Recent changes to students' perceptions of their key skills on entry to higher education

Students arrive in higher education (HE) with a range of generic and subject-specific skills which they are expected to use and build upon during their degree courses. In order to ensure that undergraduates are able to make a successful transition to HE, it is important that teachers and course designers understand the level and range of skills with which they arrive, and where support and remediation may be required. For the last nine years, 2065 first-year undergraduates entering Leeds medical school have completed a questionnaire asking them to self-assess the number of opportunities to practise a range of 31 generic skills experienced in the previous year, and how confident they feel about their ability to perform these skills. Over this period, a number of trends have become evident. Increased reported practice in a range of information technology (IT) skills might have been expected as a result of improved availability of technology. However, a significant decrease in both practice and confidence in laboratory, data handling and numeracy skills would suggest that changes to post-16 education are adversely affecting the skills with which undergraduates arrive at university. Other skills, particularly those which relate to students' experience in managing their own learning, have shown no consistent change in reported levels of practice during the period of study, despite increased emphasis on these skills within post-16 qualifications since the introduction of Curriculum 2000. These observations have implications for course design across a range of courses, particularly in science programmes with significant practical and numerical components.