Beyond Curriculum Reform: Embedding the Transition Experience

Successfully managing the process of transition into university involves acknowledging that students in all their diversity come to us to learn and that we are responsible not just to keep them, but for creating environments where active learning can take place. Curriculum renewal embracing these aspects underpinned by a constructivist philosophy provides only one part of a successful approach to transition. The second part is to establish coordinated, curriculum- mediated transition practices across the administrative and academic areas of the university so that students successfully engage with their learning experience. Based on an enabling strategic infrastructure and extensive curriculum renewal, this paper describes a program that seeks to embed transition practices systematically across a large university.