Recruiting and Retaining Widening Participation Students

in Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Professor Bill Chambers

Dean of Widening Participation

President Geographical Association

Liverpool Hope University College

chambew@hope.ac.uk

Structure

1. Widening participation and students2. Geography in school, FE, training

providers, lifelong learning and University3. Recruiting to geography opportunities and

examples4. Retaining in geography learning from

elsewhere5. Conclusions

1 Widening participation and

students

Individual and Societal Benefits of Widening

Participation• Equity

• Competitiveness

• Economic (Blair)

• Social and cultural (Newby 2004)

• Health (Marmot 2004)

Who are Widening Participation Students?

• First generation in HE

• Social Class IV and V

• Post codes

• Ethnicity

• Disability

• Gender?

• State Sector

What are Widening Participation Students like?

• Young (18-30)• Negative educational experiences• Lack confidence and self esteem• Less well qualified (?)• Fewer life opportunities • Fewer (academic) experiences• Aggressive (?) Challenging? Disaffected?• Poor therefore earn to learn• Day–local provision (East Lancashire experience)

2. Geography in school, FE, training providers, lifelong

learning and University

Whither Geography?

• School: decline from high base

• FE: decline from low base

• Training Providers: unknown

• Lifelong Learning: poor (OCN, Access, Learn Direct,WEA, U3A, FDs) or predictable (FSC, RGS, GA, extra-mural)

• Universities: declining; fewer and larger

What Can Geography Offer?

• Intrinsic interest and relevance ….

• Fieldwork

• Variety of learning and teaching strategies: lecture, practical, tutorial, fieldwork

• Practical experiences

• Bridge between sciences and arts

• ICT and GIS

Problems with Geography?

• Despite – GNU FDTL Phase 2 1996-9 (www.hope.ac.uk/gnu/)– RGS/IBG Conference on WP June 2002

(rgs.org/category.php?Page=main education)– RGS/IBG Geographers into Teaching surveys– Lecture at GA Annual Conference– LTSN Disability and Fieldwork Projects (ICP)– GEES 2002 and 2004– 2005 GA Conference strands on ethnicity and disability

• Little contribution to Widening Participation: awareness, aspirations, achievement except eg Hope, Glasgow, Chichester, Portsmouth, Durham, Hull, Leeds

Geography a Problem?

• What is geography?• What should geography be at school and at

University undergraduate and post graduate levels (Kneale 2002 Set free of pre-university training expectation? Geography for life and leisure)

• How does geography promote itself• How do academics link with school GITS• Geography for FE• Geography for Modern Apprenticeships• Geography for Lifelong Learning?

Geography a Problem?

• What is geography?• Repetitious, spiral: (Kneale: rivers, Brazil?)

• Subsumed into other subjects with service role• Fissiparous nature of geography and specialisation• Academic and research and popular and school

links?• Career relevance and vocationalism• RAE v l&t and outreach• Charismatic communicators?

3.Recruiting to geography

opportunities and examples

Geography and Widening Participation Recruitment

• Aim: entry to HE not necessarily Geography • AimHigher 50% participation by 2010• Awareness – Aspirations – Achievement• AimHigher Sub-Regional and National Plans and funding

opportunities:• Activities: Sub-regional, Institutional and Subject• Continuity progression curriculum (not one offs) • Progression routes• Challenging exclusion and barriers by sectors• Staff development school & HEI • Research

Things to Do: Responsibilities & Opportunities

• Use HE resources: facilities, staff and students• Facilities laboratories, equipment, maps, books and libraries, Mainstream into curriculum

accredited modules as part of wbl or negotiated learning• Staff: (workloads). Don’t underestimate impact on relatively unsophisticated audience of

professors and Drs and lifestyle and research (and caps and gowns!)• Masterclasses: Lectures and lessons• Student (hidden) mentors, volunteering, Higher Education Active Community Fund,

Millennium Volunteers • Student shadowing• Subject-Related and Hidden Opportunities (Mentoring)• Increase opportunities to do geography in AimHigher• Enhance image and experience of geography through AimHigher • Enhance teaching quality• University links with schools, FECs and Training Providers• Geography Prizes for every secondary school in area at Year 11 and Year 13• Support for theme days/weeks• Shared fieldwork eg French Alps, Romania• Parents • Careers in Geography

4. Retention in Geography

Why Retain?

• Altruistic– Tragedy for all– Reflection on subject

• League tables (benchmarks? selecting/recruiting))• Cost

– Waste cost of recruitment (cheaper to retain than recuit?)

– Non-payment by HEFCE (clawback)

• BUT let some go!

Retaining (Widening Participation) Students

• Open not rotating door

• Not just widening participation students

• Not just UK (Pacific Rim)

• Not just post – 1992s

Reasons for Leaving(Yorke and Longden 2004)

• Poor quality student experience• Inability to cope with course demands• Unhappiness with setting of course and college• Wrong course• Finances• Dissatisfaction with areas of university provision

(Engagement)

Life History Approach

• Application and information• Pre-induction (Student Progression and Transfer

SPAT) • Induction• First term (clarity of purpose; quality of teaching;

social networks; finances; pick-up; diverse needs; peer support)

• Critical moments• Inter-semester and holiday breaks• Career development and intention: purpose

Levels of Intervention

• Proactive – Reactive

• Blame and responsibility perspectives

• Student

• Subject

• Institution

Student Intervention

Identify and target when and who most at risk

When• First semester• First break, holidayWho• First generation • Clearing, late entrant or transfer• No advice and guidance• No interview• Limited access to PCs and WWW• Inadequate and/or incorrect course information (Alvarez-Cordova 2004)

What Can the Subjects Do? Constraints & Opportunities

Constrained by:

• Life influences especially with WP students

• Student quality

• Other subjects (in Combined programme)

• Know/understand your students, be flexible

London University of the Arts (Alvarez-Cordova 2004)

• Course problems cited 3x more often

• Teaching: single most serious issue (27%)

• Did not settle in group (68%)

Subject (Geography) Retention

• Get to know students, get students known• Honest course details, transparency• Front load 1st year teaching (time, quality, individualise, support v

autonomy)• Assessment: first, formative, frequent, fewer, friendly• Variety of teaching methods• Fieldwork opportunities but respect individual circumstances

(Hope 1st Year)• Individual needs and differences• Designated tutor• Friendly office• Engagement and attendance: ‘Snatch Pack’, meet and greet,

register, phone calls, text messages, fetch and carry.• Mentors

Institutional Intervention: Support

• Data and tracking systems• Empirical evidence not intuition or anecdote• Student support (COMPASS)• Specialist support (Writing Centre)• Academic Alert• Library and IT Services (access and make them work)• Registry, Deanery, School and Award Offices• SU• Chaplaincy

Institutional Intervention Curriculum and Regulations

• Curriculum Regulations and Undergraduate Modular Scheme: Quality considerations? Modularisation; Examination timing, type, frequency, resits; Serial Extensionists*; length of year; contact time; attendance at University;

• Work ethic especially in Halls of Residence• Needs of students living at home* • Personal Development Planning• Flexibility, asynchronous activity, VLEs, e-

resources

Serial Extensionists: playing the system

or supportive system?Liverpool Hope School of Sciences and Social

Sciences 654 students:

• 9% granted extensions• 88% only once• Statistically significantly more likely to ultimately

submit work

(Norton, B,. And Gayton, E. 2004 Unpublished)

Students Living at Home

• WP students study locally and live at home

• 3282 students from 4 Merseyside HEIs

• 23% live at home (18 pre-1992: 29% new unis)

• Financial motivation (78%) More in paid work

• Harder to fit in: less involved in student social life

• Integration of home and university life.

• Targeted publicity for local students.

• Freshers’ Week event for local students

• Local support group and space?

• Uni –wide awareness of circumstances of local students: commitment to work, local community, family.

• Clare Houldsworth: 2004. ESRC The Choices and Experiences of Higher Education Students Living in the Parental Home. University of Liverpool.

Institutional Intervention: Staff Development and Research

• Staff Development: Student & staff responsibility; financial and ethical views; Carrot and stick with staff; PGCLTHE, ILTHE, LTSN engagement;

• Research agenda: Data and records; empirical evidence not anecdote; Institute for Research into Developments in Higher Education; Aim Higher Research/Evaluation; Pedagogical Action Research Group, JGHE, LTSNs

5.Conclusions

Opportunity not threat

Simply good practice

Use student and physical resources

Challenge institutional structures and regulations

Selected References

• Alvarez-Cordova, V. 2004 Innovate to Retain University of the Arts. • Cook A. 2003 The Roots of Student Attrition. Conference on Student Retention,

University of Ulster 14.11.03• Geography for the New Undergraduate Project www.hope.ac.uk/gnu/• Houldsworth, C. The Choices and Experiences of Higher Education Students

Living in the Parental Home. ESRC R000223985• Changing A Levels, recruitment to HE and widening participation:

The Shifting Agenda for Geography RGS/IBG Conference on WP June 2002 (rgs.org/category.php?Page=main education)

• Student Progression and Transfer (SPAT), University of Plymouth and University of Ulster (www.spat.ac.uk)

• The First Year Experience and Students in Transition, National Resource Centre, University of South Carolina www.sc.edu/fye

• Tinto, V. 1993 Leaving College: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed) Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Yorke, M. and Longden, B. (Eds.). (2004). Retention and Student Success in Higher Education. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press