Retention: good practice and issues Presentation for the University of Brighton Learning and Teachin

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Retention good practice and issues
Presentation for the University of Brighton
Learning and Teaching ConferenceHigher
Education Work In Progress16 July 2003
Rachel Bowden, Matieu Hiely-Rayner and Cherie
Woolmer, Strategic Planning Unit

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Retention good practice and issues

• Introduction and background - Rachel Bowden
• UoB retention data analysis - Matieu Hiely-Rayner
  
• UoB retention projects - Cherie Woolmer
• Questions

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Retention Introduction

• National context and background
• Retention and the University of Brighton

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Retention and the DfES

• The Department for Education and Skills is
  committed to ensuring that the country has higher
  education institutions that can compete with the
  best in the world in teaching, research and
  technology transfer and that they link closely
  with business to generate jobs and wealth. Its
  targets are to
• increase participation towards 50 per cent of
  those aged 18-30 by the end of the decade, while
  maintaining standards
• make significant, year-on-year progress towards
  fair access
• bear down on rates of non-completion and
• strengthen research and teaching excellence.
• (NAO 2002)

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Retention and the DfES The Future of
Higher Education
Our non-completion rate for first degrees
remains at just 17 per cent, which is almost the
lowest in the OECD. (DfES 2003
11) Universities with unacceptably high
drop-out rates will be asked to plan
improvements. (DfES 2003 67)
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Retention and the DfES
Bearing down on Drop-out Rates Our low
drop-out rates are a matter of national pride,
but there is wide variation between institutions,
with some approaching levels as unacceptably high
as 40 per cent We will ask the Access
Regulator to develop a system of drop-out
benchmarks which take into account the
composition of the student body. The Regulator
will have the power to fine those institutions
that persistently fail to meet their benchmarks,
and will be responsible for working with them to
improve the position in other ways. (DfES
2003 74-75)
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Retention and the DfES
Widening Participation in Higher Education
April 2003 In the higher education White
Paper, we suggested OFFA also having a role in
relation to non-completion of courses. The UK
has one of the lowest rates on non-completion in
the OECD but it is still important to improve on
the position in some universities. However, on
reflection the Government believes that the job
of promoting action to bear down on
non-completion is best undertaken by HEFCE.
Moreover, HEFCE will retain responsibility for
the institutional funding formula, including any
premia to compensate for the additional costs of
recruiting and retaining students, as well as
funding for Aimhigher. (DfES 2003 23)
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HEFCE Circular 2003/18

• Annual monitoring statements, corporate planning
  statements and financial forecasts 2003

Funding allocated by prior educational attainment
has been reallocated from teaching funding as
part of the block grant, in recognition of the
costs of widening participation that many
institutions already bear. For some institutions
this has resulted in them receiving considerably
more widening participation funding from 2003-04
than they have done in previous years. Where
institutions have received a net increase in
their block grant (teaching and widening
participation funding) we would expect them to
report on increased activity relating to
widening participation, particularly to work
designed to enhance student success and
retention. 34. We now request that institutions
tell us in their AMS about the activities they
intend to support with this increased amount of
funding, and inform us of associated targets and
milestones for 2003-04.
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Retention and the UoB background

• Thematic strand 2001/02 Annual Academic Health
  process
• Further work to identify underlying causes and
  possible remedial action
• University has met HEFCE retention benchmarks

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See Table
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Retention and the UoB background

• Thematic strand 2001/02 Annual Academic Health
  process
• Further work to identify underlying causes and
  possible remedial action
• University has met HEFCE retention benchmarks
• Retention Review Group established

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Retention and the UoB background
Retention activities

• Annual analysis of our undergraduate retention
  data (SPU Report)
• Including study of non-continuation rates vs.
  sector benchmarks by School
• Funding of a number of small scale retention
  projects across the University
• Good Practice assessment and consideration of
  retention trends at School level

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Retention national reports and Good Practice
guides

• National Audit Office Report (2002) Improving
  Student Achievement in English Higher Education
• Universities UK (2002) Student Services
  effective approaches to retaining students in
  higher education.
• Institute for Access Studies Full Research
  Report
• Institute for Access Studies Directory of
  Practice
• Institute for Employment Research/DfES (2002)
  Dropping Out a study of early leavers from
  higher education.
• Four Counties Group of HEIs (2002) Retention a
  practitioners guide to developing and
  implementing pre-entry, induction and ongoing
  retention tactics.
• Institute for Access Studies, Staffordshire
  University First-year retention at
  Staffordshire University some short-term
  measures (http//www.staffs.ac.uk/schools/graduat
  e_school/access/research/res8.htm)

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Retention and the UoB background
Future retention activities

• Analysis of Good Practice assessment and three
  year trends
• Continued collection of retention resources and
  retention web page(s)
• Continuation of funding of some of the
  retention projects if funding decisions allow
• Report to Academic Standards Committee and its
  sub-committees

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Undergraduate Retention 2001/02 to 2002/03
Matieu Hiely-Rayner
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Purpose of Presentation

• Indirectly, to improve all levels of retention at
  the University of Brighton
• To understand what type of student drops out
• To understand the reasons that students drop out
  of HE
• To see trends over the last three years and
  attempt to predict future patterns based on
  these.
• Identify areas where improvement to retention
  rates would be particularly beneficial to the
  Universitys performance indicators
• Identify areas with consistently good retention
  and try to ascertain what makes these areas
  special.

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More Changes to Methodology

• More students have been excluded from the study
  population than in previous years
• HESA data not yet available
• Uncertainty about whether this years data is an
  exact replication of 2000/01 and 1999/00s.

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Students Excluded from Analysis

• Any student without a Student Course Join code
  for 2001/02 (r10,102)
• Any student on non-1st degree course (4784
  remaining)
• Any student with a mode of attendance not coded
  as FT or SW (r3716)
• Any student listed as having enrolled onto wrong
  course, having successfully completed course or
  having wrong student code (r3433)
• Any student entering course block 2, 3 or 4
  (r3050)
• Any student with two or more records lost one
  that did not match 2002 course code (2919
  remaining)
• Any student enrolled on a short 1st degree (2803
  remaining)
• Any student not enrolled at 1st census date of
  December 2001.

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Performance Indicator v Adjusted Sector Benchmark
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Performance Indicator v Adjusted Sector Benchmark
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Performance Indicator v Adjusted Sector Benchmark
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Retention and the UoB projects

• Retention projects across the UoB (see list)
• Mix of institution-level and school-focussed
  projects.
• Number received funding from formula funds
• Service Sector Management
• Chelsea School
• Applied Social Science
• Education
• Student Services
• Architecture and Design
• Evaluation Reports (May 2003) available

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Issues

• Continued resource for projects to measure impact
  (2003/04)
• Favourable position to respond to HEFCE focus on
  retention
• Dissemination of Good Practice template
• Relationship with thematic strategies (Widening
  Participation Learning and Teaching)