Groundless fears? Flawed perceptions? The place of
the academic skills advisor in today's university

A newspaper article entitled 'Fears low entry scores could leave students struggling' in The Sydney Morning Herald (10-2-2005) highlighted the issue of students gaining entry to some universities with entry scores as low as 50. The article cited policy analyst, Andrew Norton, as saying 'many people with low scores may have a lot of trouble passing their courses without strong support .You might not be doing them any favours'. Not unexpectedly, one campus director cited Academic Skills Units as providing the necessary support required to help these students make a successful transition into tertiary study. Professor John Hill stated, 'We have an academic skills unit which assists students in numeracy skills, writing skills- because they usually need help with assignments, how to structure their thoughts and how to put them on paper and so forth'. Professor John Hill is campus director of the Albury-Wodonga campus of La Trobe University where such entry scores are being accepted for at least four degree programs. This paper explores the implications of current recruitment policy and practices for students and academic skills units, particularly those located at 'satellite campuses' where growing concern about learning issues relating to a 'lowering of the bar' are further conflated by the preference for 'flexible delivery' via a range of educational technologies. By critically engaging the perceived relationships between student performance and the practice of academic skills advising, we will begin to analyse how these relationships are being radically impacted upon by current policy in higher education.