Study Skills for Higher Education: A Detailed Report

This report delves into the crucial study skills necessary for success in higher education. It begins by outlining the reasons students pursue university degrees, emphasizing the acquisition of knowledge, career opportunities, and personal development. The main body then explores the development and significance of key academic skills, including learning styles, paraphrasing, academic writing, and note-taking. The report highlights the importance of each skill in enhancing comprehension, avoiding plagiarism, and effectively communicating research. A study plan is also presented, detailing both short-term and long-term goals for skill development, such as improving paraphrasing and academic writing abilities, along with the resources and timeframes required. In conclusion, the report underscores the significance of these skills for academic and professional success. The document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a variety of AI-powered tools and resources to help students excel in their studies.

STUDY SKILLS FOR HIGHER
EDUCATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Reasons behind studying at university........................................................................................3
Academic skills that can be develop and their importance.........................................................3
Study plan that includes goals that helps to develop the core skills and knowledge..................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Skills refers to the ability of individual to complete a particular task within a given period
of time, level of energy. The ability of person can be divided into two categories that is general
skills example leadership, team management skills etc. Another is specific skills such as the
skills that are required to perform a particular job only(Jääskelä, Nykänen, S. and Tynjälä,
2018). The Report will outline the reasons behind studying in university, skills that can be
developed and study plan for developing skills.
MAIN BODY
Reasons behind studying at university.
Studying a degree in university is very helpful to achieve various goals and objectives. It
is also very helpful for grabbing new opportunities that will come in future. There are various
reasons due to which the students studies a particular degree in university. These are as follows-
One of the most important factor that influences the students to pursue a degree is that, it will
help to earn money. Whether the student is pursuing bachelor degree or PhD, it will develop the
skills for earning money(Gill, 2018).
Another reason behind studying in university is that it will provide good career opportunities and
provide opportunity to get better job in future. High school degree provides employment options
for growth and success. Personal development is also one of the main objective of the students
behind pursuing degree from university. It helps to acquire various skills like time management
skills etc(Hill, Walkington, H. and France, 2016). Acquiring a degree in a particular field such as
Finance, Marketing etc. helps in developing employability skills that helps to get good job. It
also helps to acquire general skills and knowledge that helps to improve level of confidence of
post graduates. The another reason behind studying in college is that, it helps to get better perks
and benefits from the employer.
Development and importance of academic skills.
Styles of learning means how an individual interpret, organise and present information. Learning
style of every student varies from each other. Some people may learn in the audio form such as
learning from the classroom lectures or listening to audio for example audio book while some
need the practical knowledge by taking the real life experiences (Rogowsky, Calhoun, and Tallal,
2015). There are seven kinds of intelligence which will allow seven ways of teaching rather than
one way of teaching.

Paraphrasing can be defined as the procedure where the restating of the message using
other words. Paraphrasing is important for the student as it shows how well the student can
understand the matter and present it in their own word. It is important for the students for the
students as it helps them in their research work (Shin, 2019). It is essential for a student at higher
education level because in colleges the student has to prepare their own notes by extracting
useful information from the lectures. It is an important academic skill which help the student to
avoid plagiarism.
Academic writing can be defined as a style in which the researcher expresses the
boundaries of their discipline. There are different types of academic writing such as descriptive,
persuasive, critical and analytical. Academic writing is an important study skill which the student
require while pursuing their studies in college or universities. A student should be good in
academic writing, it means it should be planned and focused, should be evident proof and should
have the formal tone and style (McNamara and et.al., 2018). Academic writing is necessary for
the students to present their research or presentation in a formal way.
Note taking can be defined as the practice of writing the collected information in a systematic
and formal manner. Note taking is also one of the study skill which is important for the students.
As on the part of students they have to take the lecture notes and rewrite the notes, or making
their own notes by reading from the books, web etc (Akintunde, , 2015). It is important for a
students of colleges/universities as it helps the students in better learning and record keeping.
This also helps the students in taking the record of the things that they have learned in their
classrooms. It will help the student in deeper understanding of the work and to recall the
information they have learned in the college.
Study plan that includes goals that helps to develop the core skills and knowledge.
Short term goal-
Short term goal is set to achieve something in near future. For example- in one month, or in one
year etc. Short term goals helps in building career.
Paraphrasing skill- It refers to the skill of presenting the information in own words. The skill is
very helpful for translating the ideas of other person in own words. The skill can be achieve
within a year.
Note taking- It refers to the skill of collecting and integrating notes from various sources like
through books, seminars etc. The skill can be achieve within short period of time.

Long term goal-
Long term goals are set to achieve something in more than one year. Long term goals can be
achieved with the help of careful planning.
Academic writing-
Academic writing is a type of formal work to communicate the ideas, arguments. The work is
written in academic setting(Assiter, 2017). For ex- Literary analysis that involves evaluation of
literary work, writing Research paper for supporting the argument etc. The skills of paraphrasing
can be develop in more than one year.
Heading Actions to be taken Resources Tenure
Paraphrasing Need to attend coaching classes from
tutor for developing paraphrasing
skills.
Reading books,
watching English
news channel.
Within 5-6
months
Academic
writing
Need to attend classes in college so
that skills that are required for
academic writing can be develop.
Reading Research
papers, journals,
books will help to
improve Academic
writing skills.
Within 2-3 years

CONCLUSION
The above Report has outlined that skills of the individual are required to perform a particular
work. The Report has also described that there are various reasons behind pursuing a degree
from college such as it helps to get good job, earning income, personal development etc. The
Report has also explained various academic skills that are developed while studying in university
and their importance. Further it has described that paraphrasing skills can be develop within
short period of time and more than 1 year is required to develop academic skills.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals-
Assiter, A., 2017. Transferable skills in higher education. Routledge.
Gill, R.J., 2018. Building employability skills for higher education students: An Australian
example. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability,.9(1). pp.84-92.
Hill, J., Walkington, H. and France, D., 2016. Graduate attributes: Implications for higher
education practice and policy: Introduction. Journal of Geography in Higher
Education. 40(2). pp.155-163.
Jääskelä, P., Nykänen, S. and Tynjälä, P., 2018. Models for the development of generic skills in
Finnish higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education.42(1). pp.130-142.
Lyons, K., 2019. Social work in higher education: Demise or development?. Routledge.
McNamara and et.al., 2018. Students’ accounts of their first-year undergraduate academic
writing experience: Implications for the use of the CEFR. Language Assessment
Quarterly, 15(1), pp.16-28.
Mir, L., 2015. New Ways of Teaching Metacognitive Skills in Higher Education: Converstand,
A Software for A Better Knowledge Acquisition. In Proceeding of INTED2015
Conference 2nd-4th March 2015 (pp. 4557-4562).
Rogowsky, B.A., Calhoun, B.M. and Tallal, P., 2015. Matching learning style to instructional
method: Effects on comprehension. Journal of educational psychology, 107(1), p.64.
Rose, H. and McKinley, J., 2018. Japan’s English-medium instruction initiatives and the
globalization of higher education. Higher Education, 75(1), pp.111-129.
Shin, S.Y., 2019. Plagiarism. Journal of periodontal & implant science, 49(2), pp.59-59.
Online-
Academic Writing. 2017. [Online] Available Through :
<https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/academicwriting>