Maximising graduates’ chances of success in challenging times Mantz Yorke Lancaster University

1. Maximising graduates’ chances of success in challenging times Mantz Yorke Lancaster University mantzyorke@mantzyorke.plus.com What Works? Student Retention and Success Conference University of York, 28-9 March 2012

2. Challenging times for institutions (variable across UK) • Instability in HE policy • Attracting students where the fee cost (albeit deferred) • has been raised significantly • Competing for students from outside the EU • Being able to demonstrate ‘quality’ and value for money • (e.g. via KIS; ‘league tables’) • Tension between research and teaching • General cost reduction, with particular implications for • staffing and the quality of the student experience • Responding to government instrumentality (e.g. employability) • Responding to student expectations (some of which might run • counter to good learning)

3. What constitutes success? • The answer depends (inter alia) on: • The view held regarding the purposes of HE • To whom the question is posed • - Student (demographics are important) • - Institution (mission is a variable) • - Government • - Employer Have expectations risen over time? ‘You’ve got a degree: what else can you offer?’

4. Employer satisfaction with graduates’ employability skills Source: CBI, 2011

5. What constitutes success? • The answer depends (inter alia) on: • The view held regarding the purposes of HE • To whom the question is posed • - Student (demographics are important) • - Institution (mission is a variable) • - Government • - Employer Transition from elite to massified HE has altered expectations As will changes to funding

6. One size doesn’t fit all Institutional missions vary, particularly with regard to the relative importance of employability and subject knowledge. It would be surprising if the same measures of educational gain were equally appropriate in all UK institutions. Gibbs (2010, p.45) Compilers and users of ‘league tables’ please note ‘Graduateness’ is complex, as HEQC (1997) indicated

7. ‘Graduateness’ HEQC (1997)

8. Employment: a key dimension of success • But ... • Employment rate (in ‘graduate jobs’) is a dubious indicator • Dependent on subject studied • Dependent on national/regional economy • The return on a student’s investment in HE varies • with subject studied • with the number of graduates entering the labour market

9. Some recent UK data

10. Job skill levels required of recent graduates Percentage of graduates Data need to be disaggregated, due to subject differences 2001 2011 Source: Labour Force Survey - Office for National Statistics, 2012

11. Recent UK graduates’ median hourly earnings, £ Source: Labour Force Survey - Office for National Statistics, 2012

12. But success has to be seen in a wider context

13. Dimensions of success Source: Institute for Higher Education Policy, 1998 The personal/psychological gets only an oblique mention

14. Some good(ish) Euro-news

15. Past and future structure of jobs by education attainment level (EU 25 countries. Source: CEDEFOP 2008) Recession impact? Proportion of high-skill jobs?

16. What makes an institution successful?

17. Institutions particularly successful with students May not be the most prominent in research, reputation, etc. Have a sustained commitment to student development E.g. Mentkowski and Associates (2000) Action on Access (2003) Carey (2005) Kuh et al (2010) Tinto (yesterday, and previously) Not to forget the importance of pre-enrolment engagement... ... or the particular needs of part-time, disabled and mature students

18. Successful UK institutions as regards WP • exhibit characteristics from the following list: • Commitment to the student experience • Pre-entry and early engagement with students • Curricula attuned to widened participation • Curriculum treated as a social arena • Emphasis on formative assessment, esp. in the first semester • Allocation of resources preferentially to first year studies Action on Access (2003)

19. High-performing US institutions • Focus on getting students engaged, especially in their first year • Have a genuine emphasis on the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning • Ensure that academics and administrators monitor student learning, taking advantage of the power of modern data systems, and use monitoring for helping individual students and for developing policy and practice • Have leaders who make student success a top institutional priority – and stick with it Carey (2005)

20. NSSE’s 5 ‘key clusters’ of attributes • Level of academic challenge • Active and collaborative learning • Student-faculty interaction • Supportive campus environment • Enriching educational experiences • Kuh et al (2010) • Considerably influenced by Chickering & Gamson (1987) • Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education And broadly similar to a review of meta-analyses (Hattie, 2009)

21. Engagement US evidence based on NSSE: Positive relationship with outcome measures (though strength found to be variable) e.g. Carini et al (2006), Gordon et al (2008), Pascarella et al (2010) Relationship stronger for entrants of relatively low ability Carini et al (2006) NSSE was designed primarily to provide process indicators that could help institutions to identify matters that could lead to enhancement of the student experience

22. What might engage students and develop their powers of critical appraisal?

23. Developing powers of critical appraisal: an example DOCTORS SHOCKED BY NEW SUPERFOOD RESULTS... End your health problems and extend your life an extra 15 to 24 years... Energy levels 152% higher General health 16 times better... Pain cut in half... Mental capacity 15 times better... I haven’t had a guy turn around and look at me when I passed him on the street for years. Guess what. It happened last week. I can’t tell for sure it’s the product but I sure feel a lot better since I’ve been taking Bio-Krill. Susan C, New York

24. The importance of pre-enrolment engagement: an example The provision of prior information Data from 634-694 first-year students in Art & Design • The match, by high/low level of prior information, • between expectations and experience: • Teaching • Learning environment • Assessment methods • Course organisation

25. Teaching Learning environment Level of prior info High Low Assess’t methods Course organisation Increasing match

26. Guidance co-ordinates • Diversity of background • Supportiveness • Clear and high expectations • Curricula, pedagogy and • assessment for sustained • success • ‘Quality is everybody’s • business’ • Institutional culture It’s not rocket science

27. Two cultures Learning Performance

28. Culture and purpose Education, not mere retention, is the proper goal of institutional action. Retention and graduation are its byproducts. (Tinto, 2009, p.5) Or, in more vernacular terms: Get ‘the student experience’ right, and the rest will follow But getting the student experience right involves a number of variables ...

29. Variables affecting outcomes • Engagement • Academic • Social • Employment • Outcomes • Academic • ‘Generic’ • Employment • Quality of life • Experience • Teaching • Assessment • Psychosocial • Extraneous Expectations • Resources • Staffing • Equipment • Support services • etc • Background • Academic • Psychological • Social Data Analysis Feedback Action

30. What works: the holy grail? ... refocus on giving academics useful skills that get results, by funding hard-nosed scientific research to demonstrate that if you do x with students you may get y results. Letter to the THE, 22 March 2012, p.34 An examiner might say ‘discuss’... ... with particular reference to ... … students change in holistic ways and that these changes have their origins in multiple influences in both the academic and non-academic domains of students’ lives. Pascarella & Terenzini (2005, p.603)

31. Theory in this area is complex We should be aware of theories, but not fall into the trap of assuming simple causality between ‘intervention’ and student response. There are simply too many variables in play. We can only seek to ‘bend the odds’ in favour of student success, drawing on what we know from theory and research.

32. Academic community In an international study ... students in one of the departments said that their teachers were not especially good but that it didn’t matterbecause they felt included in an exciting community of scholars ... Gibbs (2010, p.47, original emphasis) A qualitative study at Oxford Brookes University found that the high performing subjects were characterised by healthy ‘communities of practice’ involving much discussion of how to solve teaching problems so as to make the entire programme work well for students. In contrast, subjects with consistently low average marks were characterised by a corresponding lack of talking about teaching, and a fragmented focus on individual courses ... Gibbs (2010, pp.47-8)

33. If I were Bill Clinton (as a VC) I’d have on my desk ... It’s the culture, stupid