Nuts and bolts session

Title: Working with First Year Female Muslim Students - Designing programs to assist specific groups of students to ‘claim their space’ on campus

Sandra Norris and Heather Nicolson

Abstract

University Campuses are populated by a diverse range of cultural groups. Less dominant groupings of students can find the University experience an alienating one unless they are assisted to ‘claim their space’. Research has shown that the learning experience is facilitated if the learner has a sense of engagement with the institution. Assisting minority groupings of students to ‘claim their space’ has become a focus for the UWS Counselling team. During 2002 one such project worked with Moslim female students to improve their experience of the University environment. A number of strategies were implemented to meet the project’s aim of facilitating the engagement process. This presentation provides an overview of this project.