www.whatshouldistudy.com.au
Improving Tertiary Pathways by Improving Support for Prospective Students
Dear First-year NBE Student,
We would like to invite to you to participate in an interview (of approximately 30 mins). We
are inviting a selection of first-year students at UniSA to tell us about how they decided on
the program in which they are currently enrolled. Your input will be used to help us to identify
new ways to support Year 12 students as they decide what to study at university, and to help
them make solid program/degree choices.
What we will ask you
We will ask you about how you made decisions specifically about what to study at university,
and how you were supported by your high school and by the university. We would also like
to know how things are going now, what support you would have liked now that you are
enrolled, how you think universities and high schools could provide better support for making
this decision. We will be interviewing a selection first-year students at UniSA.
Benefits of participating
By participating in our research, you will help us to understand how Year 12 students make
decisions about what to study, to give us information that will help us to design a model for
describing study choice activities – when and how Year 12’s make decisions during the
application, admissions and enrolment process.
We have already collected information from 1600 Year 12 Students across South Australia
last year, and from university staff, high school career advisors, and teachers. Your interview
will help us to better understand the experience of individual students, to analyse along with
our survey results.
Risks of Participating
If you agree to participate in this research, you will be asked questions about you decision to
enrol at UniSA and how you came to make this choice. In general, it is not anticipated that
discussion of these topics would give rise to any long lasting negative effects however, if you
are feeling uncertain about your decision there may be a possibility that a discussion about
this will cause you to feel upset or distressed.
If you feel distressed when being interviewed, please let the researcher know. If you feel
uncomfortable talking at any time, you are free to say you don’t want to talk about them, to
have a break, or to discontinue your participation. You may discontinue the interview at any
time.
The researcher will discuss your concerns with you, if you are comfortable in that
environment, and/or will then refer you, as necessary to either a UniSA career counsellor,
counsellor, course coordinator, or program director to discuss your concerns and provide
you with the support you need to manage your concerns, discomfort or distress.
Reporting discomfort or distress
If you suffer any distress or psychological injury as a result of participating in this research
project, you should contact the study team as soon as possible, and you will be assisted with
arranging appropriate support.
The interview will be audio recorded. We would like to assure you that confidentiality will be
maintained. All records containing personal information will remain confidential and no
information which could lead to identification of any individual or organisation will be
released, unless required by law. Electronic data from this survey will be stored for five years
on a password protected site on the University of South Australia’s secure server and any hard
copies of data will be stored for five years in a locked filing cabinet be in Room P1-45 at
Mawson Lakes Campus at the University.
The researchers will take every care to remove responses from any identifying material as
early as possible. Likewise individuals' responses will be kept confidential by the researcher
and not be identified in the reporting of the research. However the researcher cannot
guarantee the confidentiality or anonymity of material transferred by email or the internet.
Please note that participation in this study is voluntary and participants are free to
withdraw from the research project at any stage without affecting their status, now or in
the future.
Research findings will be available on an ongoing basis from our project website, with a final
report to be completed by October 2017: www.whatshouldistudy.com.au.
This project has been approved by the University of South Australia’s Human Research Ethics
Committee. If you have any ethical concerns about the project or questions about your rights
as a participant please contact the Executive Officer of this Committee, Tel: +61 8 8302 3118;
Email: [email protected].
Please don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected], or 8302 3912, if you have any
questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Andrea Parks
Project Manager
“What Should I Study?
Improving tertiary pathways by improving support for prospective students.”
University of South Australia