Best Practice Approaches to Improving Retention for First Year Students

1. Best Practice Approaches to Improving Retention for First Year Students • Prof Kate Greenan • Carol Reid STAR Conference June 2007

2. Context of Research • Widening participation • Student:Staff Ratios • Accountability • Enhancing the Student Experience – social & academic integration STAR Conference June 2007

3. Widening Participation • “by 2010, 50% of all British 18 to 30 year olds should have experienced or be currently participating in higher education” (Bennett & Kottasz, 2006) STAR Conference June 2007

4. Student:Staff ratios (Source: Times Top Universities 2007 League Table) STAR Conference June 2007

5. Accountability • “ In his study of non-completion in the United Kingdom, Yorke (1999) estimated the annual cost to the taxpayer of early student departure as around £100 million” (Zepke & Leach, 2005) • Increased focus on retention and performance • Retention - emphasis on the first year student experience • Performance – emphasis on completion and final awards STAR Conference June 2007

6. Background to FDTL 5 project • Quality in Business Education (QuBE) • Partners: City University (Cass), Winchester, Oxford Brookes, Leeds Metropolitan, Nottingham Trent, UU • Excellence Agenda http://www.qube.ac.uk/QuBE/toolbox/cases/studsuppcases STAR Conference June 2007

7. 1st Year Case Studies • Social integration: Napier, Teesside • Academic integration: Portsmouth, Brighton, Northumbria, Teesside, Aston STAR Conference June 2007

8. Social Integration • Changing student circumstances (increased part-time working and living at home) • Need to engender “belongingness” • Napier – Induction (interaction and socialisation) and Post induction (communication and pastoral) • Teesside – Mature students’ Induction (Tailored, empathetic and supportive) STAR Conference June 2007

9. Academic Integration • Commonly through Study Skills module • Variety modes, approaches and class/group sizes – each valid and situation specific • Importance of team approach and whole team “buy-in”, integrated and seamless approach • Involvement with student mentors, employers and central units STAR Conference June 2007

10. Common Themes underpinning Successful Approaches • Willingness to address the problem • Clear support from senior management • Staff champion(s) • Support & engagement of teaching staff • Multi-faceted role of the academic • Seamless integration between central and local support & across the curriculum • Flexible delivery & assessment, tailored to student & programme needs STAR Conference June 2007

11. Multi-faceted Role of the Academic Elton (1990) • regards high teaching quality as quintessential to excellence in higher education • Argues that there has to be change in attitudes amongst certain academics who believe that their main task is to profess their discipline • Such academics consider that they are professors or lecturers rather than teachers or facilitators of learning STAR Conference June 2007

12. Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants STAR Conference June 2007

13. Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants • “Students today are “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet” • “Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language” (Prensky, 2001) STAR Conference June 2007

14. Concluding Thoughts • Understanding, empathising & responding to differences • Multi-tasking a priority • Must engage students at the very first encounter • Track those who miss to encourage them – using their means of communication! • Must think and manage way beyond the classroom encounter • Smaller groups (within groups) essential STAR Conference June 2007