The role of mathematics support in managing the transition to third level at University College Dublin

The Mathematics Support Centre (MSC) in University College Dublin (UCD) offers mathematics support, usually on a one-to-one or small-group basis, to all undergraduate students in the university. The service is free of charge to the student and operates mainly on a drop-in basis. In this paper we will present an analysis of data collected on the MSC from two sources during the academic year 2009-10. The first set of data contains information on each of the 3,508 visits to the centre in 2009-10, while the second set of data consists of 185 evaluations forms completed by visitors to the MSC in the same year. We discuss our data collection methods and present a summary of the results. Using qualitative responses gathered we then examine the specific role that the centre has to play in managing the transition of students to third level mathematics.