The HERE Project Toolkit: A Guide to Improving Student Retention

1. The HERE Project Toolkit The HERE Project (2008-2011) researched the impact of doubting on student retention and appropriate strategies for course teams to adopt to help students remain and succeed. This action card can be used by individuals, or preferably by course teams during reviews, planning events or team meetings to reﬂect upon their own practices and consider ways of improving retention. Further information can be found at www.HEREproject.org.uk The HERE Project was delivered by teams at The HERE Project Toolkit The HERE Project (2008-2011) researched the impact of doubting on student retention and appropriate strategies for course teams to adopt to help students remain and succeed. This action card can be used by individuals, or preferably by course teams during reviews, planning events or team meetings to reﬂect upon their own practices and consider ways of improving retention. Further information can be found at www.HEREproject.org.uk The HERE Project was delivered by teams at

2. How to use these recipe cards There are nine sets of recipe cards, one for each of the thinking. recommendations contained in the HERE Project toolkit. The cards broadly describe the recommendations we We have found that in many programmes, simply make in the toolkit, but obviously in less detail. making time to discuss the issues is valuable. They are designed to be a resource to be used as part of The recommendations are based on our interviews with a staff development event, perhaps an away day or team programme staff, student surveys and our experience meeting. We generally suggest exploring looking at student retention & engagement issues. They Recommendations 1,2 & 4 first, but the cards can be are ideas that worked for a particular programme at a used in any order. particular time. We don't promise that they'll work in all situations and strongly suggest that you use them as a Simply print off the cards, cut them in half, spread them starting point only. You may disagree with the out on the table and use them to start a discussion. They recommendation. As long as it engages you to think up a are designed to get you thinking, to encourage you to better one, the cards have played their part. debate the issues, not act as an absolute set of instructions. As such, they are tools for use: scribble Good luck notes on them, tear them up, use them as you see fit. If it helps stick, them onto the flipchart, drop them into a The HERE Project team flowchart, do whatever you want if it helps get you The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme HERE Project toolkit Left intentionally blank for your own notes & ideas The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

4. Recommendation 1 - Identify & respond to students at risk 1.1 Understanding more about students at risk of withdrawing early We suggest that programme teams start by trying to better understand who the at risk students are, “Experience suggests that data gathered to by using formal and informal data. fulfil quality assurance obligations are not We recommend: always exploited optimally for the purposes of quality enhancement" (Yorke, 2006) Formal Data • Starting with institutional QA data; although often the complexity of student withdrawal Informal Data means that this does not contain the complete • Allocating more staff to supporting first year picture students to create more opportunities to pick up issues from students • Ensuring that the whole programme team understands the current position with regards • Allocating time to review both the formal and to student retention informal withdrawals data and actively look for warning signs, personal knowlege about why • Considering gathering data at faculty/school students withdrew and create time to consider level, even if only to provide greater details interventions that might have helped prevent when discussing institutional withdrawals data early withdrawal The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 1 - Identify & respond to students at risk 1.2 Monitoring 'at risk' times In the UK, withdrawal tends to be highest in the first term of the first year, but there are other risk periods too including January/February and exam times. We recommend: • In our studies the period immediately before and • Programme teams consider the at risk times for particularly after Christmas were times of high their courses and plan appropriate strategies to doubting. It appears that this is the period of first ease the transition or help new students to significant assessments, limited feedback and, after cope. Christmas, the January blues. • Respondents to the HERE Project surveys Effective strategies for this time might include: consistently reported 'academic factors' as the • Formative feedback and the fast turnaround of main reason to doubt. However, social feedback anxieties were much more prevalent early in the academic year. Fitzgibbon and Prior (2007) • Personal or small group tutorials similarly found that students' concerns changed • Activities to allow students to reflect on personal over time. progress and achievement since the start of the year The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

6. Recommendation 1 - Identify & respond to students at risk 1.3 Monitoring engagement, not just atttendance Disengagement can be a precursor of withdrawal. If a student stops attending, then it's potentially easy to simply slip away. The bonds formed by relationships with peers and tutors need time to build up, but it's also important that students don't simply fall behind in the course work too. We recommend that programme teams: such as non-participation in online learning Monitor attendance and teaching. • Start by agreeing what attendance will be monitored. Clearly lectures are more • Early patterns of non-attendance and challenging, but seminars, tutorials and disengagement may be more problematical, as workshops are more manageable. students haven't normalised into routines of independent learnin, or have other tactors such • Communicate and discuss this strategy with the as friendship bonds, or relations with tutors that students. will help them to stay. Monitoring engagement and attendance is therefore most important in Monitor engagement the early stages. Teams may therefore choose to • Respond to other forms of disengagement, monitor it for the first term. particularly those that can be monitored easily The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 1 - Identify & respond to students at risk 1.4 Responding to students at risk Understanding when students are disengaging is essential, but equally important is how the programme team responds. We recommend: supporting individual students who are facing • That programme teams respond quickly and difficulties. Does this mean everyone in the team sympathetically to individuals who appear to knows how to refer to central or school-based be disengaging or actually withdrawing. professional or study support? • This is likely to require some organisation and • All teams ought to use the data to review patterns. planning & the team need to agree who deals Are there are difficult modules, or challenging with these students. In our case studies, this assignments? Without watering down standards, was normally a named individual such as the what could be done differently? programme leader, but there were clearly • Teams make time to learn from experience of the shared and understood responsibilities for the year and prevent early withdrawal in future years. rest of the team. • Teams also need to agree a strategy for The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

8. Recommendation 1 - Identify & respond to students at risk This page left intentionally blank for your notes The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 1 - Identify & respond to students at risk This page left intentionally blank for your notes The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

10. Recommendation 2 - Help students make the transition to being effective learners at university 2.1 Improving students' understanding about how HE is different to prior learning The differences between college and university are often significant and given more recent changes in the further education curriculum, far greater than has historically been the case. We recommend that: Teams use tutorials as opportunities to explore the skills and practices associated with HE learning. Programme teams review their induction practice. • We suggest these ought to focus on academic development, seeing the curriculum as a whole, • Do inductions start to both explain and provide strategies for asking for help, conducting an opportunity for students to practice the skills research and other pertinent strategies. and approaches needed to cope with learning at university? Periodically pausing whilst transmitting knowledge and encouraging students to reflect on your expectations of • Do inductions have an input from existing the processes taking place. students to help newcomers understand the differences between college & university? • For example, reviewing approaches to note making in lectures. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 2 - Help students make the transition to being effective learners at university 2.2 Create an environment conducive to peer support “I understand the topics I have to do my coursework on and I The No1 reason cited by doubters for staying related to know that if I don't, I can ask support from friends made at university. for guidance from my lecturers We recommend that: and PAL leader” (BU Student Transition Survey). Programme teams seek to maximise opportunities for students to develop friendship/ peer support networks. • For example build small group activity into the curriculum, particularly in the first term, and • Of the two, peer mentoring is a more formal ensure that ice breakers and other structured process that follows the curriculum, buddying social activities are built into the induction and tends to be less formal. Nonetheless, if you are early transition period (Cook & Rushton, 2008). using buddies, we would strongly suggest that they deliver timetabled activities such as campus Programmes explore using student buddies or peer tours to create a reason to speak to students in mentors (PAL or PASS in the UK) to support students, the first place. particularly early in the academic year. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

12. Recommendation 2 - Help students make the transition to being effective learners at university 2.3 Improving students' understanding of assessment Doubters were less likely to report that assessments in HE were as they expected. It appears that significant numbers of students have problems comprehending our expectations of assessment. We recommend that: assignment Programmes use activities that explicitly explore • Analysis of assessment criteria and disciplinary expectations about assessment in higher education. language/ phrases (for example what does ‘be more critical’ actually mean) These might include: • Discussing whole group feedback in tutorials • Use of exemplars, either whole pieces of work or sections introduced gradually over a period of • More formative assessment weeks • Some written assignments completed in groups • Staged construction of assignments, for example rather than individually, or peer feedback on writing a literature review, discussing it in class assessments and then using the feedback to shape the full The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 2 - Help students make the transition to being effective learners at university 2.4 - Making better use of formative feedback Student confidence appears strongly related “At the beginning of the course I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of people who feedback. Students who reported that feedback were clearly very smart and I found myself was not useful were more likely to be doubters. questioning my own academic abilities. After completing my first few assignments I convinced We recommend: myself I hadn't done very well but I got good marks throughout the year as well as very • Yorke (2003) makes a strong case for better use of formative feedback, particularly early in the first detailed feedback so I was able to improve my year to offer diagnostic advice to students work” (NTU Student Transition Survey). • Where possible tying discussion and action planning from formative feedback into tutorials throughout the year. Foster, McNeil & Lawther planning was. (forthcoming) noted that students were often able to accurately interpret feedback at the time it was • Consider learning and teaching activity that given. However, even though comprehension was encourages students to write reflectively about not particularly a problem, the process of action their progress The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

14. Recommendation 2 - Help students make the transition to being effective learners at university 2.5 Consider differentiation Given the high percentage of young people entering HE - is some kind of differentiation within the cohort at least worth considering? We recommend: dissertations that receive a first in the departmental internet journal. • At least discussing options for structuring groups around their academic performance. It may be • One example suggested to the HERE Project is that this is useful for certain subjects that that all students on a programme are required to students can find difficult. attend a timetabled weekly maths session unless they can complete and pass an online • Programmes devise ways to motivate and assessment on the VLE beforehand. This way, encourage students throughout the year. One those who don’t need the additional support can programme, for example, highlighted student focus elsewhere and those who need it can achievements in the university magazine and participate in smaller groups. promoted this to first years, another sent letters of commendation to students who do well in the first year. Another programme publishes all The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 2 - Help students make the transition to being effective learners at university Intentionally left blank for your ideas The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

16. Recommendation 3 - Relationship and communication with staff 3.1 Enhancing the staff/ student relationship It appears that in college, students are used to highly supportive relationships with staff. Whilst not advocating simply adopting that model, students do need help moving to a state of autonomy/ managing their learning independently. We recommend that: learning contracts to achieve this. • Students receive early communication from a • Programme staff make an effort to learn the names member of the team, prior to arrival, and a face and find out about their students from the start. to face meeting during the first week with a • Large cohorts are designed to feel small. For member of staff that they will have regular example at NTU, a tutorial system has been contact with during the first year. implemented specifically to achieve this aim. • Programme teams create opportunities to discuss the working relationship expected in HE and • There is clear and repeated information about who how it might be different from college. One students can speak to, reminding them about programme surveyed for the HERE Project used office hours etc. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 3 - Relationship and communication with staff 3.2 Communicating with students about the programme Many academic programmes are complex organisations with many academic and support staff playing different roles. Doubters were more likely to report finding the course disorganised, programme teams therefore need to consider how the whole team communicates to students. We recommend that: for example during induction, or by putting up photos of team members along with their roles. • The programme adopts a whole team approach • Programme teams adopt a JEEJIT (Just Enough to retention, transition & engagement. It's not just Education, Just In Time)(Cook & Rushton, 2008) the job of the programme leader or first year approach to communicating systems and tutor. Everyone involved has a clear processes. Clearly it's important to communicate understanding about what their responsibility is, programme information during induction talks, but and this is communicated to students, both most students might benefit more from an through formal documents and verbal explanation of how to submit coursework closer to communication. the point of submission. • The programme team promotes communication, The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

18. Recommendation 3 - Relationship and communication with staff 3.3 Communicating within the programme team about students Our experience with programme teams suggests that often there will be one or two staff members with good relations with & knowledge about the students, but that their knowledge is not necessarily widely known within the team. It became apparent during the HERE research that courses with good retention, made time to share and discuss information about students and plan strategies to support them. We recommend that: • Programme teams review how they engagement (or disengagement) across the communicate about retention & problems. Could programme, for example, non-attendance or information be more effectively shared and are grades. there opportunities to improve remedial actions? • Teams ensure that informal opportunities to • Teams monitor issues that might indicate discuss student issues are planned in to meetings. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 3 - Relationship and communication with staff 3.4 Adopting a whole team approach to communicating changes to students There are more potential channels of communication to students that at any time in the past - face-to-face, email, SMS, tweets, Facebook. However, students can feel that they are not well communicated to, particularly when they have provided feedback or asked for changes. We recommend that: • Programme teams have an agreed understanding • Students are encouraged to give feedback of how they will respond to student feedback and throughout the year. requests for change (clearly shaped by • Notes from any agreed actions are well publicised institutional policy). and students are made aware of changes, or • Programme teams emphasise formal and reasons why changes are not possible. Channels informal opportunities for students to raise issues such as email, may be problematical, so verbal and give an indication of how issues are communication at the start of lectures, seminars, normally dealt with. tutorials etc may strongly reinforce such communication. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

20. Recommendation 3 - Relationship and communication with staff This page is left intentionally blank for your notes or thoughts The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 3 - Relationship and communication with staff This page is left intentionally blank for your notes or thoughts The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

22. Recommendation 4 - Help students make informed decisions about choosing the right course 4.1 - Using Open Days and other communication channels Poor initial choice of course or university is often cited as a contribting factor in retention research. Logically, anything to help students better understand the nature of the programme ought to be beneficial. We recommend that: • When planning marketing, the team (or the wider How does the programme team then ensure that university) considers the need to explain to these are seen by students? students what learning on the course will be like. Clearly, open days and prospectuses need to • Review with current students your marketing operate as marketing tools, so how does the messages. Did they find that the open days programme get across the experience of studying. portrayed accurately the nature of the course? It may be that asking first year students to write Are there any ways that the programme could be blogs, or video recording lectures and other made more 'real'? activities may be the most productive approach. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 4 - Help students make informed decisions about choosing the right course 4.2 Providing a range of information to students prior to starting their course Although not strictly helping students to choose a course, once they have accepted a place how can programme teams help students to start to consider ways to engage before they start? We recommend that: "I needed more detail on how I would be • Programme teams and the wider institution taught and the course content. And also the review how the university learning experience is learning support that would be available. promoted to future students. Quinn et al (2005) What are the expectations around essay writing noted that many students lacked the cultural for example? capital to understand that language used in It's a big cultural shift." standard marketing materials, therefore this may need separating from the marketing efforts. • Some students may find that exploring HE whilst • How does your team promote the essence of still in FE is confusing. It may be that this learning on your course to future students? The information is released to students once they have KIS appear to focus on outcomes and time, but accepted a place on your course. how do you promote what learning will involve? The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

24. Recommendation 4 - Help students make informed decisions about choosing the right course This page is left intentionally blank for your notes or thoughts The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 4 - Help students make informed decisions about choosing the right course This page is left intentionally blank for your notes or thoughts The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

26. Recommendation 5 - Improve social integration 5.1 - Enhancing pre-arrival activities including social networking Clearly, most university students will use Facebook and othe social media to ﬁnd peers in their accommodation and on their course. Is there anything that the course team can do to make the pre-arrival networking better? We recommend that: opportunities for students to talk to one another through social media such as Facebook. • Course teams look at the pre-arrival stage of the • Clearly asking students to engage with social induction process (the period between students media can be problematical. Anecdotal evidence accepting a place and arriving at university). strongly suggests that, at this stage, students may Stepping Stones 2HE (Keenan, 2008) and Starting be more likely to 'lurk'. Nonetheless, students at NTU (Foster et al, 2012) are both initiatives to report positively about the fact that an encourage students to participate in pre-arrival opportunity exists. tasks. These are usually short research tasks designed to help students start to think about • It may be that student mentors are best placed to independent learning, but can include lead this type of pre-arrival task. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 5 - Improve social integration 5.2 - Enhancing programme induction Students' early priorities are often about learning, forming friendships and support networks. Do induction programmes help or hinder this? We recommend that: "When you feel lost and bewildered, the last thing you want is long lectures" • Programme teams design course inductions to (Edward, 2001) maximise the opportunities to form friendship groups and peer support networks. Instead of endless successions of induction lectures from various programme and professional staff, inductions ought to include: • Group seminars • Icebreakers • These activities ought, wherever possible, to have an academic focus. Students are likely to be • Integrated small group projects (preferrably tied suspicious of a purely 'social' activity and view it into pre-arrival tasks) as optional. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

28. Recommendation 5 - Improve social integration 5.3 - Extending the use of groupwork (particularly field trips) Group work can be a major source of stress for students. However, our evidence is also that group work has really helped social integration in our test programmes. Field trips appear to have been particularly beneficial. We recommend that: "I've never been so homesick as I was that weekend...but what it did do was to really pull • Small group projects can be valuable for students [together] our friendships ... because we were to develop friends and support networks on their feeling a bit out of our depth ... then when you course. Early tasks ought to include activities that came back you really felt that you knew explicitly encourage networking, for example a people." (BU student interview) questionnaire about one another to be completed at the first team meeting or an instruction to meet somewhere social like a cafe. transformative experience. We are aware that there are risks with field trips, for example the • In our study, field trips appeared to be particularly motivation of those students who don't attend, effective at creating a sense of community and but feel that course teams ought to try and find many students reported them to be a ways of using field trips early in the first term. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 5 - Improve social integration 5.4 - Considering the use of peer support (Buddies & Supplemental Instruction (SI)) Peer support offered by students in the second and final year can help new students to adapt to life at university and offer a source of support outside the tutor/student power relationship. We recommend that: "In a PAL session, we had to say our names, where we are from and something unique • Student to student peer support takes broadly about ourselves. I found that everyone let their two forms: guards down, so we could start getting to know each other." - Buddying - a less formal process where students (BU student transition survey response) work to help new students settle in by helping with induction (for example campus tours) or at informal meetings, via email etc support, ice breakers and structured revision - Supplemental Instruction - is also known as SI, sessions. PAL or PASS. This is more formal, student mentors organise workshops that include study • Where could your team use peer support? The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

30. Recommendation 5 - Improve social integration This space left blank for your thoughts or ideas The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 5 - Social integration This space left blank for your thoughts or ideas The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

32. Recommendation 6 - Improve the sense of belonging to the programme 6.1 - Developing good relationships with peers At the heart of the 'What Works? Student Retention & Success model', is a notion of belonging. Our evidence shows that good relationships with peers is a crucial part of the retention & engagement matrix. We recommend that: • Use of tutorials to help students develop a sense of belonging Course teams build a sense of belonging within the cohort • Use of group work, particularly ﬁeldwork, during through: the early stages of the year • Focussing on community-building during the pre- • Using buddies and peer mentors to create social arrival period immediately prior to the start of the learning activities academic year • Celebrating student achievements and successes • Focussing on community-building during the induction: ice breakers, small group integrated • Considering icebreakers or re-integration research tasks activities after Christmas The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 6 - Improve the sense of belonging to the programme 6.2 Developing a good working relationship with tutors Students' early priorities are often about learning forming friendships and support networks. Do induction programmes help or hinder this? We recommend that: As students became known by teaching staff, this "... intimacy led to a sense of 'belonging' in • Programme teams work hard to ensure that the institution..." students feel that they are 'known' as individuals, (Yorke & Thomas (2003) students reported that it was important that they were known by their name and tutors knew a little about them. This is clearly a challenge on large programmes, but ought to be treated as a the whole cohort that it is possible to do so, for priority. example by citing (anonymous) examples of issues that students have raised and how they have • Staff communicate clearly their expectations to responded to it. students and explain how students can make contact with them. They also ought to show to The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

34. Recommendation 6 - Improve the sense of belonging to the programme 6.3 - Developing a sense of community within the programme For many students, the most important community they will be members of at university will be the course community. This will be the place where they gain the most social support and often the strongest friendships. "I think HE can overestimate the opportunities We recommend that: students have to feel a sense of belonging. Not everyone wants to join the football team" A sense of the whole course community is promoted to (NTU lecturer) students. Activities could include: • Creating a sense across the year group. Could • Course conferences - invite first year students to opportunities such as competitions and awards be attend final year poster presentations or used to create a broader sense of community? exhibitions. • Creating a community across the years. This might • Links with alumni - a few stories or examples of be done by mentoring and buddying or social life after university may help students feel part of events organised by course reps. a much larger community. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 6 - Improve the sense of belonging to the programme 6.4 Developing a sense of belonging to the wider university community This toolkit is primarily concerned with the issues of retention and engagement within the course; however, there may be important connections that the course team can help students to make with the wider university community. We recommend that: • Clubs & societies: Students' Unions often have (re) Programme teams find out about participation fresher events for students who missed out joining opportunities within the wider university community and up during the original freshers' fairs encourage students to participate in them either individually, or as part of a course group. • Encouraging students to set up a course society These might include: If you are ever in a management position, ensuring that • Varsity sports events social and informal learning space is included as part of campus and accommodation redevelopment strategies. • Volunteering or RAG • Social events such as balls The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

36. Recommendation 6 - Improve the sense of belonging to the programme This page is left intentionally blank for your notes and ideas The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 6 - Improve the sense of belonging to the programme This page is left intentionally blank for your notes and ideas The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

38. Recommendation 7 - Foster motivation & help students understand how the programme helps with future goals 7.1 - Supporting students to find their own internal motivation Motivation is largely an internal factor, the students have to do it for themselves. However, it is important that the course team makes it clear to students how the programme can help students become their 'future selves'. We recommend that: • The course team celebrates students' successes and achievements and promotes them within the • During induction, the course team encourages course community. This is likely to include the students to reflect upon why they are at university achievements of alumni. and what they want to achieve. If students are • Involve alumni in aspects of the course, for unclear, then it may help if the course team example a talk during induction, or involvement introduces students to some of the achievements in case studies, or offering feedback on of their predecessors. presentations. • One effective ice-breaker used during our research was a 'wall of success' where students wrote out what they considered success to be at university. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 7 - Foster motivation & help students understand how the programme helps with future goals 7.2 - Connecting students to possible external motivators Students appear to want reassurance that the course will help them achieve their future goals. How can the course team offer reassurance that the course will help them achieve them? "The lecturers are very good and all have lots of We recommend that: experience in industry. The assignments are relvant to tasks you would typically see in the • Students are encouraged to see how the learning work place." and teaching activities within the course can (BU student interiew) relate to their future goals. Without wishing to just turn the course into a form of preparation for • Course staff involve students in their research employment, there are benefits from stressing activities so that students can gain a greater how being good at teamwork or communication understanding of what life in academia might be are also valuable employment skills. like. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

40. Recommendation 7 - Foster motivation & help students understand how the programme helps with future goals 7.3 - Providing opportunities to sample work-related experiences Where possible, students are given the opportunity to try out work-related activities associated with graduate employment. We recommend that: outside the course that relate to a possible future career. If courses encourage self reflection as part • Students have the opportunity to participate in of developing learning skills, then reflecting on work related activities, placements, work these opportunities can be integrated. experience or real field work. • Opportunities for course related work are - In our programme interviews, one team explained promoted to students. that they offered a day of field work during the induction week to give students an early feel for what they might be doing with their future career. • Students are encouraged to participate in activities The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 7 - Foster motivation & help students understand how the programme helps with future goals Left intentionally blank for your own notes & ideas The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

42. Recommendation 8 - Encourage students' active engagement with the curriculum 8.1 - Using active learning approaches throughout the first year Independent learning can mean a rich opportunity to engage in debate with peers and try out new approaches. Or it could mean desperately avoiding the eye of the tutor in the seminar room. We argue that actively engaging students in learning is crucial. We recommend that: experiments and research from the start of their course. • Course teams agree how they are going to engage • Courses use interactive, student centred students from the start. How are you going to help approaches to learning them move from being highly dependent learners when they first arrive to becoming fully • Teaching staff encourage and model the value of independent? discussion, asking questions and engagement. • Using small group projects from the beginning of • As a team you ask yourselves 'How do we make the year with lots of opportunities for feedback. teaching first years rewarding and interesting?' • Students engage with field work, practical The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 8 - Encourage students' active engagement with the curriculum 8.2 - Providing a range of rich learning experiences during the first year Many students reported that they were motivated when they could see how their studies were useful in the real world. "Every year, we have lots of our students being We recommend that: involved with the National Trust, working with the RSPB doing practical conservation work • Course teams provide research projects that have that's related to research work that we're doing applications to real life issues. here so I think they can see how it all joins up" (BU staff interview) • These may be actual projects, simulations, or support work for more senior researchers. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

44. Recommendation 8 - Encourage students' active engagement with the curriculum 8.3 Using formative assessment in the ﬁrst year If students didn't understand how they were doing, they were more likely to be doubters. Students need to not only receive feedback promptly, but be supported how to learn from it and seek out support to learn from it. We recommend that: • Students are told how and when assessment works and encouraged to think how they will • Course teams review how and when students make use of summative feedback. receive feedback and how they are encouraged to • Learning from feedback is built into the course, engage with it. perhaps through personal tutorials. • Students have at least one opportunity to learn • Course teams consider possible 'meta- from a formative piece of feedback, ideally early assessment' activities where students are enough that they can then learn from it in time for encouraged to reﬂect and action plan based on other assessments. feedback from more than just one assessment. The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 8 - Encourage students' active engagement with the curriculum Left intentionally blank for your own notes & ideas The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

46. Recommendation 9 - Ensure that there is good communication about, and access to, student support 9.1 - Ensuring that programme teams know how to refer students to professional and specialist support Universities have excellent support systems, but like any large organisation, it can be difficult to keep up to date with all the different elements. We recommend that: "We download [the Student Support Directory] send it to the programme team • Members of the programme team periodically and point it out to staff so they are aware ... it remind themselves of the support facilities is important for us not to think we can solve everything. It is good to know there is support available for both academic and pastoral support. out there." • Staff understand how to and where to refer (NTU programme staff) students for further support • Where possible, further support is integrated. For programme and also co-taught on some first year example in one of our case studies, a study modules. support specialist was integrated into the induction The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 9 - Ensure that there is good communication about, and access to, student support 9.2 - Raising student awareness of the services available In our studies, professional services were only mentioned by a small number of students. However, those who had used them rated the experience very highly. It is important that accessing further support is made as easy as possible. We recommend that: students. • Services available are promoted to students early • Information from programmes about student in the first term. support services is tailored to the needs of the students, not just offered generically. For example, • Students are reminded of support by the course part-time students felt that there was lots of team at key 'at risk' times. The HERE Project information in course documentation that had found that one of these key times was either side been written for full time peers and this made of the Christmas break. reading support literature unnecessarily complex. • One partner institution has an unoffical student handbook that they felt was more accessible for The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

48. Recommendation 9 - Ensure that there is good communication about, and access to, student support Left intentionally blank for your thoughts & notes The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme Recommendation 9 - Ensure that there is good communication about, and access to, student support Left intentionally blank for your thoughts & notes The HERE Project was funded and supported as part of the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme

The HERE Project Toolkit: A Guide to Improving Student Retention

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The HERE Project Toolkit: A Guide to Improving Student Retention