Study Skills for Higher Education: Development Plan and Skills Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of essential study skills for higher education students. It begins by highlighting the primary reasons students pursue degrees at universities, emphasizing the enhanced knowledge, career opportunities, and development of vocational skills. The report then delves into the core academic skills that students develop, including various learning styles (visual, verbal, aural, and kinaesthetic), effective note-taking strategies, the importance of paraphrasing for creative thinking and improved writing, and the significance of academic writing. Furthermore, the report outlines both short-term and long-term development plans, focusing on improving academic writing and note-taking skills in the short term, and learning and paraphrasing skills in the long term. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of these core academic skills in contributing to student success and academic performance. The report is well-structured and includes relevant references from academic journals and books.

Study Skills for Higher Education

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
The main reasons for studying a degree at university .................................................................1
The core academic skills that can be developed in universities...................................................1
Long Term and Short Term Development plan for Study...........................................................2
CONCLUSIONS..............................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
The core core academic skills are important for the study purpose. This skills are
consisting of different basic skills. This report is explaining various kind of core skills in study.
The development planed based on short term and long term plan is designed in report.
The main reasons for studying a degree at university
The students go for studying a degree at universities because these universities provide
them better exposure of knowledge. It will further help in their career growth. This maybe
perhaps of their academic interest or social life. They also go for studying a degree in the
universities because they want to enhance their subjective knowledge of particular subject in
depth. The degree which they take in UK universities has acceptable at global level. They are
facilitated by high quality of teaching and libraries (Yorke, 2014). First year students get
vocational training. Through studying in these universities they are able to get a better job. The
universites allows the students to develop their abilities in order to understand that education is a
central feature for career gowth (Mohr-Schroeder and et.al., 2019). The variety of subjects can be
studied in these universites such as social studies, sports, biological science, business
management etc. These courses are so broad that it provides an enough depth of knowledge for
the students in order to gain the credible vocational skills.
The universities of UK are much cheaper than USA. Thus, students can easily afford
them. They are acquiring skills such as cognitive learning. It determines as a style that possesses
information habits of an individual (Mohr-Schroeder and et.al., 2019). This describes the way in
which the student thinks, remember data, perceived and do problem solving. The first year
allows the students to gain the certificates that grants them the admission to higher education
institutes. This supports the learner to develop a procedure which able them to do tasks and
assignment of college and universities (Krutkowski, 2017). The students get support from their
peer group and they get to learn how to manage their time by doing assignments and projects.
The core academic skills that can be developed in universities
The students get to learn various academic skills through studying in the universities such
as Learning styles, Note taking, Paraphrasing and academic writing.
Learning styles - The students which are studying a degree at universities get to learn
various learning styles such as Visual, Verbal, Aural and kinaesthetic. They get a chance to
1

improve their presentation skills through studying in these universities. This will further help
them to improvise their communication skills (Yorke, 2014).
Note taking - This refers to the practice of recording the essence of information. It is the
extract of information in summarise form. This will further help the students during their exams
for doing quick revision of their topics. The note taking skills are known as to write the
information provided during the lectures. To write all information is waste of time and paper.
The main thing in the note taking is to consider only important points of information and write
them as note. This will save time of student. The notes which are written bullet points are more
effective than the paragraph style. The note taking skills develop the capability of self learning
and information processing skills.
Paraphrasing - This refers to restatement of a passage. It makes the students able to write
in their own language while taking information from some other source (Krutkowski, 2017).
This helps the students to develop their creative thinking. The skills of paraphrasing is also
important to write down the things which are running in mind (Gokhale and Machina, 2018).
This can help the student to improve their writing skills. The paraphrasing is also considered as
the way of expressing feelings and information in creative manner. This can help the students to
score higher in the exams. This will also influence their thinking process.
Academic writing - This mean to write up the theoretical knowledge of subjects in
written form. It helps the student to enhance their subjective knowledge. The students get good
marks in exams through improvising their academic writing. The different kind of academic
writing formats are followed by different education bodies.
Long Term and Short Term Development plan for Study
In the development plan for study some skills of students are targeted to improve. The
purpose of development plan is to develop or improve different skills of person. The skills which
are need to be improved through the development plan are learning skills , note taking skills ,
academic writing and paraphrasing skills. The classification of long term and short term plan is
based on the length of development process and required time for development.
Short Term Goals
In the short term goals academic writing skills and note taking skills are considered. In
the development of academic writing skills the person need to follow the proper guide lines of
the college or university to meet with their requirements (Schneider and Preckel, 2017). The
2

method of writing follow by college have some different standards. If all the standards are
followed by student will be considered as good academic skills. To develop these skills the
person only need to do is to follow the standards of university or college. The other skill which is
considered in short term goal is note taking skills. In the note taking skills the thing required is
smart and efficient work. The note taking skills can be improved by developing good listening
skills. Better listening will make study more effective and the requirement of notes will be
reduced. After this the student only have to consider the main points during the lecture.
Name of Skills Method followed Required Time
Note Taking Improve listening skills 10- 15 Days
Academic Writing Following Standards 510 Days
Long Term Goals
The long term goals for skills development are learning skills and paraphrasing skills. In
the development of learning skills student have to work on different plans in collective manner to
development of learning skills. One way to achieve this skill is by changing the method of study
and by improving reading (King and Boyatt, 2015). The other thing considered in long term goal
is paraphrasing skills. For the development of paraphrasing skills the person need to improve
their writing skills. By continuous writing and reading the paraphrasing skills can be improved.
Name of skills Method of Improvement Required time
Paraphrasing Skills By improving Reading and
writing skills
2-3 Months
Learning Skills By changing method of Study 1-2 months.
CONCLUSIONS
This study is concluding the importance of core academic skills in education system for
student. The different type of skills are studied in the report. The skills' development plan is
designed to improve the different skills of student.
3

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Krutkowski, S., 2017. A strengths-based approach to widening participation students in higher
education. Reference Services Review. 45(2). pp.227-241.
Mohr-Schroeder, M. and et.al., 2019. Developing a STEM Education Teacher Preparation
Program to Help Increase STEM Literacy among Preservice Teachers. The Next
Generation of STEM Teachers: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Meet the Needs of the
Future. p.93.
Yorke, M., 2014. Leaving early: Undergraduate non-completion in higher education. Routledge.
Gokhale, A. and Machina, K., 2018. Guided Online Group Discussion Enhances Student Critical
Thinking Skills. International Journal on E-Learning. 17(2). pp.157-173.
Schneider, M. and Preckel, F., 2017. Variables associated with achievement in higher education:
A systematic review of meta-analyses. Psychological bulletin. 143(6). p.565.
King, E. and Boyatt, R., 2015. Exploring factors that influence adoption of e‐learning within
higher education. British Journal of Educational Technology. 46(6). pp.1272-1280.
4