Academic Literacy Skills and Progression Rates Amongst Pharmacy Students

Abstract

This article addresses relationships between academic literacy skills and progress in a university degree program. Academic literacy skills of enrolling cohorts of pharmacy students were measured on four criteria. Correlations were calculated between these literacy measures; the time taken to reach graduation; the Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER); and each final first‐year course mark. Results indicate that almost half the enrolling students lacked adequate English language resources necessary for tertiary study. More interesting was the lack of significant correlation between each of these literacy skills and the TER. Logistic regression indicated that measures on three separate literacy criteria were better predictors of university success than the TER alone. When each of these three literacy measures was combined with the TER, prediction of the time taken to reach graduation was improved above using the TER alone. The outcome of this research indicates not only the importance of identifying and subsequently assisting those incoming students who may be experiencing literacy related problems, but also has wider implications for curriculum design and choice of selection criteria employed by university faculties.