importance of academic skills in higher education

The importance of study skills in HE for learners to enhance and develop their studies further

B y   Giedrius   Zilionis ,   Senior  Business  Lecturer   and  Alexander Kaiser ,   Health  Lecturer

Study skills are some of the most essential academic tools in Higher Education. All learners have different skills and sometimes these are not fully recognised or developed – simply because, ironically, study skills are not implemented.  By effectively using study skills, learners can discover hidden talents and how well these can be of benefit to them during their studies and beyond.

Benefits of academic skills

There are discussions as to whether or not academic skills should be prioritised in the teaching of undergraduate students, since employers argue that many students are not equipped with the job-related skills that are needed, even after 3 years of degree education (Menz, 2021).  However, according to Hermida (2009) most first-year students lack necessary basic academic skills such as reading, because academic reading differs greatly from the reading that is undertaken in Secondary Education.  Students need to learn academic language and familiarise themselves with the key contributors to their respective fields. Others such as Blades and Gibb (2012) argue that academic skills such as taking responsibility, undertaking research and communicating findings are important when it comes to employability.

Why do we need skills?

Skills are necessary for every aspect of human life. These skills allow us to do something right and well. Skills are learned and developed in academia and work practices. Simply, if a student develops skills well in a particular field they can become an expert in it. Students start learning some key skills at the beginning of their degree which will help them later in their professional life, career and opportunities. Students will have more confidence, motivation, engagement and achieve goals. Therefore, using a skill-based approach can help students grasp concepts faster and strengthen what they already know (Podareducation, 2021.)

Below are additional essential skills that will help students thrive instead of ‘survive’ at LSST.

Transferable skills

In general, transferrable skills are referred to as skills that can be used in a variety of situations. Transferrable skills include basic skills such as literacy and numeracy skills but also extend to what some authors call “employability skills”. These skills are those which provide students with the skills to enhance their chances of getting employed. This includes skills that are non-job-specific (Blades and Gibb, 2012). A large part of employability depends on language efficiency, digital competence as well as social skills and social awareness (Nägele, Stadler, 2017).

This is why at LSST, students are encouraged to begin their development of these skills from the start of their programme where respective modules allow students to develop their academic skills while focusing on a range of challenges that help develop employability skills. For example, students need to familiarise themselves with IT systems, work in multi-cultural groups and come to know about how to learn efficiently. Particularly, group work allows students to explore their leadership skills, time-management skills and sometimes conflict management is needed. Further, students are supported by the academic team to do all these things in a stimulating and safe environment. They are constantly instructed to attempt tasks that lie just outside their abilities before they are assisted to hone their skills.

Digital skills

This digital and technology-driven world requires students to learn digital skills. Degrees are one of the starting points where learners can start or improve their digital skills intensely. Students must use some digital skills during their studies, such as information/data literacy (browsing, searching, and evaluating data); communication and collaboration (interaction via ICT, emails, chats, blogs); digital content creation (programming and copyrights licensing); and problem-solving (technical problems identifying and solving). See CEDEFOP (2021).

Developing and maintaining digital skills is vital in today’s teaching and learning process. Students can enhance their digital skills through learning – online and activities in class. It is essential to learn digital skills from L3 at LSST digital skills usage will lead learners throughout their studies and personal lives.

As educators, we have to support students to recognise the importance of digital skills in the classroom to assister their learning and their employability - and encourage them to build the confidence to transfer their skills to multiple contexts.  Digital skills enable educators and learners to move forward in their professional careers. The importance of skills is necessary for every aspect of human being life. The skills allow us to do something right and well.

Students that start learning and practising key study skills at the beginning of their degree will have more confidence, motivation, engagement and achieve more goals. Therefore, using a skill-based approach can help students grasp concepts faster and strengthen what they already know (Podareducation, 2021.) Learning and improving current skills makes students better communicators too.

Computer skills

Unlike digital skills, computer user skills are those basic skills that are needed to use computers generally.  Computer skills are needed at LSST to assess course material, search for information and access online libraries. Basic computer skills are also needed to write assignments and can be beneficial to stay in touch with lecturers and other students, for example for sharing ideas and formulating opinions. Efficient use of email is essential in today’s world. Some students, may not have all of the required skills yet. Further, research shows that non-traditional students often tend to put in more effort to compensate for this initial lack of skills (Henson, 2013).

All modern businesses are reliant on the efficient computer skills of their employees. Computers are not only used by businesses around the world to complete tasks but are also essential in a fast-moving world as they can be used to plan and organise a variety of tasks more efficiently in a world in which job tasks become more and more versatile. At LSST students have access to IT equipment and can make use of academic support services which may help with the development of IT skills.

Literacy skills

Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak, and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world. According to Unesco (2020), 14% of adults still lack basic literacy skills globally.

In England, 1 in 7 adults, roughly 5.1 million, lack basic literacy skills. England is the only developed country where the literacy and numeracy levels of 16-24 years old are worse than those at 55-65 years old.  43% of adults 16-years and older read at or below the basic level . Their skills are limited to understanding short, simple texts and one-step math problems. (Seedsofliteracy.org, 2015).

Many adults want to improve their literacy skills to get higher-paying jobs. Acquiring stronger literacy skills can open up new careers and often lead to work promotions. Sometimes motivation comes from children who are learning to read themselves.

Improving literacy skills is vital. At LSST, we have several modules such as Preparing for Success, Knowledge and Creativity; Self-development and Responsibility, and Inquiry Based Learning, where students learn the literacy skills to enhance their academic performance further and progress to the next level. Students learn, read, write, present, communicate, and reflect skills during their studies. Regardless of the skills students are needed, lacking  literacy skills  holds a person back at every stage of their life.

Self-development skills

To best support students, it is imperative to understand their motivation to study in Higher Education. More students than ever are beginning to study after a prolonged period of employment (Rozvadska, Novotny, 2019). As opposed to traditional students, non-traditional students more often state financial concerns as motivating factors for studying. They also often are more concerned about academic issues than their traditional counterparts. Further, social issues, such as lack of confidence appear to be more prevalent with non-traditional students (Taylor, House, 2010). In practice, it is important to support students at LSST in a variety of ways. They should be confident that they receive necessary financial support before commencing their studies but it is also important to teach skills that increase self-confidence, such as time-management skills and organisational skills. It has been shown that positive teaching is effective in student empowerment (e.g. Joseph, Murphy, Holford, 2020). As a result, LSST adopts a facility of teachers as facilitators rather than directional teachers, where possible. Students are supported in class but also have access to resources that are designed to support students with social issues as well as financial issues. For example, students are assigned a personal academic tutor, can receive guidance on mental health and can be supported by a dedicated academic support team.

In conclusion, study skills are a fundamental part of academic, professional and personal development. Furthermore, learners can develop these skills at LSST in conjunction with their experience. Additionally, enthusiasm to study and learn skills enhances student confidence and self-assurance. We must all work together to further improve student study skills and learning strategies by making our teaching and learning even more effective and successful.

How to reference this article

Zilionis, G. and Kaiser, A. G.  (2022). The importance of study skills in HE for learners to enhance and develop their studies further in academia . Available at:  https://www.lsst.ac/blogs/ [Note: Please add accessed date here].

Blades, R., Fauth, B., Gibb, J. (2012). ‘ Measuring employability skills. A rapid review to inform development of tools for project evaluation’ . National Children’s Bureau. London.

CEDEFOP. (2021).  Digital skills: Challenges and opportunities . [online] Available at: https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/data-insights/digital-skills-challenges-and-opportunities . [Accessed 7 Feb. 2022].

Henson, A.R. (2013). ‘The impact of Computer Efficacy on the Success of the Nontraditional Community College Student’. Dissertations , 301.

Hermida, J. (2009). ‘ The Importance of Teaching Academic Reading Skills in First-Year University Courses . Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1419247 [Accessed 7 Feb. 2022].

Menz, M. (2020). ‘Integrating Academic Skills and Employability’. Journal of Research in Higher Education . 4(2), 5-17 doi: 10.24193/JRHE.2020.2.1

Joseph, S., Murphy, D., Holford, J. (2020). ‘Positive education: A new look at Freedom to Learn. Oxford Review of Education , 46(5). 549-562

Nägele, C., Stadler, B.E. (2017). ‘Competence and the Need for Transferable Skills’ in Competence- based Vocational and Professional Education, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland

Rozvadská, K., Novotný, P. (2019). The Structure of non-traditional students’ motives for entering higher education. Open Journal per la formazione in rete . 19(2). 133-148

Seedsofliteracy.org, (2015). The Importance of Adult Literacy | Seeds of Literacy . [online] Available at: https://www.seedsofliteracy.org/the-importance-of-adult-literacy/ [Accessed 7 Feb. 2022].

Podareducation.org. (2021).  Importance of Skill Development Curriculum in School | Podar Blogs . [online] Available at: https://www.podareducation.org/blog-importance-of-skill-development-curriculum-in-school [Accessed 1 Feb. 2022].

Taylor, J., House, B. (2010). ‘An Exploration of Identity, Motivations and Concerns of Non-Traditional Students at Different Stages of Higher Education’ Psychology Teaching Review . 16(1). 46-57

Unesco.org. (2020). 14 per cent of adults worldwide still lack basic literacy skills, UNESCO report finds | UIL . [online] Available at: https://uil.unesco.org/literacy/14-cent-adults-worldwide-still-lack-basic-literacy-skills-unesco-report-finds . [Accessed 7 Feb. 2022].

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Basic skills in higher education: an analysis of attributed importance.

• 1 Department of Research Methods and Diagnosis in Education, University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain
• 2 Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

Today, the skills-based approach is increasingly in demand by companies due, in large part, to the fact that it favors the management of human resources by focusing on individual capabilities; which, finally, improves the job profile of a company. As a result, choosing the right candidates has become increasingly selective. Universities, therefore, need to teach skills to improve the incorporation of graduates into the workplace making it as successful as possible. For this reason, it is of special relevance to know if college students consider that the acquisition of skills is key for their incorporation into the workplace. The main objective of this study was to analyze and compare the importance assigned to the acquisition of basic skills in the university education of 694 students studying four different bachelor degrees: pedagogy, early childhood education, primary education, and psychology. For this purpose, a Likert-type questionnaire on basic skills was distributed with four possible options and the following five dimensions that grouped basic skills: organizational and planning capacity; access to information sources; analysis and synthesis of texts, situations, and people; teamwork; and problem solving. The results show that as a whole all students across different bachelor degrees gave a high score to the acquisition of basic skills, with early childhood education students giving it greater importance compared to the students from other disciplines and, more specifically, differences were observed in some dimensions depending on the bachelor degree that they have started.

Introduction

In recent decades, a continuous and profound change has been taking place in social and labor reality, necessitating universities to regularly adapt to the new professional needs that the labor market demands from future graduates ( Martínez-Clares and González-Morga, 2018 ; Pineda-Herrero et al., 2018 ; Rodríguez-Gómez et al., 2018 ). In fact, it is well known that the prestige of universities depends on the success of graduates, and this is one of the pillars of the triple helix, along with industry and government ( Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff, 2000 ).

With the old university model, educational institutions sought to prepare professionals without paying much attention to the labor insertion of these people once they had completed their university studies, and without concern about whether they would be able to acquire a job associated with their qualification. However, in Spain, BOE (1983) , resulted in the implementation of a new training model based on skills, and university education has undergone an important transformation which has generated a new university model in which a great interest can now be seen in all aspects concerning the insertion in the job market of professionals trained at universities ( Eslava-Suanes et al., 2018 ; García-Blanco and Cárdenas, 2018 ; Gutiérrez et al., 2019 ; Baquero and Ruesga, 2020 ). According to Torres and Vidal (2015) , “To talk about employability is to talk about aptitudes and attitudes, about a vital syllabus and about good personal qualities; that is, better or worse possibilities of access and adaptation to the job world” (p. 65).

If not addressed, the expense that this education entails would represent a relevant social and economic “loss,” since the money and resources spent on training these students would not be economically or socially profitable, nor would there be any benefit from the time and resources used ( Galcerán, 2010 , p. 94).

One of the key aspects in this transformation of the teaching–learning processes in European universities, and specifically Spanish ones, is the syllabus design based on learning by skills ( Pozo and Bretones, 2015 ; Calderón et al., 2018 ). However, even though more than two decades have passed since the implementation of a syllabus based on the acquisition of skills in European universities, the member states point out a multitude of difficulties in implementing this methodology ( Ramírez-García, 2016 ).

In a more general sense, the term “skills” refers to the norms, techniques, procedures, attitudes, and abilities that future graduates acquire as they go through university, to perform their professional functions appropriately ( Biccoca, 2018 ; Martínez-Clares and González-Morga, 2019 ; Gargallo et al., 2020 ). Therefore, the emphasis on skills “would mark the importance given to the student’s own learning and to the development of their ability to interact creatively with the environment” ( Galcerán, 2010 , p. 104).

In the Tuning Educational Structures in Europe Project, an exhaustive distinction of skills or competences is presented: “[…] skills can be divided into skills related to a field of expertise (specific to a field of study), and generic skills (common for different courses)” ( Tuning Project, 2007 , p. 37). The generic or basic skills identify shared attributes which could be general to any degree, such as the capacity to learn, decision making capacity, project design and management skills, which are developed in all study programs. On the other hand, subject-specific skills refer to theoretical, practical and experimental skills and knowledge for a specific area or study program. Therefore, it can be said that transversal, generic, or basic skills refer to the elements common to any degree, while specific skills refer to the elements of each degree. In Spain, Ministry of Education and Science (2007) by which the organization of official university education was established, reference was already made to the establishment of two types of skills in college education with the purpose that the knowledge, skills, and abilities acquired in universities can be adequately adapted to the demands of the job market.

Nevertheless, there is still a significant gap between the knowledge, skills, and abilities that students acquire in their college studies and the required demands of the job market ( Planas, 2010 ; Wild and Schulze-Heuling, 2020 ). Following this line, some authors point to the existence of a clear mismatch between the capacities and abilities learned by students in universities and the professional capacities required in the labor market for a successful performance of the tasks and functions in different jobs ( Martínez-Clares and González-Morga, 2018 ; Aranda et al., 2021 ). This mismatch is currently presented as a great problem in the higher education system and, therefore, it is recommended that all the agents that make up the educational system reach consensus on the practical training of students ( Pujol-Jover et al., 2015 ; Cabezas-González et al., 2017 ).

It is recommended that, at all levels in educational institutions, the development and acquisition of skills is promoted, and especially of transversal, generic, or basic skills, which are those that really provide the student body with great flexibility in different work functions and the ability to adapt to different jobs ( Méndez et al., 2015 ; Rodríguez-Gómez, 2018 ). In this sense, there are various works that are relevant to the role of praxis by teaching staff, since they consider that professors are really those who are trained to improve and innovate the learning of college students ( Biesta, 2015 ; La Rosa, 2015 ; Méndez et al., 2015 ).

Less importance has been given to the figure of the student body. However, college students must be motivated to acquire skills. Previous research shows that, even in stages prior to university, student interest is a key factor for adequate academic training ( Rodríguez et al., 2020 ). All of this, together with the increasingly active role of the student body in their training ( Aranda et al., 2015 ; López-Núñez et al., 2019 ), renders the attitude and motivation of students in university education with regard to skills as relevant ( Centeno and Cubo, 2013 ).

Previous research analyses the perception of students in the acquisition of competences in the different university degrees ( Gimeno-Santos and Martín-Cabello, 2007 ; Gómez-Puertas et al., 2014 ; Belmonte-Almagro et al., 2019 ). It is worth highlighting the work carried out by Belmonte-Almagro et al. (2019) , where it is shown how, at a global level, students value the acquisition of competences in universities acceptably. Following this same line of research, in the study by Gimeno-Santos and Martín-Cabello (2007) , a high score was also obtained in the importance attributed to the acquisition of competences in the Degree of Psychology by the students. More specifically, in the work of Gómez-Puertas et al. (2014) , it is concluded that the students of the Degree in Journalism manifest a positive assessment in the acquisition of skills related to the capacity for critical and reflective analysis on their own actions.

The fact that students value the acquisition of competences very positively is of special relevance, since, if university students do not value training through the acquisition of competences, they will not be motivated and, therefore, they will not be adequately trained professionally. It is important that students value skills favorably, since they are an active part of the teaching-learning process.

Therefore, the general objective of this research was to analyze the importance assigned to the acquisition of generic or basic skills by college students in 1st-year study of different degrees and to identify if there are differences in said assessment depending on the degree under study. This research attempted to answer the following questions: What assessment do students give to the acquisition of skills in higher education when they begin their undergraduate studies? Are there differences among the students regarding the importance attributed to the acquisition of skills depending on the degree they are studying?

Materials and Methods

Participants.

The sample was selected through a non-probabilistic and intentional sampling, based on accessibility criteria. This sample consisted of 694 students belonging to four disciplines in the faculties of Educational Sciences and Psychology at the Universities of Malaga, Granada, and Seville, specifically in pedagogy, early childhood education, primary education, and psychology (see Table 1 ). Of the total participants, 6.9% were men and 93.1% were women. The difference in ratio between male and female students is due to the fact that the degrees considered in this research are biased by gender. As is well known, the educational trajectories between women and men differ and in some subjects one gender prevails over another. Specifically, in the degrees considered in this study, the female gender predominates over males.

Table 1. Distribution of students by bachelor degree.

Instruments

To assess the importance given to basic skills, a questionnaire consisting of 52 items was used, adapted from Gimeno-Santos and Martín-Cabello (2007) . The response format used was a Likert 4-point scale with the following options (1 = not at all, 2 = little, 3 = fairly, and 4 = a lot).

The items were grouped into five dimensions, each related to the basic skills expected of college students: Organizational and planning capacity (OP; e.g., “Have the necessary information to be able to carry out an academic work”); access to information sources (AF; e.g., “Knowing how to search in a library or newspaper archive for all the information you need”); analysis and synthesis of texts, situations, and people (AT; e.g., “Be able to synthesize a text”); teamwork (TE; e.g., “Actively listen to people”); and problem solving (RP; e.g., “Ability to understand that the same situation can have different ways of solution”).

The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated using Cronbach’s Alpha test based on the analysis of the responses of the 694 male and female students surveyed, and shows a high index of internal consistency (α = 0.895). For each scale, the reliability values were also adequate; specifically, for organizational and planning capacity, the α value was 0.716; access to information sources, 0.849; analysis and synthesis of texts, situations, and people, 0.835; teamwork was 0.725; and finally, in the problem-solving dimension, the α value was 0.800.

All data were collected during the second term of the academic year 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 at the Universities of Málaga, Granada, and Sevilla. Table 2 shows the distribution of students by universities and degrees.

Table 2. Distribution of students by universities and degrees.

At the beginning of each data collection session, a brief explanation of the test was given to the participants, urging them to answer the question “if you were a professional of… do you regard it as important.” In addition, informed consent was requested and provided, and the confidential nature of the information collected was communicated.

Data Analysis

The methodology used in this research was quantitative. First, a descriptive analysis of the variables among the degree courses and the different dimensions contemplated in the questionnaire was conducted. Subsequently, a t -test analysis to assess gender differences, and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was run to determine if there were differences in the importance given to skills based on the course taken. Then, in order to verify the differences between the groups, Tukey’s post-hoc test (multiple comparisons) was performed. Finally, to estimate the effect size, Cohen’s d for t -test and partial eta square (η 2 p ) for ANOVA was applied, with the following considerations in terms of value: for Cohen’s d values of 0.1 represents a small effect size, 0.3 represents a medium effect size and 0.5 represents a large effect size ( Field et al., 2012 ); for partial eta square: 0.0099 = small, 0.0588 = medium, and 0.1379 = large ( Richardson, 2011 ).

First, the means and standard deviations by dimension were analyzed, and the findings were that students, in general, attribute a high or very high average score to the importance of basic skills, with values exceeding three points out of four (see Figure 1 ). Therefore, it can be said that the skills perceived by students as more important or necessary for their professional development would be those framed in dimension 1 (organizational and planning capacity) followed by dimension 5 (problem solving), while those perceived as the least important for their professional career would be in dimension 2 (access to information sources).

Figure 1. Mean scores of basics skills.

Regarding gender, significant differences were observed between men and women in the importance given to Capacity for organization and planning ( t (687) = −3.675, p < 0.001, d = 0.374) and Problem solving ( t (687) = −3.476, p = 0.001, d = 0.354). In both cases, women scored higher than men in the importance given to these basic skills. In the case of Capacity for organization and planning, women scored on average 3.701 (SD = 0.375) and men 3.55 (SD = 0.385), for Problem solving women’s scores were on average 3.647 (SD = 0.350) and for men 3.521 (SD = 0.359).

Subsequently, an ANOVA was carried out to explore whether there were differences in the importance given to basic skills according to university degree ( Table 3 ). The results in all the analyses were significant, so the degree taken influences the importance attributed to the skills. The effect sizes were in all cases medium, with the lowest being for teamwork (0.039) and the highest for organization and planning capacity (0.070) and problem solving (0.066).

Table 3. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

To determine the differences between groups, the Tukey post-hoc contrast test was performed. The mean scores for each dimension by bachelor degree are shown in Table 3 .

With reference to the first dimension analyzed (capacity for organization and planning), significant differences are observed between the importance given to this dimension by the early childhood education degree students, whose score is significantly higher than students in the pedagogy degree ( p < 0.001; 95% CI = [0.1446, 0.3603]), primary education degree ( p < 0.001; 95% CI = 0.1333, 0.3149]) and psychology degree ( p < 0.001; 95% CI = [0.0696, 0.2980]).

An analysis of the second dimension (access to information sources), shows that primary education degree students score significantly lower in this dimension compared to students in pedagogy ( p < 0.001; 95% CI = [−0.3431, −0.0814]), early childhood education ( p < 0.001; 95% CI = [−0.3668, −0.1302]), and psychology ( p < 0.01; 95% CI = [−0.3246, −0.0452]) degrees.

In the case of the third dimension (analysis and synthesis of texts, situations, and people), the Tukey test revealed differences in the scores of studying early childhood education degree compared to primary education ( p < 0.001; 95% CI = [0.1133, 0.3088]) and psychology ( p < 0.05; 95% CI = [0.0185, 0.2645]) degrees, with early childhood education degree students scoring the highest in this dimension. In addition, students of the degree in pedagogy scored higher than those in primary education degree ( p < 0.05; 95% CI = [0.129, 0.2291]).

Referring to the analyses carried out on the fourth dimension (teamwork), statistically significant differences are once again observed between students of the pedagogy and early childhood education degrees ( p < 0.05; 95% CI = [−0.2104, −0.0031]), and between the early childhood education degree students and those taking the primary education ( p < 0.001; 95% CI = [0.0855, 0.2599]) and psychology degrees ( p < 0.01; 95% CI = [0.0456, 0.2651]), respectively. In all cases, the group of early childhood education degree students attributed greater importance to the teamwork dimension.

Finally, if we consider dimension 5 (problem solving), again the students of the early childhood education degree obtain a significantly higher score when compared with the students of the pedagogy ( p < 0.01; 95% CI = [0.0794, 0.2815]), primary education ( p < 0.001; 95% CI = [0.1211, 0.2912]) or psychology ( p < 0.001; 95% CI = [0.1226, 0.3366]) degrees.

In short, there are statistically significant differences between all the degrees participating in this research with slight nuances although, after the analyses, the students in early childhood education degree stand out as the group that placed the highest values on the five dimensions measured by the questionnaire, as basic and necessary skills required by an educational professional.

The objective of this paper was to evaluate the importance assigned to the acquisition of skills by 1st-year college students of different degrees and to identify if there are differences in such assessment depending on the type of studies, since different studies ( Rabanal et al., 2020 ; Sarceda and Barreira, 2021 ) show that academic training in competencies is one of the key points in the face of labor insertion, a comprehensive training that considers both personal and social motivations so highly valued in the world of work.

Overall, the results obtained show high scores in the importance attributed to basic skills by the four degrees considered in this research. Although a positive assessment by the students of the different groups is observed, according to our results, on the one hand, statistically significant differences were observed between the different study groups (degrees) and by gender, although with a moderate effect size. The sample of this work had a greater number of female participants, something common in education and psychology degrees in Spain. The two skills that have shown significant differences are usually associated with males, since there are gender stereotypes in relation to educational skills such as problem solving ( Zhu, 2007 ). It is possible that women, considering that they possess these skills to a lesser extent, attach more importance to their development than men.

On the other hand, we note that the early childhood education students placed highest value on the five basic skills included in this research compared to the three remaining groups (pedagogy, primary education, and psychology). All these differences observed between the different degrees can be explained, at least in part, by the characteristics of each degree and the target audience they are targeting.

Following this line of thought, the study undertaken by Meroño et al. (2018) indicates that, in addition to the perception of teachers and educational agents, it is necessary to be aware of the perception of students in their own skills learning since their opinion is essential to improve the learning processes in terms of skills. This is especially important in students with special educational needs, since the development of their abilities and skills require specialized attention from teachers ( Tanu and Kakkar, 2018 ; Kakkar, 2020 ).

This aspect arouses great interest, since the students’ perceptions of their own knowledge, the importance they give to the teaching methodology, and the motivation toward their teaching process is key to achieving greater involvement in their own training ( Castells et al., 2015 ; Martínez-Clares and González-Morga, 2018 ). In fact, one of the great challenges of the university is that the students become the main figure in their entire college learning process by actively participating in their training ( Silva, 2017 ; Pegalajar, 2020 ).

The importance of this research has to do with a recently coined term, “academic commitment,” which could be defined as a concept that includes a wide variety of student behaviors and academic practices such as time spent on academic tasks, adaptability, social and academic integration, and teaching methodology ( Kahu and Nelson, 2018 ). Basically, this concept refers to the importance of the opinions and well-being of the students in every way in order to achieve adequate academic preparation that helps them face the important changes that are taking place in society and specifically the demands of the job market ( Martínez-Clares and González-Lorente, 2018 ).

Therefore, it becomes necessary to remove one of the major drawbacks to planning and developing teaching–learning methodologies taught in universities such as the importance that has always been ascribed to the theoretical aspect of the subjects compared to the practical function. Several authors have pointed out that, in general, at university much importance is given to the theoretical content of subjects, while the job market demands that future workers “know how to do it” ( Alonso et al., 2009 ; Jackson, 2012 ; Torres and Vidal, 2015 ). This explains why some authors demand greater coordination between university training and the demands of the job market ( Cabrera et al., 2016 ).

Similarly, Ellwanger and Andreucci (2017) refer to the need for college professor teachers to undertake comprehensive training of students, so that in addition to theoretical knowledge, students develop practical and motivational skills. Regarding the development of practical skills, an important issue must be kept in mind, that is, to efficiently implement skills in the current academic curriculum design in universities ( Calderón et al., 2018 ; Glaesser, 2019 ; Ahmed and Khairy, 2020 ). This inevitably leads us to reflect on the training of professors in higher education to apply teaching–learning strategies based on skills, particularly basic skills. At this point, several problems in universities can be highlighted, the main issue being that despite working in a higher-level institution the vast majority of university teaching staff have not had specific training outside of the skills of their field of expertise, let alone received pedagogical training to carry out their professional careers, unlike the other educational levels. This is a paradox since they are required to teach skills without having previously received any training in this regard. Faced with this professional challenge, the pedagogical training of professors is key to professional success ( Más-Torello, 2011 ).

Another problem faced by professors is that they generally have very high ratios in the number of male and female students, and this renders a more personalized teaching among professor-students that favors the acquisition of skills impossible. Furthermore, the time availability of college teaching staff must be considered since, very often, professors do not have the available time to enable them to propose subjects, including the skills to be developed and the way to assess them ( Villarroel and Bruna, 2014 ). For this reason, it is essential that teachers participate in and grant special dedication to the inclusion of basic skills in their methodological strategies ( Villarroel and Bruna, 2014 ). It is essential for professors to reflect on and review these methodological strategies when considering the perception and importance placed by students on the acquisition of transversal, generic, or basic skills in their college studies ( Rodríguez-Gómez et al., 2018 ), as it has been possible to verify after the results of this research, since the 5 groups of students have a great motivation toward learning by competences.

Based on the above, we can affirm that, if students consider the inclusion of skills in the syllabus to be important, they will show a predisposition to be part of their skills learning and, with this, progress can be made in two basic aspects in the higher educational context. One of these aspects would be the progressive increase in the participation of students in their own college education, thus achieving a more autonomous and active role ( López-Núñez et al., 2019 ); and the other would be motivation in teaching methodologies, which is key to performance and would lead to academic success.

Within the inclusion of skills in the syllabus of the different degrees of our universities, the so-called generic, transversal, or basic skills are of special interest since, if the development of these most basic abilities and skills is encouraged, students will learn to adapt more satisfactorily in the social sphere and, more specifically, in the workplace in increasingly changing contexts. In this sense, Brussels has proposed the preparation of students for their adequate adaptation to the increasingly profound changes in the job market, training citizens of increasingly digital and global societies ( Consejo de la Unión Europea, 2018 ).

This study has some limitations: Although the sample is large, the data was collected at a single point in time. In the future, longitudinal studies should be added to establish the importance given to skills changes as students advance through the years. On the other hand, it would be useful to know the importance ascribed to these skills by those studying college degrees in other fields and to compare the results.

In conclusion, universities must prepare both professors and their students for the new challenges of the 21st century. It is necessary for professors to train in skills to be able to teach them. In addition, it is important to take into account the attitude and perception of all educational agents, and more especially the perception of students as the main educational agent in the university context. The need to identify which skills are demanded by the job market to adjust both the basic and specific skills of students in an academic context to the labor demands must be considered. For this reason, it is also essential to pay attention to the companies that employ graduates, since they provide hints on the skills currently being demanded in a changing society in which employment has to gradually transform and reinvent itself on a daily basis. In this way, the educational quality will increase, and the professional success of the students will be more likely.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Author Contributions

LA designed the study, supervised the data collection, and wrote the manuscript. EM-R carried out the statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript. LR supervised the data collection and assisted with writing the article and edited the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords : self-perceptions, basic skills, higher education, college students, attributed importance, teaching method

Citation: Aranda L, Mena-Rodríguez E and Rubio L (2022) Basic Skills in Higher Education: An Analysis of Attributed Importance. Front. Psychol. 13:752248. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.752248

Received: 02 August 2021; Accepted: 10 January 2022; Published: 08 February 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Aranda, Mena-Rodríguez and Rubio. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Lourdes Aranda, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Why do Study Skills Matter?

Posted on: February 10, 2020

Every student is familiar with the term ‘study skills.’ But not everyone really knows or understands what they are or why they matter. After all, if your grades are pretty good why you should worry about improving your study skills?

What are study skills?

Study skills are a range of approaches to learning that improve your ability to study, and to retain and recall information. Spending time on improving your study skills, no matter how good your grades are, has to be time well spent.

Some people are naturally good at time management but may struggle with critical thinking. Another student may be great at taking notes but isn’t great at putting a concept into their own words. To be able to really do your best in your studies and easily demonstrate your learning, you need to spend time developing your study skills.

Many universities will offer classes in improving study skills and it is always worth signing up for them. But there’s many things you can do yourself to push your studies forward that bit further.

Some key study skills

Time management.

Too many people think students have an easy life. After all, it’s all drinking, hangovers and having fun with your friends. Students only bother studying around exam time, right?

We all know that isn’t true. Yes, university is a lot of fun, but it is also a lot of hard work. Juggling your classes, coursework, and reading assignments alongside your part time job can be exhausting. When you’re busy studying your time management skills becomes essential. At the start of each term or semester, as soon as you get your timetable and course information, write down every due date then work backwards, deciding when you will need to begin each piece of coursework. Give yourself more time than you really need but stick to the planned dates to make sure you are prepared for any unexpected blocks in the road.

It’s also a good idea to block out a set time every day to study and, no matter what comes along, do your best to stick to it. Form good habits early in your university life and you will find it much easier, and with discipline you’ll find yourself achieving more.

Learning tools

We all learn differently. Some thrive in lectures, absorbing everything that is said. Others take copious notes in order to remember. For some, diagrams and charts are an important part of taking information on board. There are many tools out there to aid learning. Some will work for you and some won’t. Talk to your friends and find out what they do to make sure they remember important information and ideas. They may use tools that you have never encountered, tools that you may find really useful. Just make sure you share with them in return!

There are many useful ways of learning; flash-cards, mnemonics, mind-maps… there are so many tools that everyone can find something that works for them. If you find you’re struggling to grasp a concept, speak to your lecturer who will definitely have suggestions for how you can get a form hold of that idea. Don’t forget that they were students once too.

Note-taking

Taking good notes is an art form and there are many ways to make your notes work for you. It’s rarely helpful to write down everything, word-for-word, that you hear in a lecture. Instead, write down key thoughts or ideas that the speaker is discussing. Write down thoughts and questions that you have around the subject. Once the lecture is over try coding each separate concept in a different colour, with supporting points in the same colour as you’ve used for the concept. That way you’ll build up a bank of easy-to-reference notes throughout your course making things easier to find and easier to reference when you need them.

Revise your notes as soon as possible after you’re written them. Make sure that everything you’ve taken down makes sense, that you understand all the concepts and haven’t got any unfinished thoughts to confuse things. If any questions come out of your notes speak to your lecturer.

Critical thinking

What is critical thinking? Put simply it is using your reasoning abilities to challenge the ideas and concepts that you are learning about. It is a skill essential for many subjects of study and one that will prove useful in class discussions and in essay writing. It is likely that this a skill your lecturers will help you to develop, and for some courses there are focussed classes on it as well as many books available. Improving your critical thinking skills is essential to you being able to dig deeper and develop your understanding of your chosen subject of study and it will be of huge use in your day-to-day life too.

Ask questions

Is asking questions really a skill? Yes, it is. Apart from demonstrating to your teacher that you are an active participant in class it also enables you to find out more about areas that may be confusing you. It’s a way to (kindly) challenge what another class member has suggested and to help yourself gain a deeper understanding.

As has already been touched on, asking your lecturer questions when you’re stuck or need a clearer explanation will help you further in the course. It can be intimidating admitting that you don’t understand something, but every teacher was a student once and one of the reasons they are in this job is to help you do the best you can.

Study groups

Joining, or starting, a study group can be invaluable. It offers you the chance to support others on your course and to learn from them. The interaction will build your teamwork skills as well as friendships. You may find that other members of your study group have insights into your subject that haven’t occurred to you. And at the stressful times around coursework deadlines and exam periods you can test each other and help each other too.

In all of the pressure of university life, looking after yourself is a bit of a skill too. Don’t forget to set aside time to relax, to see friends, to exercise, or simply to sleep. With a deadline looming it can be tempting to spend every minute working on that essay or preparing for that exam. But evidence shows you will do worse if you haven’t been taking care of yourself.

Even if finding a spare half-hour seems impossible, it’s important to find it. Cook yourself a nice dinner, watch an episode of your favourite TV programme, find some way to relax. It may feel indulgent, but you’ll be glad you did later on.

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The Importance of Students’ Motivation for Their Academic Achievement – Replicating and Extending Previous Findings

Ricarda steinmayr.

1 Department of Psychology, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany

Anne F. Weidinger

Malte schwinger.

2 Department of Psychology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany

Birgit Spinath

3 Department of Psychology, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

Associated Data

The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

Achievement motivation is not a single construct but rather subsumes a variety of different constructs like ability self-concepts, task values, goals, and achievement motives. The few existing studies that investigated diverse motivational constructs as predictors of school students’ academic achievement above and beyond students’ cognitive abilities and prior achievement showed that most motivational constructs predicted academic achievement beyond intelligence and that students’ ability self-concepts and task values are more powerful in predicting their achievement than goals and achievement motives. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the reported previous findings can be replicated when ability self-concepts, task values, goals, and achievement motives are all assessed at the same level of specificity as the achievement criteria (e.g., hope for success in math and math grades). The sample comprised 345 11th and 12th grade students ( M = 17.48 years old, SD = 1.06) from the highest academic track (Gymnasium) in Germany. Students self-reported their ability self-concepts, task values, goal orientations, and achievement motives in math, German, and school in general. Additionally, we assessed their intelligence and their current and prior Grade point average and grades in math and German. Relative weight analyses revealed that domain-specific ability self-concept, motives, task values and learning goals but not performance goals explained a significant amount of variance in grades above all other predictors of which ability self-concept was the strongest predictor. Results are discussed with respect to their implications for investigating motivational constructs with different theoretical foundation.

Introduction

Achievement motivation energizes and directs behavior toward achievement and therefore is known to be an important determinant of academic success (e.g., Robbins et al., 2004 ; Hattie, 2009 ; Plante et al., 2013 ; Wigfield et al., 2016 ). Achievement motivation is not a single construct but rather subsumes a variety of different constructs like motivational beliefs, task values, goals, and achievement motives (see Murphy and Alexander, 2000 ; Wigfield and Cambria, 2010 ; Wigfield et al., 2016 ). Nevertheless, there is still a limited number of studies, that investigated (1) diverse motivational constructs in relation to students’ academic achievement in one sample and (2) additionally considered students’ cognitive abilities and their prior achievement ( Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009 ; Kriegbaum et al., 2015 ). Because students’ cognitive abilities and their prior achievement are among the best single predictors of academic success (e.g., Kuncel et al., 2004 ; Hailikari et al., 2007 ), it is necessary to include them in the analyses when evaluating the importance of motivational factors for students’ achievement. Steinmayr and Spinath (2009) did so and revealed that students’ domain-specific ability self-concepts followed by domain-specific task values were the best predictors of students’ math and German grades compared to students’ goals and achievement motives. However, a flaw of their study is that they did not assess all motivational constructs at the same level of specificity as the achievement criteria. For example, achievement motives were measured on a domain-general level (e.g., “Difficult problems appeal to me”), whereas students’ achievement as well as motivational beliefs and task values were assessed domain-specifically (e.g., math grades, math self-concept, math task values). The importance of students’ achievement motives for math and German grades might have been underestimated because the specificity levels of predictor and criterion variables did not match (e.g., Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977 ; Baranik et al., 2010 ). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the seminal findings by Steinmayr and Spinath (2009) will hold when motivational beliefs, task values, goals, and achievement motives are all assessed at the same level of specificity as the achievement criteria. This is an important question with respect to motivation theory and future research in this field. Moreover, based on the findings it might be possible to better judge which kind of motivation should especially be fostered in school to improve achievement. This is important information for interventions aiming at enhancing students’ motivation in school.

Theoretical Relations Between Achievement Motivation and Academic Achievement

We take a social-cognitive approach to motivation (see also Pintrich et al., 1993 ; Elliot and Church, 1997 ; Wigfield and Cambria, 2010 ). This approach emphasizes the important role of students’ beliefs and their interpretations of actual events, as well as the role of the achievement context for motivational dynamics (see Weiner, 1992 ; Pintrich et al., 1993 ; Wigfield and Cambria, 2010 ). Social cognitive models of achievement motivation (e.g., expectancy-value theory by Eccles and Wigfield, 2002 ; hierarchical model of achievement motivation by Elliot and Church, 1997 ) comprise a variety of motivation constructs that can be organized in two broad categories (see Pintrich et al., 1993 , p. 176): students’ “beliefs about their capability to perform a task,” also called expectancy components (e.g., ability self-concepts, self-efficacy), and their “motivational beliefs about their reasons for choosing to do a task,” also called value components (e.g., task values, goals). The literature on motivation constructs from these categories is extensive (see Wigfield and Cambria, 2010 ). In this article, we focus on selected constructs, namely students’ ability self-concepts (from the category “expectancy components of motivation”), and their task values and goal orientations (from the category “value components of motivation”).

According to the social cognitive perspective, students’ motivation is relatively situation or context specific (see Pintrich et al., 1993 ). To gain a comprehensive picture of the relation between students’ motivation and their academic achievement, we additionally take into account a traditional personality model of motivation, the theory of the achievement motive ( McClelland et al., 1953 ), according to which students’ motivation is conceptualized as a relatively stable trait. Thus, we consider the achievement motives hope for success and fear of failure besides students’ ability self-concepts, their task values, and goal orientations in this article. In the following, we describe the motivation constructs in more detail.

Students’ ability self-concepts are defined as cognitive representations of their ability level ( Marsh, 1990 ; Wigfield et al., 2016 ). Ability self-concepts have been shown to be domain-specific from the early school years on (e.g., Wigfield et al., 1997 ). Consequently, they are frequently assessed with regard to a certain domain (e.g., with regard to school in general vs. with regard to math).

In the present article, task values are defined in the sense of the expectancy-value model by Eccles et al. (1983) and Eccles and Wigfield (2002) . According to the expectancy-value model there are three task values that should be positively associated with achievement, namely intrinsic values, utility value, and personal importance ( Eccles and Wigfield, 1995 ). Because task values are domain-specific from the early school years on (e.g., Eccles et al., 1993 ; Eccles and Wigfield, 1995 ), they are also assessed with reference to specific subjects (e.g., “How much do you like math?”) or on a more general level with regard to school in general (e.g., “How much do you like going to school?”).

Students’ goal orientations are broader cognitive orientations that students have toward their learning and they reflect the reasons for doing a task (see Dweck and Leggett, 1988 ). Therefore, they fall in the broad category of “value components of motivation.” Initially, researchers distinguished between learning and performance goals when describing goal orientations ( Nicholls, 1984 ; Dweck and Leggett, 1988 ). Learning goals (“task involvement” or “mastery goals”) describe people’s willingness to improve their skills, learn new things, and develop their competence, whereas performance goals (“ego involvement”) focus on demonstrating one’s higher competence and hiding one’s incompetence relative to others (e.g., Elliot and McGregor, 2001 ). Performance goals were later further subdivided into performance-approach (striving to demonstrate competence) and performance-avoidance goals (striving to avoid looking incompetent, e.g., Elliot and Church, 1997 ; Middleton and Midgley, 1997 ). Some researchers have included work avoidance as another component of achievement goals (e.g., Nicholls, 1984 ; Harackiewicz et al., 1997 ). Work avoidance refers to the goal of investing as little effort as possible ( Kumar and Jagacinski, 2011 ). Goal orientations can be assessed in reference to specific subjects (e.g., math) or on a more general level (e.g., in reference to school in general).

McClelland et al. (1953) distinguish the achievement motives hope for success (i.e., positive emotions and the belief that one can succeed) and fear of failure (i.e., negative emotions and the fear that the achievement situation is out of one’s depth). According to McClelland’s definition, need for achievement is measured by describing affective experiences or associations such as fear or joy in achievement situations. Achievement motives are conceptualized as being relatively stable over time. Consequently, need for achievement is theorized to be domain-general and, thus, usually assessed without referring to a certain domain or situation (e.g., Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009 ). However, Sparfeldt and Rost (2011) demonstrated that operationalizing achievement motives subject-specifically is psychometrically useful and results in better criterion validities compared with a domain-general operationalization.

Empirical Evidence on the Relative Importance of Achievement Motivation Constructs for Academic Achievement

A myriad of single studies (e.g., Linnenbrink-Garcia et al., 2018 ; Muenks et al., 2018 ; Steinmayr et al., 2018 ) and several meta-analyses (e.g., Robbins et al., 2004 ; Möller et al., 2009 ; Hulleman et al., 2010 ; Huang, 2011 ) support the hypothesis of social cognitive motivation models that students’ motivational beliefs are significantly related to their academic achievement. However, to judge the relative importance of motivation constructs for academic achievement, studies need (1) to investigate diverse motivational constructs in one sample and (2) to consider students’ cognitive abilities and their prior achievement, too, because the latter are among the best single predictors of academic success (e.g., Kuncel et al., 2004 ; Hailikari et al., 2007 ). For effective educational policy and school reform, it is crucial to obtain robust empirical evidence for whether various motivational constructs can explain variance in school performance over and above intelligence and prior achievement. Without including the latter constructs, we might overestimate the importance of motivation for achievement. Providing evidence that students’ achievement motivation is incrementally valid in predicting their academic achievement beyond their intelligence or prior achievement would emphasize the necessity of designing appropriate interventions for improving students’ school-related motivation.

There are several studies that included expectancy and value components of motivation as predictors of students’ academic achievement (grades or test scores) and additionally considered students’ prior achievement ( Marsh et al., 2005 ; Steinmayr et al., 2018 , Study 1) or their intelligence ( Spinath et al., 2006 ; Lotz et al., 2018 ; Schneider et al., 2018 ; Steinmayr et al., 2018 , Study 2, Weber et al., 2013 ). However, only few studies considered intelligence and prior achievement together with more than two motivational constructs as predictors of school students’ achievement ( Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009 ; Kriegbaum et al., 2015 ). Kriegbaum et al. (2015) examined two expectancy components (i.e., ability self-concept and self-efficacy) and eight value components (i.e., interest, enjoyment, usefulness, learning goals, performance-approach, performance-avoidance goals, and work avoidance) in the domain of math. Steinmayr and Spinath (2009) investigated the role of an expectancy component (i.e., ability self-concept), five value components (i.e., task values, learning goals, performance-approach, performance-avoidance goals, and work avoidance), and students’ achievement motives (i.e., hope for success, fear of failure, and need for achievement) for students’ grades in math and German and their GPA. Both studies used relative weights analyses to compare the predictive power of all variables simultaneously while taking into account multicollinearity of the predictors ( Johnson and LeBreton, 2004 ; Tonidandel and LeBreton, 2011 ). Findings showed that – after controlling for differences in students‘ intelligence and their prior achievement – expectancy components (ability self-concept, self-efficacy) were the best motivational predictors of achievement followed by task values (i.e., intrinsic/enjoyment, attainment, and utility), need for achievement and learning goals ( Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009 ; Kriegbaum et al., 2015 ). However, Steinmayr and Spinath (2009) who investigated the relations in three different domains did not assess all motivational constructs on the same level of specificity as the achievement criteria. More precisely, students’ achievement as well as motivational beliefs and task values were assessed domain-specifically (e.g., math grades, math self-concept, math task values), whereas students’ goals were only measured for school in general (e.g., “In school it is important for me to learn as much as possible”) and students’ achievement motives were only measured on a domain-general level (e.g., “Difficult problems appeal to me”). Thus, the importance of goals and achievement motives for math and German grades might have been underestimated because the specificity levels of predictor and criterion variables did not match (e.g., Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977 ; Baranik et al., 2010 ). Assessing students’ goals and their achievement motives with reference to a specific subject might result in higher associations with domain-specific achievement criteria (see Sparfeldt and Rost, 2011 ).

Taken together, although previous work underlines the important roles of expectancy and value components of motivation for school students’ academic achievement, hitherto, we know little about the relative importance of expectancy components, task values, goals, and achievement motives in different domains when all of them are assessed at the same level of specificity as the achievement criteria (e.g., achievement motives in math → math grades; ability self-concept for school → GPA).

The Present Research

The goal of the present study was to examine the relative importance of several of the most important achievement motivation constructs in predicting school students’ achievement. We substantially extend previous work in this field by considering (1) diverse motivational constructs, (2) students’ intelligence and their prior achievement as achievement predictors in one sample, and (3) by assessing all predictors on the same level of specificity as the achievement criteria. Moreover, we investigated the relations in three different domains: school in general, math, and German. Because there is no study that assessed students’ goal orientations and achievement motives besides their ability self-concept and task values on the same level of specificity as the achievement criteria, we could not derive any specific hypotheses on the relative importance of these constructs, but instead investigated the following research question (RQ):

RQ. What is the relative importance of students’ domain-specific ability self-concepts, task values, goal orientations, and achievement motives for their grades in the respective domain when including all of them, students’ intelligence and prior achievement simultaneously in the analytic models?

Materials and Methods

Participants and procedure.

A sample of 345 students was recruited from two German schools attending the highest academic track (Gymnasium). Only 11th graders participated at one school, whereas 11th and 12th graders participated at the other. Students of the different grades and schools did not differ significantly on any of the assessed measures. Students represented the typical population of this type of school in Germany; that is, the majority was Caucasian and came from medium to high socioeconomic status homes. At the time of testing, students were on average 17.48 years old ( SD = 1.06). As is typical for this kind of school, the sample comprised more girls ( n = 200) than boys ( n = 145). We verify that the study is in accordance with established ethical guidelines. Approval by an ethics committee was not required as per the institution’s guidelines and applicable regulations in the federal state where the study was conducted. Participation was voluntarily and no deception took place. Before testing, we received written informed consent forms from the students and from the parents of the students who were under the age of 18 on the day of the testing. If students did not want to participate, they could spend the testing time in their teacher’s room with an extra assignment. All students agreed to participate. Testing took place during regular classes in schools in 2013. Tests were administered by trained research assistants and lasted about 2.5 h. Students filled in the achievement motivation questionnaires first, and the intelligence test was administered afterward. Before the intelligence test, there was a short break.

Ability Self-Concept

Students’ ability self-concepts were assessed with four items per domain ( Schöne et al., 2002 ). Students indicated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree) how good they thought they were at different activities in school in general, math, and German (“I am good at school in general/math/German,” “It is easy to for me to learn in school in general/math/German,” “In school in general/math/German, I know a lot,” and “Most assignments in school/math/German are easy for me”). Internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) of the ability self-concept scale was high in school in general, in math, and in German (0.82 ≤ α ≤ 0.95; see Table 1 ).

Means ( M ), Standard Deviations ( SD ), and Reliabilities (α) for all measures.

Task Values

Students’ task values were assessed with an established German scale (SESSW; Subjective scholastic value scale; Steinmayr and Spinath, 2010 ). The measure is an adaptation of items used by Eccles and Wigfield (1995) in different studies. It assesses intrinsic values, utility, and personal importance with three items each. Students indicated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree) how much they valued school in general, math, and German (Intrinsic values: “I like school/math/German,” “I enjoy doing things in school/math/German,” and “I find school in general/math/German interesting”; Utility: “How useful is what you learn in school/math/German in general?,” “School/math/German will be useful in my future,” “The things I learn in school/math/German will be of use in my future life”; Personal importance: “Being good at school/math/German is important to me,” “To be good at school/math/German means a lot to me,” “Attainment in school/math/German is important to me”). Internal consistency of the values scale was high in all domains (0.90 ≤ α ≤ 0.93; see Table 1 ).

Goal Orientations

Students’ goal orientations were assessed with an established German self-report measure (SELLMO; Scales for measuring learning and achievement motivation; Spinath et al., 2002 ). In accordance with Sparfeldt et al. (2007) , we assessed goal orientations with regard to different domains: school in general, math, and German. In each domain, we used the SELLMO to assess students’ learning goals, performance-avoidance goals, and work avoidance with eight items each and their performance-approach goals with seven items. Students’ answered the items on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree). All items except for the work avoidance items are printed in Spinath and Steinmayr (2012) , p. 1148). A sample item to assess work avoidance is: “In school/math/German, it is important to me to do as little work as possible.” Internal consistency of the learning goals scale was high in all domains (0.83 ≤ α ≤ 0.88). The same was true for performance-approach goals (0.85 ≤ α ≤ 0.88), performance-avoidance goals (α = 0.89), and work avoidance (0.91 ≤ α ≤ 0.92; see Table 1 ).

Achievement Motives

Achievement motives were assessed with the Achievement Motives Scale (AMS; Gjesme and Nygard, 1970 ; Göttert and Kuhl, 1980 ). In the present study, we used a short form measuring “hope for success” and “fear of failure” with the seven items per subscale that showed the highest factor loadings. Both subscales were assessed in three domains: school in general, math, and German. Students’ answered all items on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (does not apply at all) to 4 (fully applies). An example hope for success item is “In school/math/German, difficult problems appeal to me,” and an example fear of failure item is “In school/math/German, matters that are slightly difficult disconcert me.” Internal consistencies of hope for success and fear of failure scales were high in all domains (hope for success: 0.88 ≤ α ≤ 0.92; fear of failure: 0.90 ≤ α ≤ 0.91; see Table 1 ).

Intelligence

Intelligence was measured with the basic module of the Intelligence Structure Test 2000 R, a well-established German multifactor intelligence measure (I-S-T 2000 R; Amthauer et al., 2001 ). The basic module of the test offers assessments of domain-specific intelligence for verbal, numeric, and figural abilities as well as an overall intelligence score (a composite of the three facets). The overall intelligence score is thought to measure reasoning as a higher order factor of intelligence and can be interpreted as a measure of general intelligence, g . Its construct validity has been demonstrated in several studies ( Amthauer et al., 2001 ; Steinmayr and Amelang, 2006 ). In the present study, we used the scores that were closest to the domains we investigated: overall intelligence, numerical intelligence, and verbal intelligence (see also Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009 ). Raw values could range from 0 to 60 for verbal and numerical intelligence, and from 0 to 180 for overall intelligence. Internal consistencies of all intelligence scales were high (0.71 ≤ α ≤ 0.90; see Table 1 ).

Academic Achievement

For all students, the school delivered the report cards that the students received 3 months before testing (t0) and 4 months after testing (t2), at the end of the term in which testing took place. We assessed students’ grades in German and math as well as their overall grade point average (GPA) as criteria for school performance. GPA was computed as the mean of all available grades, not including grades in the nonacademic domains Sports and Music/Art as they did not correlate with the other grades. Grades ranged from 1 to 6, and were recoded so that higher numbers represented better performance.

Statistical Analyses

We conducted relative weight analyses to predict students’ academic achievement separately in math, German, and school in general. The relative weight analysis is a statistical procedure that enables to determine the relative importance of each predictor in a multiple regression analysis (“relative weight”) and to take adequately into account the multicollinearity of the different motivational constructs (for details, see Johnson and LeBreton, 2004 ; Tonidandel and LeBreton, 2011 ). Basically, it uses a variable transformation approach to create a new set of predictors that are orthogonal to one another (i.e., uncorrelated). Then, the criterion is regressed on these new orthogonal predictors, and the resulting standardized regression coefficients can be used because they no longer suffer from the deleterious effects of multicollinearity. These standardized regression weights are then transformed back into the metric of the original predictors. The rescaled relative weight of a predictor can easily be transformed into the percentage of variance that is uniquely explained by this predictor when dividing the relative weight of the specific predictor by the total variance explained by all predictors in the regression model ( R 2 ). We performed the relative weight analyses in three steps. In Model 1, we included the different achievement motivation variables assessed in the respective domain in the analyses. In Model 2, we entered intelligence into the analyses in addition to the achievement motivation variables. In Model 3, we included prior school performance indicated by grades measured before testing in addition to all of the motivation variables and intelligence. For all three steps, we tested for whether all relative weight factors differed significantly from each other (see Johnson, 2004 ) to determine which motivational construct was most important in predicting academic achievement (RQ).

Descriptive Statistics and Intercorrelations

Table 1 shows means, standard deviations, and reliabilities. Tables 2 –4 show the correlations between all scales in school in general, in math, and in German. Of particular relevance here, are the correlations between the motivational constructs and students’ school grades. In all three domains (i.e., school in general/math/German), out of all motivational predictor variables, students’ ability self-concepts showed the strongest associations with subsequent grades ( r = 0.53/0.61/0.46; see Tables 2 –4 ). Except for students’ performance-avoidance goals (−0.04 ≤ r ≤ 0.07, p > 0.05), the other motivational constructs were also significantly related to school grades. Most of the respective correlations were evenly dispersed around a moderate effect size of | r | = 0.30.

Intercorrelations between all variables in school in general.

Intercorrelations between all variables in German.

Intercorrelations between all variables in math.

Relative Weight Analyses

Table 5 presents the results of the relative weight analyses. In Model 1 (only motivational variables) and Model 2 (motivation and intelligence), respectively, the overall explained variance was highest for math grades ( R 2 = 0.42 and R 2 = 0.42, respectively) followed by GPA ( R 2 = 0.30 and R 2 = 0.34, respectively) and grades in German ( R 2 = 0.26 and R 2 = 0.28, respectively). When prior school grades were additionally considered (Model 3) the largest amount of variance was explained in students’ GPA ( R 2 = 0.73), followed by grades in German ( R 2 = 0.59) and math ( R 2 = 0.57). In the following, we will describe the results of Model 3 for each domain in more detail.

Relative weights and percentages of explained criterion variance (%) for all motivational constructs (Model 1) plus intelligence (Model 2) plus prior school achievement (Model 3).

Beginning with the prediction of students’ GPA: In Model 3, students’ prior GPA explained more variance in subsequent GPA than all other predictor variables (68%). Students’ ability self-concept explained significantly less variance than prior GPA but still more than all other predictors that we considered (14%). The relative weights of students’ intelligence (5%), task values (2%), hope for success (4%), and fear of failure (3%) did not differ significantly from each other but were still significantly different from zero ( p < 0.05). The relative weights of students’ goal orientations were not significant in Model 3.

Turning to math grades: The findings of the relative weight analyses for the prediction of math grades differed slightly from the prediction of GPA. In Model 3, the relative weights of numerical intelligence (2%) and performance-approach goals (2%) in math were no longer different from zero ( p > 0.05); in Model 2 they were. Prior math grades explained the largest share of the unique variance in subsequent math grades (45%), followed by math self-concept (19%). The relative weights of students’ math task values (9%), learning goals (5%), work avoidance (7%), and hope for success (6%) did not differ significantly from each other. Students’ fear of failure in math explained the smallest amount of unique variance in their math grades (4%) but the relative weight of students’ fear of failure did not differ significantly from that of students’ hope for success, work avoidance, and learning goals. The relative weights of students’ performance-avoidance goals were not significant in Model 3.

Turning to German grades: In Model 3, students’ prior grade in German was the strongest predictor (64%), followed by German self-concept (10%). Students’ fear of failure in German (6%), their verbal intelligence (4%), task values (4%), learning goals (4%), and hope for success (4%) explained less variance in German grades and did not differ significantly from each other but were significantly different from zero ( p < 0.05). The relative weights of students’ performance goals and work avoidance were not significant in Model 3.

In the present studies, we aimed to investigate the relative importance of several achievement motivation constructs in predicting students’ academic achievement. We sought to overcome the limitations of previous research in this field by (1) considering several theoretically and empirically distinct motivational constructs, (2) students’ intelligence, and their prior achievement, and (3) by assessing all predictors at the same level of specificity as the achievement criteria. We applied sophisticated statistical procedures to investigate the relations in three different domains, namely school in general, math, and German.

Relative Importance of Achievement Motivation Constructs for Academic Achievement

Out of the motivational predictor variables, students’ ability self-concepts explained the largest amount of variance in their academic achievement across all sets of analyses and across all investigated domains. Even when intelligence and prior grades were controlled for, students’ ability self-concepts accounted for at least 10% of the variance in the criterion. The relative superiority of ability self-perceptions is in line with the available literature on this topic (e.g., Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009 ; Kriegbaum et al., 2015 ; Steinmayr et al., 2018 ) and with numerous studies that have investigated the relations between students’ self-concept and their achievement (e.g., Möller et al., 2009 ; Huang, 2011 ). Ability self-concepts showed even higher relative weights than the corresponding intelligence scores. Whereas some previous studies have suggested that self-concepts and intelligence are at least equally important when predicting students’ grades (e.g., Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009 ; Weber et al., 2013 ; Schneider et al., 2018 ), our findings indicate that it might be even more important to believe in own school-related abilities than to possess outstanding cognitive capacities to achieve good grades (see also Lotz et al., 2018 ). Such a conclusion was supported by the fact that we examined the relative importance of all predictor variables across three domains and at the same levels of specificity, thus maximizing criterion-related validity (see Baranik et al., 2010 ). This procedure represents a particular strength of our study and sets it apart from previous studies in the field (e.g., Steinmayr and Spinath, 2009 ). Alternatively, our findings could be attributed to the sample we investigated at least to some degree. The students examined in the present study were selected for the academic track in Germany, and this makes them rather homogeneous in their cognitive abilities. It is therefore plausible to assume that the restricted variance in intelligence scores decreased the respective criterion validities.

When all variables were assessed at the same level of specificity, the achievement motives hope for success and fear of failure were the second and third best motivational predictors of academic achievement and more important than in the study by Steinmayr and Spinath (2009) . This result underlines the original conceptualization of achievement motives as broad personal tendencies that energize approach or avoidance behavior across different contexts and situations ( Elliot, 2006 ). However, the explanatory power of achievement motives was higher in the more specific domains of math and German, thereby also supporting the suggestion made by Sparfeldt and Rost (2011) to conceptualize achievement motives more domain-specifically. Conceptually, achievement motives and ability self-concepts are closely related. Individuals who believe in their ability to succeed often show greater hope for success than fear of failure and vice versa ( Brunstein and Heckhausen, 2008 ). It is thus not surprising that the two constructs showed similar stability in their relative effects on academic achievement across the three investigated domains. Concerning the specific mechanisms through which students’ achievement motives and ability self-concepts affect their achievement, it seems that they elicit positive or negative valences in students, and these valences in turn serve as simple but meaningful triggers of (un)successful school-related behavior. The large and consistent effects for students’ ability self-concept and their hope for success in our study support recommendations from positive psychology that individuals think positively about the future and regularly provide affirmation to themselves by reminding themselves of their positive attributes ( Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000 ). Future studies could investigate mediation processes. Theoretically, it would make sense that achievement motives defined as broad personal tendencies affect academic achievement via expectancy beliefs like ability self-concepts (e.g., expectancy-value theory by Eccles and Wigfield, 2002 ; see also, Atkinson, 1957 ).

Although task values and learning goals did not contribute much toward explaining the variance in GPA, these two constructs became even more important for explaining variance in math and German grades. As Elliot (2006) pointed out in his hierarchical model of approach-avoidance motivation, achievement motives serve as basic motivational principles that energize behavior. However, they do not guide the precise direction of the energized behavior. Instead, goals and task values are commonly recruited to strategically guide this basic motivation toward concrete aims that address the underlying desire or concern. Our results are consistent with Elliot’s (2006) suggestions. Whereas basic achievement motives are equally important at abstract and specific achievement levels, task values and learning goals release their full explanatory power with increasing context-specificity as they affect students’ concrete actions in a given school subject. At this level of abstraction, task values and learning goals compete with more extrinsic forms of motivation, such as performance goals. Contrary to several studies in achievement-goal research, we did not demonstrate the importance of either performance-approach or performance-avoidance goals for academic achievement.

Whereas students’ ability self-concept showed a high relative importance above and beyond intelligence, with few exceptions, each of the remaining motivation constructs explained less than 5% of the variance in students’ academic achievement in the full model including intelligence measures. One might argue that the high relative importance of students’ ability self-concept is not surprising because students’ ability self-concepts more strongly depend on prior grades than the other motivation constructs. Prior grades represent performance feedback and enable achievement comparisons that are seen as the main determinants of students’ ability self-concepts (see Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2002 ). However, we included students’ prior grades in the analyses and students’ ability self-concepts still were the most powerful predictors of academic achievement out of the achievement motivation constructs that were considered. It is thus reasonable to conclude that the high relative importance of students’ subjective beliefs about their abilities is not only due to the overlap of this believes with prior achievement.

Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research

Our study confirms and extends the extant work on the power of students’ ability self-concept net of other important motivation variables even when important methodological aspects are considered. Strength of the study is the simultaneous investigation of different achievement motivation constructs in different academic domains. Nevertheless, we restricted the range of motivation constructs to ability self-concepts, task values, goal orientations, and achievement motives. It might be interesting to replicate the findings with other motivation constructs such as academic self-efficacy ( Pajares, 2003 ), individual interest ( Renninger and Hidi, 2011 ), or autonomous versus controlled forms of motivation ( Ryan and Deci, 2000 ). However, these constructs are conceptually and/or empirically very closely related to the motivation constructs we considered (e.g., Eccles and Wigfield, 1995 ; Marsh et al., 2018 ). Thus, it might well be the case that we would find very similar results for self-efficacy instead of ability self-concept as one example.

A second limitation is that we only focused on linear relations between motivation and achievement using a variable-centered approach. Studies that considered different motivation constructs and used person-centered approaches revealed that motivation factors interact with each other and that there are different profiles of motivation that are differently related to students’ achievement (e.g., Conley, 2012 ; Schwinger et al., 2016 ). An important avenue for future studies on students’ motivation is to further investigate these interactions in different academic domains.

Another limitation that might suggest a potential avenue for future research is the fact that we used only grades as an indicator of academic achievement. Although, grades are of high practical relevance for the students, they do not necessarily indicate how much students have learned, how much they know and how creative they are in the respective domain (e.g., Walton and Spencer, 2009 ). Moreover, there is empirical evidence that the prediction of academic achievement differs according to the particular criterion that is chosen (e.g., Lotz et al., 2018 ). Using standardized test performance instead of grades might lead to different results.

Our study is also limited to 11th and 12th graders attending the highest academic track in Germany. More balanced samples are needed to generalize the findings. A recent study ( Ben-Eliyahu, 2019 ) that investigated the relations between different motivational constructs (i.e., goal orientations, expectancies, and task values) and self-regulated learning in university students revealed higher relations for gifted students than for typical students. This finding indicates that relations between different aspects of motivation might differ between academically selected samples and unselected samples.

Finally, despite the advantages of relative weight analyses, this procedure also has some shortcomings. Most important, it is based on manifest variables. Thus, differences in criterion validity might be due in part to differences in measurement error. However, we are not aware of a latent procedure that is comparable to relative weight analyses. It might be one goal for methodological research to overcome this shortcoming.

We conducted the present research to identify how different aspects of students’ motivation uniquely contribute to differences in students’ achievement. Our study demonstrated the relative importance of students’ ability self-concepts, their task values, learning goals, and achievement motives for students’ grades in different academic subjects above and beyond intelligence and prior achievement. Findings thus broaden our knowledge on the role of students’ motivation for academic achievement. Students’ ability self-concept turned out to be the most important motivational predictor of students’ grades above and beyond differences in their intelligence and prior grades, even when all predictors were assessed domain-specifically. Out of two students with similar intelligence scores, same prior achievement, and similar task values, goals and achievement motives in a domain, the student with a higher domain-specific ability self-concept will receive better school grades in the respective domain. Therefore, there is strong evidence that believing in own competencies is advantageous with respect to academic achievement. This finding shows once again that it is a promising approach to implement validated interventions aiming at enhancing students’ domain-specific ability-beliefs in school (see also Muenks et al., 2017 ; Steinmayr et al., 2018 ).

Data Availability

Ethics statement.

In Germany, institutional approval was not required by default at the time the study was conducted. That is, why we cannot provide a formal approval by the institutional ethics committee. We verify that the study is in accordance with established ethical guidelines. Participation was voluntarily and no deception took place. Before testing, we received informed consent forms from the parents of the students who were under the age of 18 on the day of the testing. If students did not want to participate, they could spend the testing time in their teacher’s room with an extra assignment. All students agreed to participate. We included this information also in the manuscript.

Author Contributions

RS conceived and supervised the study, curated the data, performed the formal analysis, investigated the results, developed the methodology, administered the project, and wrote, reviewed, and edited the manuscript. AW wrote, reviewed, and edited the manuscript. MS performed the formal analysis, and wrote, reviewed, and edited the manuscript. BS conceived the study, and wrote, reviewed, and edited the manuscript.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Funding. We acknowledge financial support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Technische Universität Dortmund/TU Dortmund University within the funding programme Open Access Publishing.

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by Elef Moschou

Last semester I joined the ELSP (English Language Support Project) as a volunteer. As a participant I speak to various new students, and we discussed about the university life and Aberdeen. This programme is an excellent opportunity to develop my speaking skills. During university you might often be called to present your work, structured and cohesive speaking will be very helpful. Being a good presenter will also enable you to have a more structured way of thinking when planning essays or during tests. Moreover, joining us, the content creators, and/or the university newspaper, The Gaudie, will also assist you in developing your writing and speaking skills. As creative writing allows you to further develop your thinking process it can be useful even if you are in a degree programme that does not require essay writing.

The university’s Student Learning Service also offers creative writing resources, workshops, and individual sessions. In my opinion, especially when your programme does not require a particular skill, it gives you an extra reason to try and develop it on your own. Having a well-rounded skillset will enhance your employability and it will be beneficial in other aspects of your life. The Student Learning Service furthermore provides more academic assistance. Including academic writing, you can find math support and assistance in studying. What I personally appreciate a lot is that you can choose whether you want to be alone or in a group. Needless to say that professional help is always better when you do not know where to start from.

Enhancing your academic skills can be achieved through multiple ways. Finding the right way for you and your needs can ensure higher success. Don’t fear trying out new things and asking for help. When trying out something, whether it is a society, going for walks or even something as simple as cleaning, make the most out of it and be active in experiencing life. Go take a look on the resources available and tell me all about it in the comments, good luck.

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5 Strategies for Academic Success: Using Your Strengths

These five tips show you how to keep a clear head and have a successful semester.

Rebecca Bakken

The start of the semester can be a hectic time. You’re juggling your career, classes, family, and friends. Deb Levy , a certified life and business coach, and a Harvard Extension career workshop leader, offers five tips in this video to help you succeed in your coursework.

Know your strengths.

It’s human nature to want to correct weaknesses. But knowing your strengths and how to use them effectively can have a much more substantial effect on success and well-being. So how can you reframe your thinking?

According to Deb Levy, the field of positive psychology offers many useful tools. One in particular—the Character Strengths Test from VIA Institute on Character—can help you gauge your strengths and weaknesses. The test ranks users’ character strengths from strongest to weakest, allowing for an objective view into where you excel and where you may need work.

Once you know what your strengths are, you can play to them. But it’s also important to know that sometimes strengths need to be tempered.

“Every strength if overused becomes a deficit,” says Levy.

For instance, someone who ranks highly in humor might run the risk of making an insensitive or inappropriate comment that could damage relationships.

Making a plan to bolster weaknesses while remaining conscious of strengths can be a great strategy to ensure not just academic success, but personal fulfillment.

Set specific goals.

Achieving your goals depends heavily on how well you can manage your time. Levy recommends making a priority pie that maps out how you’ll divide your time over the course of a semester.

“When you say yes to becoming a student, you have to say no to other things,” she says. “So goal-setting requires a strategic plan for the semester. Students who do better in general are the ones who take time to plan.”

Your priority pie should reflect all your personal, professional, and academic endeavors. For example:

Your priority pie should include not just classes and your work day, but also time for family, studying and homework, and self-care like going to the gym or getting a regular massage.

Levy stresses that the best goals are specific, personal, and flexible.

Prioritize happiness.

Feeling good about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it is the best way to ensure success. According to Levy, happiness often leads to success, but success on its own may not lead to happiness.

As such, prioritizing your own wellness is key to reaching your goals. Levy says well-being  consists of positive emotions, engagement, meaning, and achievement.

“By nature of being in school people are already prioritizing well-being. They’re getting engaged, working on accomplishments,” says Levy.

Read our blog post on work-life balance

Aside from making time for yourself, you can practice building positivity.

One exercise that Levy recommends is writing down three good things at the end of each day. These can be things you’re proud of, things you’re grateful for, or things that simply bring a smile to your face.

Studying subjects that give your life purpose or meaning can also be beneficial.

“People who connect meaning to their goals are more motivated,” says Levy

Be resilient.

Even with a good plan, obstacles will arise. How well you deal with those obstacles depends on your perspective.

In resilience coaching, Levy often refers to the work of psychologist Carol Dweck. Her research identifies two basic mindsets: fixed and growth. Fixed mindsets view mistakes or setbacks as insurmountable. Growth mindsets view them as opportunities for positive change.

If you lean toward a fixed mindset, the good news is that it’s not permanent. No one falls into one mindset 100 percent of the time. Training your brain to see opportunity where you once saw a roadblock is possible.

“Give yourself permission to be human,” Levy says. “Predict you’re going to make mistakes.”

One way to build resilience is by preparing for obstacles with implementation intentions , which are if–then plans designed to help people achieve goals. For example, “If I can’t get the financial aid I need, then I will reallocate money from my vacation or entertainment budgets.”

Setting these intentions gives you a default answer that helps you stick to your plan without having to deliberate or make a snap decision.

Have questions? Contact our Enrollment Services team

Make time to recover.

Rather than avoiding stress altogether, Levy recommends setting aside time to mentally and physically recover.

As a student, you may sometimes fall into a “stretch zone,” where you’re extending yourself to accommodate for different obligations. Periods of stress can actually be positive and motivating if they expand your perception of what’s possible.

But it can lead to chronic stress when you don’t build in time to recover.

Viewing your eight hours of sleep every night as sacrosanct can go a long way toward staving off chronic stress. So before you pull another all-nighter, think about the effects it may have on you the next day.

Taking breaks, setting aside time for meals, and enjoying recreation can help fuel you and keep you on course to achieve your goals.

For more information from Deb Levy on balancing academics with life, check out How to Set Goals and Achieve Balance—In and Outside the Classroom .

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20 of the most important academic skills you need for university

University is a place where students are expected to develop a set of academic skills that will help them succeed in their future careers. While it’s true that every university degree has its own unique set of requirements, there are some academic skills that are essential for success in any course. So if you’re wondering which are the most important academic skills to have at university, take a look at our list (as well as how to develop them).

1. Time management

Time management is arguably one of the most important academic skills that students must develop to be successful in university. Students are expected to juggle multiple courses, assignments, and extracurricular activities, not to mention completing everything on time. Meeting deadlines is critical to good grades, as you may be penalised for late assignments, such as capped grades. Therefore, if you work on time management, which includes setting priorities, creating a schedule, and breaking tasks down into smaller, manageable chunks, you’ll probably find everything a little easier.

2. Research skills

It might not seem like you need research skills unless you’re doing a science degree, but you’ll likely need them for a dissertation. From finding relevant sources to critically analysing them to synthesising information, research skills are important. Good research skills also involve knowing how to use different databases, search engines, and citation styles.

3. Writing skills

In addition to research, you’ll no doubt be writing up assignments at some point. So one of the most important skills for university is writing. It’s not simply putting pen to paper, or fingertips to keypad, but it’s the quality of what you write. You’ll need to write concisely, critically and with an academic tone. You’ll also need to be able to organise information into a logical and coherent structure, using evidence to support arguments.

4. Critical thinking skills

To analyse and evaluate information critically, students need to develop critical thinking skills. It involves questioning assumptions, evaluating evidence, and drawing conclusions based on evidence. Developing good critical thinking skills requires recognising biases and assumptions, considering alternative perspectives, and applying logic and reasoning to solve problems. According to the University of Essex , not only is critical thinking an important skill for uni, but the workplace too.

5. Communication

As you navigate through university, you’ll need to be able to interact with lecturers, classmates, flatmates and lots of other people. Strong communication skills involve not only the ability to express oneself clearly and concisely in both verbal and written formats but also active listening and collaboration with others. You’ll no doubt have group projects or have to work with others, so communication here is important. Here’s some tips from a Professor on how to email your lecturer the right way .

6. Study skills 

Knowing how to study, or revise, or cram, is a great tool to have – but it’s also individual. There might be a better time of day that suits you, or you might prefer to do bulk studying last minute. Some good tips on developing study skills involve setting goals, creating a study schedule, and using effective study strategies such as note-taking, summarising, and self-testing. Overall, finding what works for you is the best approach – just don’t avoid studying completely.

7. Digital literacy

One of the most important academic skills for university is digital literacy. In order to succeed academically, students must be proficient in using technology to access and assess information, collaborate with peers, and complete coursework. A lot of the information for classes are also online, on platforms like Moodle, so being able to navigate these will definitely be helpful. Don’t worry if tech isn’t your thing though, there will be lots of courses at your uni to help you out.

8. Problem-solving skills

Problem-solving skills are essential for university, but also for living alone for the first time. You’ll have to think for yourself a lot, which can be quite empowering. For your degree, being able to problem solve is also important as you’ll likely need to use it in assignments. They often involve identifying the problem, developing and implementing a solution, and evaluating the results.

9. Adaptability

Life at uni will throw all sorts of curveballs, so it’s good to demonstrate adaptability. These can be changes in courses, programmes, and the academic environment, as well as outside of uni. Being adaptable will help you navigate these, as well as being able to learn from failures, being open to new ideas and approaches, and being willing to take on new challenges.

10. Self-motivation

University is totally different from school and college. It’s a lot more independent, meaning you’ll have to keep yourself on track. But it’s generally a lot more fun too, as you’ll be learning about something that interests you for your future career. So you’ll need a lot of self-motivation, another important academic skill for university. You’ll need to able to motivate yourself to complete assignments and projects, and keeping your attendance levels high – even when you’ve got a hangover. Some tips to stay motivated include setting goals, breaking tasks down into smaller, manageable chunks, and rewarding accomplishments.

11. Active listening

Active listening involves giving full attention to the speaker, asking clarifying questions, and being able to summarise and reflect on what was said. It’s very easy to spend lectures day dreaming or planning you next night out, but it’s not going to help you get that essay written. An academic paper on active listening recommended tips, such as note taking, making associations and analogies, asking questions, integrating information, making inferences, attending on time, sitting at the front and so on.

12. Critical reading

The ability to critically read written materials is a fundamental academic skill that university students must acquire. Critical reading requires analysing and evaluating various forms of written material, such as textbooks, research articles, and other academic sources. Developing good critical reading skills involves comprehending the author’s intentions and arguments, identifying any biases or assumptions present in the text, and evaluating the credibility and quality of the evidence presented.

13. Presentation skills

Not every university course requires you to do presentations, but it’s likely that at some point in your career you’ll need to ‘present’ something. It can be a great boost of confidence to be able to speak to others about your work or idea. It also allows you to think about things more deeply, so you can explain them to others.  Presentation skills require students to communicate their ideas effectively in front of an audience, which means organising ideas and delivering the message clearly and confidently.

14. Teamwork

One of the most important academic skills for university and for life generally is working as a team. From group projects to sorting out bills in rented student houses, you’ll need to know how to work with others while at uni. Good teamwork skills involve effective communication, active listening, understanding and respecting diverse perspectives, and being able to contribute to the team’s goals.

15. Numeracy skills

Maths is definitely not everyone’s strong suit. But basic numeracy skills are important for students on courses that involve quantitative analysis, such as mathematics, science, and economics. But other subjects will also require a degree of numeracy skill, where you might need to use SPSS, Jamovi or other statistical software to analyse research. Usually, universities have workshops which will allow you to develop these skills with extra help, so don’t worry if numbers scare you!

16. Self-reflection

Self-reflection is an important academic skill for university that allows students to assess their own learning and development. It involves reflecting on your own strengths and weaknesses, identifying areas for improvement, and setting goals for personal growth. Journalling is a popular way of doing this, but you can also find other methods.

17. Emotional intelligence

Having high emotional intelligence can help you deal with the ups and downs of student life. University is exciting, but it can also be an emotional or anxious time. This is where emotional intelligence can help. Knowing how to manage your own emotions and understand the emotions of others is important, especially in emotionally charged situations.

18. Cultural competence

At university, you’ll likely be going to classes full of people with different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures and perspectives. So having cultural competence is a requirement for uni. Cultural competence is a crucial academic skill that enables students to engage with people from diverse cultural backgrounds in an effective and respectful manner. It requires understanding and valuing different cultural norms, values, and beliefs, and the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively across cultural boundaries. It requires ongoing learning, self-reflection, and a commitment to challenging cultural biases and promoting diversity and inclusion.

19. Networking

To begin with, networking involves identifying and engaging with people who have relevant knowledge and expertise in the student’s field of study. It can help you find opportunities and really get involved in the field you want to develop a career in. You can start with talking to your tutors and attending university events, which will let you liaise with staff working in your industry.

20. Entrepreneurship

If you want to make it as a millionaire, start developing your entrepreneurial skills now! Entrepreneurship is an important academic skill that can make university even more interesting. You’ll need to develop creative thinking and innovation, and think about solving problems. If you want to read about how some entrepreneurs made their huge net worth, check out our article on Steven Bartlett .

Last Updated on March 20, 2024

Published on August 2, 2023

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• What Are The 6 Essential Skills For University Students?

Last Updated: 30th June 2021

Author: Rob Needleman

Table of Contents

During your time at university, you will develop valuable, transferable study skills that will support your learning, testing and future career.

Attending a university is an exciting time for students to live independently away from home and to further develop their academic skills from studying at school. The huge step-up from your final years of school makes developing your academic skills mandatory to stay on track and become a successful, high achieving student.

You will develop the skills during your time at university but building a solid foundation now will make the transition from school to higher education much smoother. The graphic below shows the skills we cover in this article. Read on to learn the skills that will help you thrive instead of survive at university. 

Academic Writing Skills

At university, academic writing is a skill students use each day. A must for all degrees is a strong grasp of the English language (international students or not). Being able to write to a good standard is key for coursework assignments such as dissertations and lab reports as well as during exams, answering longer written answers and essay questions.

You are expected to build on what you learnt at A-levels where instead of outlining a point, you have to be able to argue it using appropriate formal language matching the writing style of academic research. If spelling and grammar is an issue for you, it is time to put the work in before you start your degree as lecturers will not appreciate reading an essay that is full of grammatical errors and misspelt words.

You will also be expected to know how to structure your essays   or at least learn how to early on. Your essay content might be unbelievable, but if you cannot present your arguments in a clear and logical way, then you are likely to lose marks.

Referencing and Plagiarism

Two words students fear at the start and learn to manage throughout their studies. When discussing research by other authors, you must acknowledge their work through referencing. This will demonstrate to the reader and/or examiner the quality of your sources and the depth of your research and referencing will also allow the reader to visit the original sources for the complete research. You will come across multiple referencing styles throughout university such as Harvard, MLA, APA etc. but you will probably focus on one main style.  

Plagiarism is something you’ll get used to quickly and have to get used to quickly. There is no copy and pasting information directly into your writing anymore. Paraphrasing is also not enough to avoid plagiarism too, you must always reference the material you used. The same goes with collaborating with students and writing the same or very similar content as your friends. Universities now use software that will inform you and the examiner of the similarity that your writing has with other sources, such as fellow students, research papers and website content like blog posts. You will lose significant marks if you get caught and you will end up in a not so friendly meeting with university staff.

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Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is a skill defined by thinking clearly, rationally and being able to recognise and understand good arguments and then create an assessment from the evidence presented to you. Most students find it difficult at first to initially criticise the experts in the field such as authors of ground-breaking research or even their lecturers. However, this is not being disrespectful or rude, this is essential as long as you back up your arguments with solid and explained evidence. 

Likewise, during your own research, you must be able to think critically about your own work. Ask yourself questions like: did I have a large enough sample size, was I unconsciously biased and am I interpreting my data correctly?

An example of critical thinking is identifying biases . This is a tricky skill but vital for research and incredibly transferable. A sign of a good critical thinker is being able to evaluate information objectively. Setting aside your own personal biases is not easy and identifying the biases from other parties is hard too, but it is necessary to understand different viewpoints. 

Time management Skills

“Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance”, you’ve likely heard this before but it is completely true. Effective time management is essential for university and it is something that will stay with you when you graduate. 

Time will become very valuable when lectures begin and the assignments start piling up. The way to cope with less time and a larger workload is through managing your time more effectively. It is completely normal to become overwhelmed when you first start university. Do not worry if you find this, it is now the time to start implementing time management strategies to stay on track and prevent yourself from becoming overly stressed.

Our advice is to plan ahead and make sure you are completely aware of deadlines. The key to planning ahead is to be realistic. You will hear stories from coursemates that declare that they can finish a 3,000-word essay the night before the due date and will start revising the morning of the exam. This might be true for some rare students but mostly this is rubbish. Give yourself plenty of time to finish each assignment to a high level and do not set yourself up for failure. Having one month to write an essay does not mean you need to spend a month doing it or then writing it the week before the due date, plan the time for it properly. 

Prioritising will help you greatly. We found the Eisenhower Matrix useful at university and we will work through an example together:

Use of the most important tasks (MITs) will help you significantly. The MIT will be your main focus that day and you will not shift your focus from it unless it is completely necessary. An MIT at university may be to create and practise a presentation to present to your coursemates next week. You will focus solely on creating and preparing for the presentation and park your lab report that is not due in for 2 weeks.

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Reading skills

Like writing, reading will dominate your time at university.

It is important to develop effective reading techniques to improve your speed and to choose the right content to read. When finding reading materials, as part of your active academic reading, there are questions to ask yourself to determine if it is relevant to you:

• Why am I reading this?
• Which sections will be valuable for me?
• How will I benefit from reading this?
• Start Wider Reading with our comprehensive reading lists

There are also different approaches to academic reading depending on the medium, for example, a blog on the qualities of a good doctor or an academic paper on the most effective approaches to cognitive diagnosis. Aston University suggests the following reading techniques: 

Skimming, Scanning and Critical Reading:

Skimming entails looking through text to create a general impression of the content. When skim reading, the reader does not read every word or a paragraph in-depth. Instead, the reader skims the introduction and conclusion of a book, the abstract of a paper and the opening and closing paragraph of a chapter. The aim is to form an impression and then decide if it is worth reading on in more depth.

Scanning is all about looking for a particular piece of information such as data to support or disprove your hypothesis. Whilst scanning, you ignore the content that is not relevant to you and you keep your goal of finding a particular piece of information in the forefront of your mind. This will help the words or images stand out when you run your eyes across the page. Like skimming, this technique will support your decision making of reading the text in-depth or choosing a different text to look through.

Personally, we found skim reading and scanning particularly important when trawling through hundreds of papers for our literature review dissertations in final year. It saved hours of reading less relevant information and the more we used this technique, the faster and more effective we became, so practising frequently will save you a lot of time when you start your own degree.

Critical reading, similar to critical thinking is ensuring you continually analyse, question and evaluate the information in front of you. The Open University  list some useful questions to ask yourself whilst reviewing a text:

• Who is speaking or writing?
• What is their point of view or perspective?
• What ideas and information are presented and how were they obtained?
• Are there unsupported assertions?
• Is the method used to find the evidence sound?
• Is the evidence correct or valid?
• What is fact and what is opinion?
• Are there unreasonable generalisations?
• Is the conclusion reasonable?
• What other perspectives or points of view could there be?

Note-taking skills

You must take notes during tutorials and lectures. The lecturers will provide useful information that will be essential when it comes to exam revision. Some lecturers will speak quickly so try to write very brief notes on what they are saying rather than fall behind writing everything they say. After a lecture has finished, add any comments and fill any gaps in your notes from the presentation slides posted online so that your notes are ready to be used for revision.

Communication Skills

Your student life will not just be reading and writing. University studies will also develop your communication skills. There will be many opportunities for working in teams, a great transferable skill that will look great on your CV. This can occur in group presentations, group projects and lab work. Hopefully, you will also have the opportunity to practice public speaking as we did each year. 

From day one of first year, you will be conversing with senior academics which you may find intimidating. They are experts in the field you are interested in so use the opportunity to ask questions and discuss aspects of your degree, or something you learnt from wider reading that you found fascinating. Make sure you go to your tutorials or supervisions prepared with the work set by tutors, but also with any extra questions you may have.

Attending university will open many doors for you, especially if you are proactive. One of the best ways of doing this is through networking. You will develop strong working and social relationships with your coursemates which is brilliant, but do not overlook the opportunities you have from the senior academics at the university. They themselves will have a bountiful supply of contacts, whether this is for help with your thesis, to gain some data or quotes, or to aid your job searching strategy. 

The key to effective networking is being a good listener, being confident, preparing what you might say and then following up properly after speaking to someone. We are not suggesting leaving business cards with the Economics Senior Lecturer, but asking to connect on LinkedIn and emailing them 48-72 hours after meeting them with an engaging email will go a long way.

Less academic skills and other Soft Skills

We have already mentioned some soft skills in this article such as communication and time management but in this section, we will focus on the less academic skills which are still important for university and life after graduation. 

A crucial skill is being able to budget and manage your finances effectively. Our number one tip is to make use of spreadsheets. They are not the most exciting way to spend your time but very helpful at keeping track of your spending. Like with time management, the key is to be realistic. Spending will be more than you probably expect and your location will affect this. Consider everything from rent to shopping and from drinks on nights out, to textbooks and stationery. Make sure you have a weekly limit on how much you can spend and try to follow this.

Living costs vary across the UK and it is something that catches a lot of students out. You can budget for university, but if you do not budget for the area you will be living in, this can make for a nasty surprise. For example, using the ‘metric’ of a cost of a pint of beer, in Lancaster, a pint can cost around £2.80 but in London, you can expect from £5.20 upwards. Accommodation tends to differ in price across universities so make sure the accommodation is within your budget. You can see the variation in prices in the table below:

Cooking and home skills sound rather strange whilst discussing academic skills but they will be a large part of your time away from studies. Each one of us at UniAdmissions has met a student who did not know how to use a washing machine or couldn’t open a tin of beans, you’ll meet these students too. Learn some staple recipes that are easy to master, such as spaghetti Bolognese and chilli con carne at home before you leave for university. Nutrition goes hand in hand with effective learning and studying, support your academic life by eating properly each day.  

Lastly, self-motivation is a constant theme at university. It will become apparent on a sunny Saturday afternoon when you have two essays due the following week, 5,000 words to write and then you receive a text asking if you would like to go to the beach or play football in the park. 

University life is unstructured which makes motivation important to keep yourself on track and to avoid falling into the cycle of trying to catch up each week. As we discussed in time management, having a good plan will help you stay focused on your goals. Sometimes, setting yourself up in the library away from distractions will help avoid the temptations of a sunny afternoon. Finally, make sure you build in time for leisure activities and reward your hard work!

Final Words

We have covered the essential skills for university including academic reading and time management. You have time to start working on these skills now before you start your degree, to make your transition from school to university much smoother. Your time at university will be great fun but make sure you use the opportunities around you to open every door possible and leave as the best graduate you can be.

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The Importance of Academic Advising in Higher Education

• August 10, 2022
• Headlines , News , Students

By: Kaitlin Thach, Intern, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Communication and Outreach

“The main function of an academic advisor is to bring holistic support to students as they navigate their higher education to post grad journey.”

Universities and higher education institutions nationwide provide academic advising for both undergraduate and graduate students. This principal academic resource can go underutilized as students often consider advising as a resource only when they are frantic with worry when they realize that they have little time to sign up for classes.

As a UC Berkeley undergraduate student, I have come to realize that degree advisors exist at the institution solely for the purpose of helping the students, though you must seek them out yourself. It is upon the student to seek out appropriate resources and ask the questions they need answered. However, seeking out an academic advisor at competitive institutions can feel like a sign of failure or lack of independence for many students when this is not the case.

Throughout my college years, I have entered a pandemic, have had to navigate through the pandemic, and have transitioned from online schooling back to in-person classes. The changes that I had to overcome and adapt to were made easier through the help of my degree advisor.

Teresa Dinh, a student experience specialist at UC Berkeley, works with incoming freshmen and sophomore students with academic, admissions, and program-interest advising. She spoke with me about her experience as an advisor and some of the reasons why she believes in the importance of advising.

• Advisors assist in monitoring academic progress . While advisors help students in selecting, adding, changing, or cancelling classes on their schedule, this process also helps students understand how to navigate the university/major policies and procedures better. If a course requires a prerequisite or needs to be taken during a specific semester, an advisor is knowledgeable enough to guide students through that decision-making process.

“An advisor should be up to date and knowledgeable on university/college policies such as general education requirements, graduation requirements, adding/dropping courses, and if   they are a major advisor, major specific policies.”

• Advisors can help you find opportunities. Advisors are aware of ongoing programs on campus and have the authority to recommend students with potential to certain opportunities that will enhance their experience as a student in higher education.

“Students can book advising appointments where we can cover academic, progr am- interest, program-admissions, or career advising services. As a program, we also send out a newsletter every other week that provides updates, resources, opportunities and events as well. Essentially, every opportunity I get, I try to make it known that students can reach out to me any time with any questions they may have or can book appointments with me if they need.”

• Advisors want to see you succeed. Being educated about the resources available to you on campus can help you feel part of a community that wants to see you prosper. Because students who enter higher education usually do not have their lives planned out, advisors are trained to help students map out their career and guide them through the process of achieving their goals/aspirations.

“I try to make it known to students that I am a resource that that they can reach out to, and through that, students in our program have always mentioned that they feel constant support   from staff as they navigate(d) their higher education journey.”

Interview with Teresa Dinh:

• What is the main function of an academic advisor? 

The main function of an academic advisor is to bring holistic support to students as they navigate their higher education to post grad journey. An advisor should be up to date and knowledgeable on university/college policies such as general education/breadth requirements, graduation requirements, adding/dropping courses, and if they are a major advisor, major specific policies. Academic Advisors should also be aware of on-campus resources/departments that they could refer students to in case they need additional assistance that I am not well versed in such as counseling, financial aid, etc.

• How do you work to support your students? What benefits do you offer students?

From my very first communication with students, I do my best to make it known to students they can reach out to me if they have any questions. As someone who identifies as a First-Generation College student, I understand how the transition into college could be overwhelming and sometimes, even though you were given information, you might not remember that information later on due to all sorts of new information being thrown at you. As students enter the summer, our program sends out communication to students that include an introduction to our program staff, how they could get in contact with us, and information on webinars our staff hosts that help prepare students to enroll into their fall courses. During their day of enrollment, we also offer students the ability to reach out in case they are unsure what classes they should enroll into or if there are not as many course options available. As the academic year starts, we offer advising hours typically from 9am to 4pm during the work week. Students are able to book advising appointments where we can cover academic, program-interest, program-admissions, or career advising services. As a program, we also send out a newsletter every other week that provides updates, resources, opportunities and events as well. Essentially, every opportunity I get, I try to make it known that students can reach out to me any time with any questions they may have or can book appointments with me if they need. Students have told me numerous times that they always feel they could come to me and that I have helped make them feel less of that “small fish in a big pond” feeling, and that is something I strive for as an advisor on campus.

• What expectations do you have for students?

I do expect students to do at least a little bit of research and come to our advising sessions with questions prepared. You don’t need to know about our program in depth, but at least have some context that can help you guide the conversation and for me to understand what you are asking. I also want students to practice some professionalism with me as well! This means coming to our advising appointments on time, speaking respectfully, and keeping our advising appointments within the time limit you booked (unless there are no appointments after you, then we definitely could continue the conversation past the time frame).

• What kind of resources do you share with your students?

Our website, professional/personal development workshops, any internship/research opportunities that we come across, campus resources, program-specific curriculum, and opportunities to speak/network with industry professionals.

• What would you say to students that don’t seek out academic advisors? 

You could be missing something! It doesn’t hurt to have an academic advisor check over your academic progress, just to make sure.

• What kind of connections have you made with your students? How would you describe these connections?

Similar to relationships you make in your personal life, building connections is based on how much you want to contribute. To some students, they check in with me to make sure they are on the right track and then go about their day, which is perfectly fine! However, there are other students who end up meeting with me regularly, asking questions, update me on their life/opportunities, and also try to have more casual conversations with me. This results to deeper connections. Having these deeper connections help me understand the student, their goals, their passions, and makes it a lot easier for me to be a reference for students when they are applying to opportunities, or write them a letter of recommendation that is more tailored to them. As I mention before, I try to make it known to students that I am a resource that that they can reach out to, and through that, students in our program have always mentioned that they feel constant support from staff as they navigate(d) their higher education journey.

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Why speaking skills are important in higher education, by doris dippold and marion heron, 09 november 2020 - 12:15.

Marcos Luiz Photograph used under licence and adapted from the original .

Dr Doris Dippold and Dr Marion Heron's new research shows a mismatch between the speaking skills we need in the real world and taught skills.

In higher education, we are moving from a didactic way of teaching to a more active approach which encourages dialogue.

Classes have become more interactive, as we found in Marion Heron's 2019 research. For example, students are expected to: 

• make presentations
• answer questions in lectures
• discuss ideas in seminars. 

Speaking assessments, including individual and group presentations, have also become more common, according to research by Huxham, Campbell and Westwood in 2012. 

This trend reflects the demand for communication skills in the workplace. The researcher Jackson identified it as 'one of the most desired graduate employability skills' in 2014.

There is a disconnect between speaking skills at pre-sessional and disciplinary level 

Nevertheless, our research shows there is a mismatch between the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) taught in preparatory or pre-sessional courses, and the speaking skills expected in disciplinary study. 

Interviews with pre-sessional students revealed they viewed presentations as a means of demonstrating academic understanding. They emphasised accuracy of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation when assessing their own speaking skills. They took confidence from the supportive environment of the pre-sessional programme to prepare for their disciplinary studies. 

Disciplinary tutors, on the other hand, expected high cognitive skills including:

• presenting an argument
• justifying an argument
• asking questions.

Our research suggests tutors in disciplines outside of language have only a vague idea of the skills associated with academic speaking. These include:

• physical skills, like accurate pronunciation
• language skills, like accurate grammar and vocabulary
• cognitive skills, like engaging with others’ arguments
• social skills, like confidence and working together.

This makes it difficult for tutors to assess progress and challenging for students to access learning opportunities. 

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What can be done to rectify this?

EAP and disciplinary tutors need to work together to ensure language support is embedded in students’ disciplinary studies. 

For example, EAP professionals could advise on the design and criteria of speaking assessments at disciplinary level. Researchers Sophie Arkoudis and Lachlan Doughney call this a ‘distributed responsibility’ approach. 

Teacher training in higher education should also include a focus on language and its role in learning, teaching and assessment. 

Finally, educational institutions should introduce language policies which state how teachers will support students’ language development during their studies.  

Read the full report and good practice guide . 

Sign up for a webinar with the authors. 

Dr Doris Dippold is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Literature and Languages at the University of Surrey. Follow @roadtobabel on Twitter. 

Dr Marion Heron is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Higher Education at the University of Surrey. Follow @MarionHeron65 on Twitter. 

Follow the Languages, Literacies and Learning research group @LLL_Research on Twitter. 

You might also be interested in:

• Resources for different ways of learning and teaching in the English language classroom
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Soft skills and their importance in higher education

In higher education, the focus is usually on the transmission of technical and theoretical knowledge specific to each area of study. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that the success of students in their careers and professional lives depends not only on their technical knowledge, but also on their soft skills.

This is one of several topics that our ‘ Management & eLearning ‘ research group is delving into, as these are essential for success in any field, and university education should be designed to help students develop them.

What are soft skills?

Soft skills are personal, social and emotional skills that allow us to interact effectively with others and solve problems effectively. Some of the most important soft skills include effective communication skills, teamwork skills, conflict resolution, adaptability and leadership skills , among others.

Importance of soft skills

Soft skills development is important in university education for several reasons. First, companies are increasingly looking for candidates who have soft skills in addition to technical knowledge. Companies expect college graduates to have communication skills, teamwork skills, problem-solving skills, and leadership skills , as these skills are important for success in any career.

Second, the development of soft skills is important because it helps students become more effective learners. Soft skills enable students to collaborate and communicate effectively with their peers, which helps them better understand concepts and deepen their learning. In addition, adaptability and problem solving are critical skills that help students overcome obstacles and learn more effectively.

Soft skills in higher education

One of the most effective ways in which university education can foster the development of soft skills is through project-based learning. Group projects help students develop teamwork and communication skills, while giving them the opportunity to apply their technical knowledge to real-world situations. In addition, projects can require students to learn new skills and adapt to changing situations, which fosters adaptability and problem solving.

Another way higher education can foster soft skills development is through effective feedback. Professors should provide feedback that goes beyond grading papers or projects. Feedback should also include tips for improving soft skills, such as communication and leadership.

In addition, a college education can include extracurricular activities that allow students to develop social and leadership skills , such as clubs and student organizations. These activities give students the opportunity to interact with a variety of people and work on projects in a non-academic setting, which can help develop important soft skills.

There is also the possibility of creating specific courses or subjects to develop soft skills to provide students with a well-rounded education relevant to today’s working world. These courses can help improve important skills such as effective communication, leadership and teamwork, which can give students a competitive edge in their job search. In addition, the courses can be useful for students who need to improve specific skills in areas where they are struggling.

In conclusion, soft skills development is crucial to success in any career and in life in general . Soft skills, such as effective communication, problem solving, adaptability and leadership, can be as important as specific technical and theoretical knowledge in the workplace. Therefore, it is important for university education to foster and develop these skills in students to adequately prepare them for the world of work.

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Academic literacy: Why is it important? [Introduction]

Related Papers

Albert Weideman

This is a workbook of practice tests of academic and quantitative literacy (AQL) for prospective university students. The workbook comes with answers at the end. This book replaces Academic literacy: Test your competence (2014).

In Higher Education both nationally and internationally, the need to assess incoming students’ readiness to cope with the typical reading and writing demands they will face in the language-of-instruction of their desired place of study is (almost) common cause. This readiness to cope with reading and writing demands in a generic sense is at the heart of what is meant by notions of academic literacy. ‘Academic literacy’ suggests, at least, that entry-level students possess some basic understanding of – or capacity to acquire an understanding of – what it means to read for meaning and argument; to pay attention to the structure and organisation of text; to be active and critical readers; and to formulate written responses to academic tasks that are characterised by logical organisation, coherence and precision of expression. This paper attempts to address two crucial questions in the assessment of students’ academic literacy: (1) Does such an assessment matter, i.e. does understanding students’ academic literacy levels have consequence for teaching and learning, and for the academic performance of students, in Higher Education? (2) Do generic levels of academic literacy in the sense described above relate to academic performance in discipline-specific contexts? Attempts to address these two questions draw on comparative data based on an assessment of students’ academic literacy and subsequent academic performance across two disciplines at the University of Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Quantitative analyses illustrate relationships between students’ academic literacy levels and the impacts these have on academic performance. Conclusions to the paper attempt a critical assessment of what the analyses tell us about students’ levels of academic literacy; what these levels of literacy might mean for students and their teachers; and what the strengths and limitations of assessing academic literacy using a generic test might be.

joyce hendricks

Widening participation has enabled access to higher education for an increasing number of students via a range of non-traditional pathways. Consequently, whilst having a large repertoire of skills and experience, these students may not have developed sufficient competence in academic literacy. The School of Nursing and Midwifery has a large proportion of such students who have difficulty making the academic transition to university study. It is believed that a ‘built in’ approach to supporting these students to develop academic literacy will result in an improvement in their abilities to meet the requirements of the University and to better prepare them to graduate. This paper discusses the piloting of an Academic Literary Education Course (ALEC) for undergraduate students enrolled in the first semester unit of a three year health degree, within the disciplines of nursing and paramedical science. The students completed tests on academic literacy before and after completion of the AL...

Journal for Language Teaching

Jo-Mari Myburgh-Smit , Albert Weideman

This accepted manuscript of a paper discusses the need for and the refinement of an academic literacy test for Grade 10 students as a first step towards measuring and then developing the required level of academic literacy before entry into higher education.

Language Matters

The National Benchmark Test in Academic Literacy (NBT AL) is designed to assess the ability of first-year students to cope with the typical language-of-instruction, academic reading and reasoning demands they will face on entry to higher education. Accordingly, the theoretically grounded and psychometrically-validated construct on which the test is based assesses entry level students’ capacity to, for example: (1) distinguish between superordinate and subordinate ideas; (2) differentiate between the decontextualised and contextualised meanings of academic vocabulary and discourse; (3) reason inferentially, deductively and inductively; and (4) understand and interpret text structure and argument. Drawing on quantitative data, this paper reports on the overall performance levels of a large-scale (n = 6500) national sample of test takers who took the test as applicants for the 2013 intake into higher education. Overall test-taker performance is disaggregated by performance on sub-scales of the overall construct of academic literacy. The argument is made that the NBT in Academic Literacy provides a framework for a nuanced and practicable understanding of test-takers’ academic literacy ‘proficiencies’. The conclusion to the paper evaluates the extent to which the test enables higher education lecturers’ greater engagement with students’ academic literacy shortcomings and with research-led information aimed at the improvement of teaching and learning.

Per Linguam

Leonora Jackson

Tobie Van Dyk

This article focuses on the current situation in South Africa in which a number of factors related to academic literacy deleteriously affect student throughput. This has large financial implications for the country as well as tertiary institutions. Since significant numbers of students with high academic potential are at risk because of their low levels of academic literacy, all first year students at three South African universities write the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (TALL). This test can be used to assign students to appropriate support courses. An explanation illustrated by empirical data is given of the construct and the use of TALL. Preliminary conclusions in terms of the impact of the intervention are drawn as first iteration towards an in-depth longitudinal study to test the effectiveness/success of the academic literacy intervention. Finally suggestions for further research are outlined.

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies

Journal of English for Academic Purposes

Ilse Fouche

Rebecca Patterson , Albert Weideman

In a previous study (Patterson & Weideman, 2013), we discussed the importance of acknowledging the typicality of academic discourse as a starting point for critically engaging with constructs of academic literacy. In this article, various attempts at identifying the typical features of academic discourse are surveyed and critiqued. The preliminary conclusion is that the uniqueness of academic discourse lies in the analytical or logical language that characterises it (see Patterson & Weideman, 2013 for an extended explanation). Using this characteristic feature as a criterion allows us to sift through the various opinions on what constitutes both academic discourse and academic literacy in a way that is potentially productive. It suggests on a number of points ways in which one might add components to the current definition of academic literacy that forms the test construct of academic literacy tests such as TALL, TAG, and TALPS. The article concludes by suggesting some modifications and additions to the design of current test task types in tests of academic literacy. These tentative suggestions may allow theoretically defensible modifications to be made to the construct of a number of tests of academic literacy. TALL, TAG, the relevant part of the NBTs, and TALPS are generally high stakes tests that are widely used in South Africa. Since no critical examination of their construct, which is now more than a decade old, has so far been undertaken, we hope that these proposals do not only come at an appropriate moment, but may also be useful to those responsible for developing further versions of these tests.

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8 Essential Traits for Effective Leadership in Higher Education

Industry Advice Education

It is both an exciting and challenging time for leaders in higher education. The field of higher education administration is growing , with an estimated 13,000 jobs to be filled at more than 7,000 institutions of higher education by 2028. What’s more, innovation is increasingly impacting education as the industry takes a more entrepreneurial approach to the way that students learn, professors teach, and administrators collaborate both on campus and in their communities. 

At the same time, trends in higher education point to a range of challenges such as raising funds, meeting the needs of a diverse student population, preparing graduates for an ever-changing workforce—and, in the wake of COVID-19, transitioning students and staff to working and learning remotely seemingly overnight. 

Now more than ever, it’s important for leaders in higher education to work across departments to prepare their institutions for present and future success. 

Here are eight critical traits that define effective leadership in higher education .

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Top 8 Skills for Higher Education Leaders

1. financial acumen.

In a 2017 survey by the consulting firm Deloitte, nearly two-thirds of college presidents ranked fundraising, alumni relations, and donor relations among their top three priorities. Respondents also said that fundraising was the most important leadership skill they needed to further develop. This is especially true for public institutions, as state and federal aid have steadily decreased since the 1970s.

Fundraising is certainly a critical part of the job for a college president, as private funding pays for employee salaries, faculty research, capital projects, and student financial aid. However, financial acumen is much more than fundraising. Leaders in higher education need experience in developing budgets, overseeing endowments, and creating financial plans at a time of economic uncertainty . 

2. Collaboration

The concept of collaborative leadership in higher education emphasizes “bridging the gap” among various internal and external stakeholders. Within the institution, for example, a collaborative leader would view laboratory research and classroom teaching as complementing each other rather than competing. Collaboration also means bringing departments together for opportunities to learn from each other, whether it’s a better way to teach an online course or a more efficient way to clean a building.

Outside the campus, this type of leadership involves mutually beneficial partnerships with local businesses and organizations. Collaborative initiatives could include scholarship opportunities, internship job placement programs, or ongoing conversations with government policymakers about community issues such as housing, transportation, or conservation. Colleges and universities are often among the largest employers in their communities, and a collaborative approach to leadership in higher education can reduce the stigma of the institution as an isolated “ivory tower.”

3. Building New Leaders

Successful leaders in any industry recognize the importance of providing development opportunities for mid-career or middle-tier professionals with both the potential and the desire to take on a leadership role of their own. This helps the organization strengthen and expand its pool of candidates for leadership positions while allowing staff to progress in their careers at their current institution.  

Leadership training and mentoring programs enable leaders in higher education to empower faculty and academic staff to develop their own leadership skills. This provides two benefits: It allows current leaders to support those who have expressed interest in becoming future leaders, and it enables leadership to focus training and professional development on the most critical needs of the institution. 

4. Communication

Just like executives in other industries, leaders in higher education must be effective communicators. They must be comfortable engaging with a wide range of audiences both on and off-campus and in both public and private settings. Over the course of a single day, for example, a leader may meet with faculty members, employees in support roles, donors, other senior leaders at the college, government officials, current students, prospective students, members of the community, or the press.

There are five steps to effective communication : 

• Start with what’s most important.
• Set expectations up front about what you need.
• Actively listen and take body language into account. 
• Provide constructive and specific feedback.
• Address concerns immediately and, if possible, in person.

5. Strategic Planning

Making the transition to a leadership role in higher education means taking on additional responsibility for strategic planning. Whether you lead a single department or an entire institution in your new role, you must assess what your team and its assets are doing well, where there is room for improvement, and what it will take to get there. You will need to consider short-term plans that can be executed quickly and with little disruption as well as long-term plans that will have a broader and deeper impact. 

Understanding and using data is an important part of strategic planning. Data provides empirical evidence for making a decision, whether it’s choosing a new bookstore vendor or creating a new academic department. In addition, data influences and enables collaborative leadership . Data gives all relevant stakeholders access to the same information as they develop a plan, which allows multidisciplinary teams to build a consensus and come to an agreement.

Data plays a key role in budgeting and financial planning, but data utilization also supports operations, policy development, curriculum development, and student and staff recruitment. Leaders in higher education should strive to build a culture where staff and faculty are encouraged to use data to create strategic plans and monitor their progress.

6. Change Management

Higher education can have a reputation for being resistant to change. It’s not just because some institutions are hundreds of years old. Change in higher education can be slow for a number of other reasons, including loosely coupled organizational structures and large representative committees debating decisions. In addition, institutions that receive public funding may be wary of how governing bodies will respond to their decisions.

But in today’s environment, change is inevitable—and it is increasingly happening very quickly. Rapid change can easily lead to conflict. Effective leaders prepare for this conflict so that change can be managed in a sensitive way and the needs of all stakeholders, including the institution itself, are respected and heard.

Here are a few steps for achieving change management in higher education leadership :

• Interpret the necessary data and evaluate what will happen if change does or does not occur.
• Collaborate with all necessary stakeholders who will be impacted by a change.
• Make a decision that takes into account everyone’s best interests. Develop an action plan.
• Develop a communication plan. Tailor messages to different audiences wherever necessary.
• Communicate early and often. Provide context for the decision. Striking a balance between the urgency that’s required to take action and the incremental process for taking action. 
• Humanize the decision by bringing it as closely as possible to an individual level. 
• Solicit feedback. Alter the action plan as necessary.
• Take accountability for the decision and its impacts.

7. Commitment to Diversity

Across all stakeholder groups in higher education—from the student body to the faculty to the leadership team—institutions benefit from the representation of diversity based on factors such as race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic background. This representation allows institutions of higher education to better reflect the communities they serve and to prepare students for careers that increasingly require a global and multicultural perspective.

For leaders in higher education, it’s critical to be aware of the needs of diverse groups and to understand how those needs may intersect. This awareness helps leaders provide the appropriate support and make the necessary improvements to an institution’s efforts in improving diversity through outreach to prospective students, on-campus activities, hiring and promotion practices, and long-term planning initiatives.

8. Intellectual Curiosity

For many leaders in higher education, becoming a dean , an academic department chair, or a chancellor means more time in meetings and less time doing the hands-on work that attracted them to academia in the first place. 

However, leadership success in higher education requires intellectual curiosity . It enables leaders to absorb new information, master new disciplines, and better understand and respond to the needs and challenges of a diverse group of stakeholders. Leaders should be prepared to learn something new every day—and to use that information to become better leaders and build a better learning environment at the institutions they serve.

Improving Your Educational Leadership Skills 

For leaders in higher education looking to transform their institutions, Northeastern’s Doctor of Education program offers the opportunity for students to incorporate practice-based research into their professional lives while completing a doctoral thesis that explores an educational organizational challenge. This coursework, combined with connections to faculty members and fellow EdD students, will help prepare leaders to develop the plans and make the decisions that set up their institutions for long-term success.

To learn more about how an EdD can help you create change, download our free guide below. 

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Student Affairs Career Advice From the President

A panel of college presidents offered advice to young and midlevel professionals in student affairs at NASPA’s Conferences on Student Success in Higher Education.

By  Ashley Mowreader

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For early and midlevel student success professionals, current college presidents offer eight pieces of advice.

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ANAHEIM, Calif.—Many higher education professionals get their start in the field because of their own experiences navigating college, wanting to join a legacy of serving, educating and leading students.

The path to the presidency, however, is less clear, as leaders chart their voyage through academics, student affairs or other roles inside and outside institutions.

At NASPA’s Conferences on Student Success in Higher Education on June 23, four college presidents offered eight pieces of advice to early and midcareer professionals in the student success sphere as they carve their own paths forward.

• “Take more risks,” said Sheila Edwards Lange, chancellor of the University of Washington at Tacoma. As a first-generation college student, Lange was hesitant to diverge from a safe path, such as holding a job, but she eventually quit a role to return to higher education for her doctorate. This was her first leap of faith and an investment in herself. 
• “Be curious about the enterprise,” said Tomikia P. LeGrande, president of Prairie View A&M University in Texas. Higher ed professionals should seek to learn from their colleagues and work across silos. As someone with a nontraditional path to the presidency, LeGrande took opportunities that led her to learn more about how different areas in the institution were beneficial to her overall career journey.
• “If you know where you’re going, you’re never going to end up somewhere else,” said John L. Hoffman, president of Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College. Often, people are inclined to plan for the next five, 10 or 15 years in their career, setting clear goals for what’s ahead. But professionals should remain open to opportunities that surprise them. 
• “Care about the role you’re playing out,” said Angelica L. Suarez, president of Orange Coast College in California. Often, a person can be so eager to make an impact or rush to the next role, but being patient, learning and dedicating care to what is currently taking place is most important, particularly in student success.
• “Audit your dream job,” LeGrande said. When working toward that ultimate goal, knowing which skills are needed earlier can help a professional set short-term goals and make progress as they develop in their career.  
• “Know higher education is a small world and don’t burn bridges,” Lange said. Particularly in student affairs, higher education practitioners are always two degrees removed from one another. When choosing that next step, always lead with grace, because you never know whom you’ll encounter again, Lange cautioned.  
• “Be open to sponsors,” LeGrande said. “You need someone who is going to be in the room for you, to speak your name in situations that you don’t even know.” Sometimes the sponsor is not the person you might have anticipated, but the assistance can be valuable nonetheless.  
• “Don’t edit yourself,” Suarez said. Avoid selling yourself short on your experiences or your value in a role just because you don’t meet all the desired job qualifications on paper. Put yourself out there and be courageous. 

We bet your colleague would like this article, too. Send them this link to subscribe to our weekday newsletter on student success. 

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