Journal of Discourse Studies: Special issue Academic literacies of students 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.