Any student can improve their learning in higher education if they want to, and the aim of this guide is to help them along this route, not by claiming there is only one right way to do things but by building awareness of different approaches, attitudes, and strategies. Key to this is the notion of active learning which is highlighted throughout the book with the acronym ASCERTAIN whose individual letters signal a range of different strategies and attitudes relevant in different contexts.

Throughout, there is an awareness that among the different cultures students participate in, academic culture has its own set of values which academic staff tend to take for granted, but which students may need to have a greater awareness of, and build into their thinking and working.