Academic literacies of studentsn in higher education

Students’ academic literacies in higher education form a topic of current
interest in education policy and research in The Netherlands, as in many other
countries. It is therefore remarkable that in the last decades hardly any studies
have been published on this topic in Tijdschrift voor Taalbeheersing, even more
so since the (sub)discipline Taalbeheersing (Discourse Studies) was founded
around fifty years ago in response to concerns about writing skills of students
entering higher education. At present, such concerns have resurfaced on the
higher education policy agenda in the Netherlands and Flanders, and the call
for a sound scientific foundation of academic literacy teaching and learning
practices is stronger than ever. Academic literacies can be studied as a process
and as a result, as a condition and as an outcome, and from a social as well as
from an individual perspective. The four articles in this special issue of
Tijdschrift voor Taalbeheersing address students’ academic literacies from a
variety of perspectives, and focus on issues pertaining to the competencies of
students entering and leaving institutions of higher education.