Newcastle researchers to study impact of time on higher education students

28 April 2016

Professor Penny Jane Burke and Dr Anna Bennett from the University of Newcastle, Australia have successfully secured a grant that will investigate the notion and impact of ‘time’ for students in higher education.

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Funded by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, Professor Burke and Dr Bennett will work with Co-Investigator Dr Jacqueline Stevenson from Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
The project, It’s About Time, will examine how experiences of ‘time’, as well as dominant discourses about ‘time management’ impact on the attraction, retention and performance of students in higher education.
“Higher education experiences are increasingly intensified by competing obligations of study, work and personal commitments. Despite significant change, the assumption still remains that time is a neutral and linear framework in which all students are equally positioned,” said Professor Burke.
“Studies show that one of the main reasons students from equity groups cite for leaving study is ‘lack of time’ and ‘time pressures’. Research is needed to understand how each students’ relation to time plays out across different and intersecting equity groups, particularly those from regional and remote areas,” she added.
The study will engage students from undergraduate Nursing, Law and Engineering programs across two regional universities in Australia and the UK where the student population includes significant cohorts of equity groups.
One of the aims of the project is to develop a platform where embedded assumptions of ‘time’ and ‘time management’ in higher education can be re-configured in response to the needs of students to better support their learning experiences.
A report will be made available upon completion of the project at the end of this year.
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