Impact of Change in Student Demographics on Foundation Year Pathway Courses: A Case of Business and Economics Pathways

Essex Pathways Department has historically offered undergraduate pathways courses (Year 0) to EU and Overseas students. In April 2016, the University decided to also offer these pathways courses to Home students. To meet the different needs of Home students, the Department needed to revise the curricula and the way in which the courses are delivered. This paper discusses three areas: First, it details the process of change and modification to our pathways provision by focusing on the Business and Economics Pathways. On this particular pathway course, Home students unexpectedly became the largest group. Secondly, the paper covers the how subject specific modules are supported by closely linking them to an Academic Skills module, which now utilises Sloan and Porter’s (2014) Contextualized, Embedded, Mapped (CEM) model to ‘scaffolding’ student learning. Thirdly, the paper describes the challenges faced by academic staff and the initial and long-term measures taken to resolve them. The paper concludes by outlining the Department’s vision for the course provided in 2018-19.