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PASS pedagogy is founded on regular, scheduled hour long, weekly, voluntary interactive study sessions for small groups of first year students facilitated by peer mentors. The mentors (leaders) are high achieving, second or third year students who gained high grades in the course in which they are leading and who have an engaging, enthusiastic manner and demonstrated graduate attributes.

PASS commenced in Geographical Sciences and Planning (GSP) in 1995 with implementation in just one first year course, GEOS1100. PASS continued to be offered in just one course until the appointment of a First Year Coordinator (FYC) in July 2005 whose brief was to expand PASS across all first year courses. The number of sessions offered was quickly expanded with this appointment, rising from one to two sessions per week in one course to up to four sessions per week across eight, first year courses. PASS is currently facilitated by up to 16 student leaders in GSP.

Semester I courses: GEOS1100, PLAN1000, PLAN1001, REDE1300

Semester II courses: GEOS1100, GEOG1000, GEOM1000, PLAN1003, REDE1100

25-35% of approximately 700 first year students, voluntarily attend PASS on a regular basis each semester. PASS leaders, and the students they assist, now benefit from four hours of intensive training in facilitating small group learning. Leaders have the support of the FYC in preparing materials, seeking advice on presentations, allocating rooms, promoting PASS and maintaining attendance records.

The role of PASS in supporting first year students was recognised by the University of Queensland (UQ) at the Teaching and Learning Awards during the Teaching and Learning Week in October 2006. A prize of $10,000 was awarded to the academic team who coordinated PASS to further implement PASS at UQ.

PASS has since gained national recognition with success at the 2007 Carrick Awards for Programs that Enhance Learning: The First Year Experience. A prize of $25,000 was awarded to the PASS team who travelled to Canberra for the ceremony held at Parliament House on November 27, 2007. PASS coordinators from BACS, GPA, Economics and Business comprised the award winning UQ team.


The objective of implementing regular, scheduled PASS in GSP courses is clearly defined as to enhance the first year learning experience.

PASS provides an informal, voluntary gathering of like-minded students led by high achieving students just one or two years ahead of themselves. Students are able to work in small groups on course work, socialise, ask questions and seek information and advice from their peers.

PASS is closely supervised by the FYC who interviews and appoints leaders in consultation with course coordinators, assists with the production of teaching materials, allocates rooms and monitors and analyses attendance making adjustments to timetabling and leader availability as required. Evaluation of the contribution of PASS to the first year experience is enabled through this monitoring.


One strategy used to evaluate the success of PASS is an analysis of attendance in GEOS1100, a capstone course with one of the higher enrolments (150-175) in the School of GPA. Attendance at PASS was plotted against average grades attained by students and the results have consistently shown a positive correlation:



Student responses to surveys filed from those who attended PASS in the eight, first year courses across two semesters demonstrate the breadth of impact that PASS has had on students’ learning experience. Several student responses to a survey question follow.

Question: Have you found PASS to be a useful aid to your studies?
• The PASS leader explains concepts really well and goes through key topics so I understand concepts much better. Group participation and activities are good because hands-on stuff helps you to learn better.
• PASS leader always explain well! It is easy to understand for me! It helps a lot! It is good review. (International student)
• We discuss things from the lectures which aren’t discussed in the tutorials.
• Summary sheets, easy going, relaxed atmosphere.
• They’ve been fantastic. This subject isn’t the most interesting at times but the PASS sessions make it fun.
• Yes, because you get to ask questions you don’t in class and it’s a good opportunity to meet and work together.

PASS is all inclusive and is a particularly important learning strategy for international students who may face language comprehension difficulties in large classes where lectures are the common method of instruction. PASS leaders themselves are selected on merits and are drawn from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The leaders in 2007 included 9 males (3 of international backgrounds) and 7 females (1 of international background). One of the leaders was a mature age student with a young family.

PASS attracts a disproportionately large percentage of international students when compared to total enrolments and this is one of the great strengths of PASS. Small group work in PASS fosters understanding and mixing with the main stream students as well as helping to foster a broader international perceptive and a global view among domestic students.

PASS offers an unparalleled learning opportunity for first year students and its merits have won national recognition. As a means of supporting first year students, PASS has expanded into numerous UQ programs and courses at St. Lucia, Gatton and Ipswich and is being taken up at several other institutions across the country.

For more Information contact

Graham Jordan

First Year Coordinator

Geographical Sciences and Planning

Bldg.35 Room 513

University of Queensland

St. Lucia. Qld.

Australia 4067

Tel 07 33656529

Fax 07 33656899

E-mail g.jordan2@uq.edu.au