‘Pick and stick’

Student engagement with academic language and learning services

Abstract

Academic language and learning services are a critical aspect of most university retention strategies, yet there are gaps within the current literature about the ways in which diverse student cohorts engage with these programs. This article analyses a three-year data set of the engagement by 11,111 students with four different types of services at an Australian university: individual learning adviser appointments, academic skills workshops, Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS), and an online writing support service (Studiosity). The data presented demonstrates that in any given year, students tend to pick one type of service and only engage with that service: 74% of students in this study only engaged with one type of service in any given year, and fewer than 1% accessed all four. This choice appears to be influenced by demographic variables, including age and domestic or international status. These findings highlight the importance of providing a range of different academic language and learning services to accommodate diverse student preferences.