We know what you did last summer: The summer school experience

This presentation examines the initiatives that have been taken by the New Zealand Diploma in Business and Bachelor of Business Studies programs within the Faculty of Business at UNITEC to maximise the use of campus facilities and provide students the opportunity to study over what has traditionally been the summer vacation period. The Summer Semester was conducted during December 1999 and January 2000. This was a 60 lecture hours course of study compressed into three weeks.

Data for this study came from four primary sources. Students enrolled in Summer School NZ Diploma in Business and Bachelor of Business Studies papers were asked to complete a questionnaire and 169 of the 250 students responded. Student evaluations from the standard UNITEC course evaluations (SEQUAL) from Summer School and Semester 1 and Semester 2 1999 were compared to see if there were significant differences. Using a focus group method, lecturers involved in teaching Summer School papers gave qualitative opinions on the Summer School initiative. Course results from previous seventeen week semesters were compared with Summer School results to see if there were significant differences.

One objective of this study was to analyse student profiles to determine the type of student who enrols in and succeeds in a compressed Summer School program. It was hypothesised that students enrolling in this program would primarily be full time, non-New Zealand, existing UNITEC students wishing to "fast track" their course of study or repeat the paper. Shortening their course of study was the primary reasons for enrolling for 50% of the respondents. Surprisingly, only 2% of respondents indicated that they were repeating a paper while 24% of respondents had other learning issues specified as their reason for enrolling, such as maintaining continuity of study and wanting to complete a pre-requisite paper for Semester 1 2000. Over half of the students were part time students in full time employment. Although only 81% of the students who completed the questionnaire (therefore 55% of the cohort) answered the question concerning ethnicity, it was determined that 54% of the respondents were New Zealanders.

It was further hypothesised that students prepared to study over the traditional summer vacation period were likely to be more committed to their study and therefore achieve better results, however this was not the case with some courses achieving better pass rates and others achieving similar or slightly lower pass rates.

The final purpose of this study was to analyse the responses from lecturing staff and students involved in summer classes in order to gauge opinions and to provide a mechanism for planning more courses to be offered in this manner. The findings were studied and indicated that from both the students and lecturer perspective, Summer School was a worthwhile initiative and should be continued and extended.