Success at university: The student perspective

Abstract

Most of the chapters in this book are written by academics and university administrators-even a Vice-Chancellor. This chapter is different-it is written by students based on interviews with fellow students and presents our analysis of their ideas about what success means to them. From a personal point of view, in the authors’ households it was expected that we attend university after completing high school, ideally without a gap year. Coming from families of educated parents, study was discussed as “a given”. We agree that this manifested as a form of both pressure as well as support during different times of the decision, application, and enrolment processes. However, that is not to say we did not feel our own desire to attend university. Despite very different events throughout our high school education and upbringing, very similar motivating forces emerged that would drive us to eventually end up in business-related degrees with comparable ambitions for the future. Success is something that, as a concept, remains universal in its appeal and motivation for attainment, whilst seeming consistently to lack definition. Depending on background, subject matter, and level of previous achievement or personal benchmark for performance of an individual, one person’s definition and perception of success can greatly differ from another’s. It is this nature that makes the concept both difficult to write about, and yet, intriguing and appealing to analyse theoretically. We have thought deeply about what success means to us and we describe our reflections later in this chapter. We start with the opinions of our fellow students.