Analysis of an adapted reduced programme for First-Year students who didn't make a good start in Higher Education. A case study lead in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Liège.

Following the entry into force of the ‘Decree defining the landscape of Higher Education’ in the French-speaking Community of Belgium (18-12-2013), the opportunity is given to First year students to break their first academic year into two and receive a reduced curriculum, thus reflecting a legislator’s awareness of the need to support First Year students in reaching a certain level of success during this crucial transitional phase of their studies. More specifically, at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Liège, each First-Year student, is offered the option to sign an agreement for a reduced program during the second quarter (according to the ‘Decree related to the studies of Veterinary Sciences’, 13-7-2016) including a maximum of 35 ECTS and comprising all the courses of the first quarter.
Since very limited studies exist on such reduced programs as possible vectors of integration or as success factors, this communication aims to present the results of a research investigating the positive and negative perceptions of a group of students who experienced an accordingly adapted curriculum during the academic year 2017/2018. For each of the five courses constituting their second quarter program, those students have benefited from original remediation activities (including various formative evaluation activities, methodological support, online assignments and theoretical revisions) designed by the concerned faculties with the help of a pedagogical advisor (also available to offer an adequate follow-up to those students in the context of an ULiège FYE project called ‘Feedbacks 1st Year’).
Among the fourteen First Year students who chose to sign the agreement (with all its implication in terms of waiving various aspects of their First-Year cursus), ten agreed to join the assessment process of this program, taking part in semi-directed interviews. The interview data were then analyzed thematically using NVivo qualitative analysis software in order to explore students self-reported behaviors and perceptions positively / negatively related to the studied program : reflective and self-regulation abilities (Nicol, 2009), sense of controllability (Viau, 2005), perceived quality of interactions with both faculties and peers (Tinto, 1993), judgements of competence and task difficulty (Wiegfield & Eccles, 2000).
Since several of the analyzed factors are described as predictors of further engagement or performance of students according to the literature, those results (as the experience itself) could be both inspiring and transferable to various kinds of adapted First Year programmes aiming to give students a second chance to make a successful transition from high school to university.