Professor Mark Davies "Let's not reinvent the wheel lessons learned from Student Transition and Retention - STAR project"

http://www.ulster.ac.uk/star/
National Seminar Series 2014
> ‘Teaching for Transitions’
> Learning to Learn
The National Forum for the Enhancement
of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education
“Let’s not reinvent the wheel: lessons
learned from the Student Transition and
Retention – STAR – Project”

Mark Davies
mark.davies@sunderland.ac.uk
Star@ulster.ac.uk
“Let’s not reinvent the wheel: lessons
learned from the Student Transition and
Retention – STAR – Project”

But first a disclaimer (of sorts)
• This IS a workshop
• There are no right answers (or if there are
any, I don’t know them); only solutions that
work in specific contexts
• This is therapy

STAR
2003-2007

The STAR Project
(Student Transition and Retention)
Consortium of
– University of Ulster
– University of Manchester
– University of Brighton
– University of Sunderland
– Liverpool Hope University
• Identify and disseminate good practice in managing
student transition

Managing transition
End point
Start point
Independent, enthusiastic,
involved, communicative,
present, reflective
?
, sober

Transition
• Almost all of the rules of the game that students have so
carefully learned and mastered over the preceding 13 years of
schooling are either discarded or modified drastically.
• The pupil-teacher relationship changes dramatically as do
expectations for engagement, independent work, motivation and
intellectual development.
• All of this occurs at a time when many young people are
experiencing significant independence from family and from the
role of the child for the first time.
Conley (2007)

Dimensions of Transition
• What changes do we expect of our first
year students?
– Social adjustment to independence
– Work/study/student lifestyle balance
– Intrinsic motivation
– Curriculum changes
– Assessment changes
– Cope with staff relationship changes

When do students leave?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
oct/nov
dec/jan
feb/m
ar
apr/m
ay
jun/jul
aug/sep
oct/nov
Nos.ofstudents
Single institution

Project Objectives
(within biosciences)
• Identify good practice
• Document practice
• Promote changed practices
• Disseminate

Deliverables
• A clear set of objectives …. that will promote realistic
student expectations and foster social and academic
integration of students.
• A set of case studies documenting examples of good
practice
• A website where the case studies and other information will
be available.
• A cadre of academic staff with the necessary experience
and expertise to continue to disseminate good practice.
• A set of working examples as evaluated institutional
practices published as a book

Delivered
• Objectives
• Case Studies
• Website
• Cadre
• Book
• Guidelines Booklet
• Induction Audit
• 49 case studies in 12
booklets
• www.ulster.ac.uk/star
• Over 50 in 17 institutions
• 3 books

• Davies, M, Cook, A & Rushton, BS (2007) How to get your kids through University,
Accent Press
• Cook, A & Rushton, BS (2008) StudentTransition: Practices and Policies to
Promote Retention SEDA paper no 121.
• Cook, A & Rushton, BS (2009) How to Recruit and Retain Higher Education
Students: a handbook of good practice. Routledge

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Year
Nos of presentations
Dissemination
10
Booklets
Books
web

Conclusion
– Important that key staff remained engaged
– New messages developed
• Initially research based (“ROOTS OF ATTRITION”)
• Moved to a staff development message
– AUDIT
– “IT’S NOT THEIR FAULT”
– Message is in demand
– Dissemination focus
• Web cheap - hosted by university
• Talks funded by hosts
• Books – extension of personal scholarship

Live on for a while
• Cannot live on much longer
– Information is getting dated
– Academic staff develop
– New groups occupy the space
• Publications are permanent
• Problems remain the same
All information freely available at STAR website

Retention as an issue
• We need to advance
– from “retention” to “student success”.
– From continuously redefining the
problem to addressing it

Take home messages?
• Students have to change quickly and in
many different ways
• Some of the problems are of our making
• Solutions can be applied before and
after entry

• Many problems occur before enrolment
– Choice
– Expectations
• Not all problems are academic
• The solutions are:
Students - Join the right course, in the right institution
at the right time. Learn and adopt the role of
“student”
Staff- Deliver what students are prepared for
Institutions - Organise both academic and social support
Take home messages?

Presenter: “Well, that's the end of the
film. Now, here's the meaning of life.
Well, it's nothing very special. Try to be nice to
people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now
and then, get some walking in, and try and live
together in peace and harmony with people of all
creeds and nations.”
Michael Palin, The Meaning of Life
Complex problems have simple, straightforward, wrong answers

What we know we know
• Why students leave
– Make bad choices
– Course/institution/life ….not as expected/
unsuitable
• What will keep them
– Match students to courses / encourage change
– Tell them the truth / meet their expectations
– Value for money
– Make University a social experience

What to do
Poor preparation
– Outreach- explain to students what the
place is like – use existing students to
get an accurate message over.
•STAR studies
– Quality information
– Early Induction

First year experience feedback
• Commuter students have problems
Hanging around, Travel Time, Timetable
problems.
• STAR studies
-Homestart
-More social areas / group work space
What to do

Course Organisation
“Little contact between lecturer and
students”
STAR Studies
tutorials - Social contact and small
group (fewer than 10) teaching are
central to smooth transition.
What to do

Adjusting to being at University
coping, uncertainty, independent learning.
STAR studies
-Student mentoring
-Curriculum development
Awareness of background and student
development
What to do

Solutions
• Better information to applicants
• Courses delivering what is advertised
• Developmental teaching of literacy and
numeracy
• Better communication of standards through
formative assessment.

Tinto’s model
Prior experiences
and attributes
Social integration
Academic integration
Commitment
Institution
Subject
Social group
Retention
is contested but
• Focuses on interaction between
student and institution
• Used both academic and social
factors
• Is not blame-based

What we know we don’t know
• How to share good practice with those who
need to implement it most
• How to promote institutional risk taking
in a measurement regime
• How to get students making better decisions

To remember
• Only students know what higher education
is really like
• We can only change what we can control
• Dropping out can be positive for students
• Dropping out can be costly for institutions

Some should leave

Resources (because whether you have a problem or
solution it will be out there somewhere)
• Gazillions through ulster.ac.uk/star
• ‘What works’ has lots too heacademy.ac.uk/what-works-retention
• As has the Compendium of effective practice in higher education
retention and success (164 pp) heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/
what-works-student-retention/Compendium_Effective_Practice
In broad brush they all come to the same conclusions you’ve heard already

And finally
• Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's
the transition that's troublesome."
– Isaac Asimov
• “Of course there's a lot of knowledge in
Universities: the freshmen bring a little
in; the graduates don't take much away,
so knowledge sort of accumulates”
– Lawrence Lowell

Over to you
• Sharing problems and practice
• Identifying factors that contribute to problems
• What methods can we use to tease out problems?
• Can you draft plans to address your issues?
(and have those plans peer-reviewed?)
• Can solutions apply at institute level?
• Can we push for a national initiative – if so what,
given the volume of material available already?

Information to applicants
• Start induction on application
• Influence the advisors
– Parents and teachers
• Get prospective students on campus in
term time (interviews, taster courses)
• Put them in contact with existing
students

Effect of pre entry mentoring
December
2003
First term
retention
June 2004
Year One
retention
June 2005
Year Two
retention
Subject group
(56)
With mentors
54 (96%) 51 (91%) 51 (91%)
Control group
(34)
Without mentors
30 (88%) 26 (76%) 22 (65%)
Dan Bennett (2009) Brighton

Homestart
• Aimed at students living at home
– A programme of workshops and social
events
• “good, because in Freshers’ week, people in Halls had
made friends already, and we had friends through
Homestart.”
• “It gave me a sense of belonging and a chance to
meet others who understood the travelling.”

Induction
• Start at Application… sometimes before
– Newsletters/ information
– Interviews/ visits/ taster courses
– Initial induction
• Extends to semester 2.
– Social events -student/ student- student /staff
– Small group teaching
– Study skills
Don’t lose sight of the goal- independence.

Professor Mark Davies "Let's not reinvent the wheel lessons learned from Student Transition and Retention - STAR project"

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Professor Mark Davies "Let's not reinvent the wheel lessons learned from Student Transition and Retention - STAR project"