embedding coherent institution–wide approaches to enact the FYE as "everybody’s business". 11th International Pacific Rim First Year in Higher Education Conference, An Apple for the Learner: Celebrating the First Year Experience, 30 June - 2 July 2008, Hobart. FYHE 2008 Conference Keynote

James, R., Krause, K-L. & Jennings, C. (2010). The First Year Experience in Australian Universities: Findings from 1994-2009. Centre for the Study of Higher Education. The University of Melbourne. CSHE FYE Report 1994 to 2009 [1.02MB]