The secondary-tertiary transition in mathematics: what are our current challenges and what can we do about it?

Student transition from school-level mathematics to university-level mathematics, often referred to as the secondary-tertiary transition (hereafter STT) is an enduring, complicated and multi-faceted process. STT is a long-standing issue of concern, which has merited significant attention in mathematics education research and practice. In particular, STT was discussed on the pages of this Newsletter several years ago (Gueudet on behalf of the Education Committee of the EMS, 2013) At its 2018 meeting in Cyprus, the EMS Education Committee recognized that our knowledge about successful ways of dealing with STT is still insufficient and that moving forward requires a large scope effort on the part of all parties involved, including mathematics lecturers, school teachers, education researchers, policymakers and students in transition. As part of this effort, the Committee is conducting a survey among mathematicians. The goal of the survey is to collect and report to the mathematics community information needed in order to devise national and international actions that can essentially improve the state of the art with respect to STT.