Pathways to University: What Educators in Enabling Programmes Know That Others Often Miss
When colleagues ask me what it is like to work in pathway and enabling education, I often say it is the most honest part of the university system. Pathway students arrive without the conventional entry credentials, but they frequently bring something more valuable: a deliberate, considered decision to pursue higher education. They have chosen this, often against the odds. That changes everything about how you teach them.
I have spent over 15 years working at the intersection of enabling education and mainstream university delivery, across UniReady, Curtin College (Navitas Group), and the Faculty of Business and Law at Curtin University. That vantage point has given me a clear-eyed view of what pathway programmes do well, where the system still falls short, and what academic professionals working in this space need to understand to be genuinely effective.
Pathways are not remedial. They are preparatory.
The most persistent misconception I encounter, even among experienced academics, is the belief that pathway programmes exist to fix deficiencies. They do not. Enabling and foundation programmes exist because the standard university entry framework was designed for a narrow cohort: school leavers with strong academic results, stable home environments, and uninterrupted study histories. Pathway programmes recognise that intellectual capability and life circumstance are not the same thing, and they create structured, supported entry points for students whose capability was never in question.
When we treat pathway education as remediation, we lower expectations, water down content, and ultimately betray the students we are supposed to serve. When we treat it as preparation, we hold the line on academic rigour while building the scaffolding students need to meet that standard. The distinction sounds subtle. In practice, it determines everything from how we design assessments to how we speak to students on their first day.
The transition point is where students are most vulnerable.
In my experience, the moment of greatest risk is not entry into a pathway programme. It is the transition from pathway to degree. Students who have thrived in a well-supported enabling environment can find the shift to standard university delivery abrupt and isolating. Class sizes grow, personalised feedback diminishes, and the pastoral structures they relied on often disappear overnight.
Academic professionals in pathway roles are uniquely positioned to prepare students for this transition, but only if they are in active dialogue with their university colleagues. I have found that the most effective enabling educators deliberately teach university skills as well as subject content: how to read a unit outline critically, how to approach a lecturer they have never met, how to advocate for themselves in a large institution. These are not soft skills. They are survival skills for the academy.
Industry connection is not optional in this context.
Pathway students, particularly those in business and commerce programmes, are often mature-aged, working adults or career changers. Abstract theory disconnected from professional practice does not resonate with them, and frankly, it should not resonate with any learner. The most engaged cohorts I have taught are those where I have been able to draw explicit lines between what we are studying and what it looks like inside a real organisation.
My own industry background, spanning roles at Porsche Vietnam and PepsiCo UK through to ongoing work as a Chartered Accountant and Financial Planning Consultant, has been one of the most useful assets I bring to the classroom. Not because students are impressed by corporate names, but because it allows me to narrate the journey from where they are now to where they could be, with credibility and specificity.
What the research is starting to confirm
My current PhD research at Curtin University examines cryptocurrency markets and AI in financial literacy, but my broader interest is in how emerging technologies are reshaping both financial practice and financial education. Pathway students are entering a profession that is changing faster than most curricula can track. Enabling educators who integrate current, applied research into their teaching do not just improve student outcomes. They model the kind of intellectual curiosity and adaptability that will define professional success in the years ahead.
Pathway education is not a stepping stone to the real work of the university. It is some of the most skilled, most consequential teaching in the sector. The students who come through these programmes, and go on to graduate, often become the most motivated and self-aware professionals in their fields. That outcome does not happen by accident. It happens because educators in this space choose to take both the students and the work seriously.
I would welcome the opportunity to connect with others working in enabling, foundation, and pathway education. The conversation is one our sector needs to have more openly.
