Abstract
Concern at the failure rate of first year Science, Health Sciences and Engineering students is challenging first year lectures to interrogate the knowledge and skills gap of entering students. Underprepared students have entered higher education for centuries but the problems in transition from school to university seem to be increasing from year to year. Every cohort enter universities with high expectations and good school results and then they are confronted with challenges of transition, new content and an uninviting environment. The Faculty of Science has been presenting an academic First Year Orientation seminar since 2005 and refined the format of the current programme which is a two week (six hours per day) credit-bearing module, the First Year Seminar (FYS). The programme consists of a 10 hour Language course, a 6 hour Laboratory skills and 10 hour Problem Solving skills for 10 hours. These modules are presented by dedicated academics and support staff in the faculty, and student mentors (senior students) take responsibility to get to know the students better as they work with them on a daily basis. This study reports on research conducted to determine the influence and success of the FYS on the academic preparation of first- year students in 2014. The data set contains school results, biographical and personality profiles, results from a survey completed after the FYS and perceptions after interviews with students, mentors and lecturers. Appropriate inferential statistics were employed in the analysis of the survey response and interviews as indicators of the value added by the FYS. The results will indicate how the FYS enhanced the existing knowledge and skills of entering first year students in order to place diverse students on an equal platform when official lectures and practical sessions commence during the semester.