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Tony CookHelen Richardson
Strategies for Student Transition and Retention
STAR: what, who and why?
• HEFCE/ DELNI funded FDTL-4 Project • To identify and disseminate effective practices
to promote student retention
• Universities of Ulster (lead institution), Brighton, Sunderland, Manchester, Liverpool Hope
• Much existing literature on student attrition, but little on strategies to manage these challenges.
The STAR products
• Guidelines• STAR Studies• STAR Audit• STAR Website (www.ulster.ac.uk/star) • Active dissemination
• We will talk to anyone, anywhere if we can fit it in.
NAO recommendations• Monitor retention• Monitor why students leave.
• Routine tutorial support• Improve uptake of disability
allowance• Identify and take up “good practice”.
Yorke and Longden recommendations
• Focus on student success rather than retention
• Assist students to make wise choices; • Be clear about what is on offer;• Make our expectations clear and
support students to meet them; and • Ensuring adequacy of resources.
Buyers
Remorse
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
• Early leaving is an institutional problem but a student’s solution
Dimensions of Transition
• What changes do we expect of our first year students?– Social changes– Work/study/student lifestyle balance– Curriculum changes– Assessment changes– Cope with staff relationship changes
Social changes• People do not leave clubs where
they feel they are welcome members.
– Induction as a process rather than as an event;
– Well managed group work, field work, social events;
– Cohort identity -teach small groups together;
– Student mentoring systems to assist rapid integration
• rites of passage- separation, limbo, inclusion
– More contact with fewer staff
Pedagogic changes• Broader curriculum
– Support for ancillary subjects• Assessment changes
– Resits– Exam duration, style
• Teacher – student relationship• Class size
– How do you make the big seem small?
Why do students fail?
• ‘I went into the exam blind’’
• ‘The first year doesn’t count towards your degree’
• ‘Failing was my wake up call’’
• ‘I just didn’t like that module’
Putting it together
Non continuance has two components
• Early leaving- characterised by poor decisions prior to entry.
• Academic failure- characterised by poor preparations/ false expectations.
Short term solutions• Better information to applicants
• Courses should deliver what is advertised
• Developmental teaching of literacy and numeracy
• Better communication of standards through formative assessment.
• Facilitate and encourage students to return.
Longer term solutions
• Merge full-time and part-time students
– Accounting at the module level
– Are we a modular or course based system?
• Post Qualification Application
– Start at Christmas?
• Design a course to suit those who attend it
• One size does not fit all
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
Managing transition
End point
Start point
Independent, enthusiastic, involved, communicative, present,
?
sober
Tension we put in the system
• Widening participation v retention.
• Diverging teaching practices in secondary and tertiary systems
• Perception of increasing financial burdens -> work/. Part-time full-time
