摘要：Universities in Australia are offering alternative entrance pathways to attract students from a range of backgrounds. These alternative pathways will undoubtedly be reviewed due to the recommendation in the Review of Australian Higher Education (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent & Scales, 2008) concerning increasing the diversity of university entrants. This paper discusses an alternative entry pathway, Education Direct (ED), offered by the School of Education at Edith Cowan University, and commences with a review of the literature about such pathways. The next section explores the development and nature of the ED pathway, before outlining the research design and identifying the research questions, which concentrate on retention, academic achievement, and progression rates of ED students. The findings indicate that students who have entered pre-service teacher education via ED are enjoying academic success at comparable levels to students who enrolled through more traditional pathways. Furthermore, their retention and progression rates are not notably different to those of other students. The paper concludes by suggesting that further research of a similar nature would contribute to what should become an area of research interest for universities as the Bradley era approaches.
