Mathematics Support Centres are available in the majority of Higher Education Institutions in Ireland and the UK. Whilst the online presence of these centres appears to be increasing, there is little research to date which considers its breadth or effectiveness. In this paper we consider the results of a survey on the online presence of support…

In this paper, we report on the outcomes of a survey of students across 12 higher education institutions in Ireland and the UK. Participants were asked to give their views on what tutors should do and not do when they are providing Mathematics Learning Support to students. We present the categories that emerged from an analysis of student…

This study focuses on student resilience during the COVID-19 crisis, a key factor for students' progress, and future careers. It does so by introducing the job demands and resources (JDR) model, and the social exchange theory (SET), widely adopted in the management literature in the education field to better understand student experience…

Over the past 30 years, higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide have been grappling with the difficulties experienced by many students entering higher education due to their poor pre-entry core mathematical skills. In the Republic of Ireland and the UK, the provision of mathematics learning support (MLS) is the approach most commonly…

This paper examines the various ways in which university lecturers of large first-year university mathematics courses receive and use feedback on their students' learning with particular emphasis on feedback collected at a mathematics support centre in an Irish university. Drawing on findings from interviews conducted with 13 lecturers at three…

In this paper, we consider the changes to mathematics learning support (MLS) at Maynooth University due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the provision of novel online study groups aimed at increasing student engagement and interaction. We briefly outline the local, national and international impact of COVID-19 on MLS and then focus on the…

This research uses i-graduate's International Student Barometer to investigate whether overall satisfaction and institutional recommendation are influenced by student nationality and destination country, while controlling for the covariates of learning experiences. The result of our analysis is the identification of a conceptual framework for the…

Despite efforts in Ireland to increase the number of part-time students in Higher Education, there was limited growth over twenty years 1997-2017. Part-time featured in widening participation strategies; however, this mode of learning has orientated towards employability. Retention of part-time students remains a problem for Higher Education. This…

Navigating the transition to college and persisting is crucial to student college success. This research aims to explore the promoters and barriers to first year persistence, the student support needs in relation to these promoters and barriers, who students need the support from and when support is particularly needed. A participatory…

This paper explores analysis of feedback data collected from student consultations at two mathematics support centres at universities in Australia and Ireland. Unstructured text data was collected over six years and includes qualitative data on student queries collected during the consultations from mathematics and statistics related subjects.…

The provision of some level of Mathematics Learning Support (MLS) is now standard in the majority of Higher Education Institutions in Ireland, the UK, and in many other countries. This provision is, in part, a response to the large numbers of students entering Higher Education who do not have the mathematical skills required and this cohort…

This report, authored by Graeme Atherton, examines how universities who are seen as leading internationally and/or in their own national contexts are supporting greater access and success for learners from low-income and other marginalised groups. What can English universities learn from global institutions? By looking at how they work with…

The provision of some level of Mathematics Learning Support is now commonplace in the majority of Higher Education Institutions in the UK and Ireland. Most of these supports were initially established with the aim of trying to address the problem of large numbers of first-year students with weak mathematical backgrounds. The centres provide…

The Maths Learning Support Centre (MLSC) in the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) provides free mathematical support to all DIT students. This support is primarily delivered through a drop-in service, where students can receive one-to-one tuition, without an appointment, in any area of mathematics. In the first semester of the 2013/14 academic…

Migration to Ireland is continuing, albeit at a much slower pace, and migrant children continue to have a strong presence in Irish schools. How well these students integrate into the Irish education system depends, at least partially, on the support measures the schools have put in place for them. This article draws on the results of a large-scale…