What Works Academic Themes session

1. What Works?
Academic themes from two of the projects

2. Findings from two projects
• Student integration
– Sunderland, Hull & Newcastle
• HERE Project - Student doubters, impact
of course teams
– NTU, Bournemouth & Bradford
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3. Student Integration
• Does a student’s sense of integration support
their retention?
– Looked at STEM students, mature students, part-time
& local students
– Found 1/3 of students had considered withdrawing
– Academic factors more important than social ones
• Integrating social into academic most valuable

4. Key messages
1. Integration of the social and academic elements of university
life is key to the integration of students into the School and
wider University community
2. Early imposition of structures upon students by staff appears
effective in giving a sense of continuity & purpose
3. Teams and groups working collaboratively on academic tasks
enhance their social opportunities
4. Integrating social and academic elements of university life
encourages students to build relations with each other, with
staff and to engage with the curriculum

5. University of Hull
• Study Skills Summer School
– 2 day non-residential event for new and continuing
part-time & mature students –range of learning &
teaching – intended to offer authentic university
experience
• Mature Student Welcome lunch
– Week prior to registration – ‘Social event, but with a
purpose’ - early opportunities to form social bonds
leading to sustained friendships

6. University of Sunderland
• Curriculum related fundraising activities
(Childhood studies)
– Included sponsored walk, mini-Olympics, spooky
sleepover, importantly is done in teams of students
from across the years
• Problem-based learning (Psychology)
– Students noted that the experience was highly
enjoyable, but also lead to effective learning and
social bonds

7. University of Sunderland
• Field trips (Tourism)
– Field trips were used to encourage social integration,
one of which is compulsory during induction, mixture
of local and exotic
• Sandbox Studio (Psychology)
– Student community space within the psychology
department, books, magazines, video games – space
for students to belong to student community and wider
community of scholars

8. Newcastle University
• Engineering teams
– Students put into groups during induction
– “in the first hour…you were sat in the introductory
lecture thinking „I don‟t know anyone‟, „how am I going
to make friends?‟ and they said „we are going to put
you into these teams‟ and instantly there was like 10 or
11 other people you knew straight away.”
– Not problem free, but vast majority of students
reported enjoying working in teams

9. Newcastle University
• The t-shirt exercise
• Induction activity
– Everyone given a t-shirt & marker pens
– Students given clear instructions to draw
representations of their interests on the t-shirt,
circulate & find other people with similar interests
– Had to form a group that had to be mixed and formed
the basis for later group activity

10. Activity - Retaining students
• Resource from Newcastle University
– 2 hour workshop
• Promotes themes of the project
• Activities on preparedness, ice breakers, team
working, dealing with diversity
• Checklists for colleagues

11. The HERE Project
Ed Foster & Sarah Lawther - Nottingham Trent University
Christine Keenan & Natalie Bates – Bournemouth University
Becka Colley & Ruth Lefever – University of Bradford
www.HEREproject.org.uk

12. The HERE Project
Higher Education: Retention &
Engagement
Two areas of work
- Impact of doubting on student retention
- Impact that course teams can make on
retention
Focus on first year

13. Doubting
• Defined as having doubts about the course/
university serious enough to consider leaving
• How many students are doubters in the literature?
– 21% Rickinson and Rutherford (1995) – 39% Sodexo
(2010)
• Doubting as a cause of withdrawal
– Gradual accumulation of doubts - Ozga and
Sukhnandan (1998)
• But UK progression is good
– NAO (2007) suggests that progression to yr 2 is
approx 90%
– Our work is therefore also about engagement

14. Engagement
• Kuh et al (2008) describe student engagement
as:
– “the quality of effort students themselves devote to
educationally purposeful activities that contribute
directly to desired outcomes and the effort institutions
devote to using effective educational practices”.
• Hardy and Bryson (2010) student engagement
– More than the classroom activities, encompasses
whole person

15. Some Key Findings

16. Approximately one third of first year students
have considered withdrawing during 1st year

17. Doubters are more likely to leave than non-
doubters
• 483 students granted us
permission to monitor their
persistence
– 182 doubters
– 301 non-doubters
• Tested Dec 2009 - Overall

18. The primary reasons for doubting are associated
with student perceptions of the course
• Similar to other studies
– for example Yorke & Longden
2008
• Course was the main focus for
most students
2009 Student Transition Survey • Most important academic
reason was ‘doubts about
coping’

19. Doubters reported a poorer quality experience
than students who have not doubted
• Doubters reported:
– Less likely to understand differences between FE
& HE & have differences explained
– Finding course less enjoyable
– Fewer friends & less likely to find course ‘friendly’
– Less likely to feel that they belonged
– Studies harder to cope with
• Students who leave don’t just ‘walk off a cliff’
• There are stages of disengagement/
disillusionment – means can be tacked

20. Four main reasons cited for staying
• ‘Support from friends and family’
• „Adapting to course/ university‟
• ‘Determination/ internal factors’
• „Future goals/ employment‟
We therefore set about looking for practices that
impacted upon these areas in our programme
teams and developed the toolkit containing nine
recommendations

21. The HERE Project toolkit

22. How it was designed
• We used our work on doubters to develop
areas for exploration
• Developed case studies from 10 courses
– Staff interviews, student surveys
• Loosely two strands
– Preventing students from doubting
– Supporting doubters to remain
• 9 recommendations
– Learning & teaching, transition, relationships,
belonging & community
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23. Using the toolkit
• Aimed at programme teams
– Tool for discussion at team meetings & away days
– In a perfect world, would be facilitated
– Has been used to bring about change at institutional
level
• E.g. NTU enhanced academic tutorials programme
• Experiences so far
– Staff just grateful for the opportunity to discuss
– Interesting that communication across programmes
weaker than we expected
– Staff tend to just ‘leap in’

24. Stages
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
Take Stock 1st steps Review
‘student
‘Identify transition’ &
students at risk’ ‘social Subsequent
integration’ team
Programme meetings
leader Team
meeting/ Review
Look at formal away day progress, reflect
& informal data and consider
Ask questions Reflect, discuss other themes
- What do you & make plans
already know?

25. Activity
• Exploring two themes:
– “Help students to make the transition to
being effective learners in HE”
– “Foster motivation & help students
understand how the course can help them
achieve their future goals”
• Working in two groups we’d like you to use the
recipe cards, discuss and consider some actions
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you can take back at your work place. 25

26. Discussion
• Having had some time to look at two
different approaches:
– What issues arise for colleagues you work
with?
– How difficult might they be to implement?
– What suggestions do you have for improving
their efficacy?
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