Student Retention: Sharing Good Practice

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Student Retention Sharing Good Practice

• Welcome! Before we start
• If you think you might have hearing difficulties
  in this session, please let Jan or Caroline know.
  
• A few large print versions of the PowerPoint
  handout are available at the front.

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Student Retention Sharing Good Practice

• Caroline Cash and Dr. Jan Sellers
• Unit for the Enhancement of Learning and
  Teaching (UELT)
• University of Kent

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Workshop plan

• Introductions
• Retention issues
• Whats the problem?
• What weve tried at Kent
• Six foundation stones
• Key example The Value Programme Summer School
• Activity Sharing experiences of good practice
• Report back ways forward

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At the University of Kent

• Is there a retention problem?
• Yes and across the HE sector
• Why tackle it?
• Academic responsibility
• The multiple costs of failure
• League table performance

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What factors affect retention?

• At Kent (as elsewhere)
• Do I belong here?
• Cultural dissonance
• Confidence
• Pressures cash, crises
• Loneliness, isolation
• Expectations v. reality
• Learning how to learn in this context
• And more

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Literature review

• A seven-fold approach
• Mapping retention and drop-out to student
  profiles
• Tracking individual achievement
• Providing learning support
• Structural organisational change
• Cultural change
• Aligning curricula
• Installing safety nets

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Six foundation stones to support successful
retention

• Academic Confidence
• Meta cognition
• Socio Educational Networks
• Inclusivity
• Safety netting
• Students first

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Activities at Kent

• Retention Programmes ? ? x
• Departmental Initiatives
• Curriculum re-alignment Mathematics
• Diagnostic questionnaire (Napier)
• Study Skills Fair
• Results Help-Line

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• HEFCE funded a partnership between departments,
  students and UELT
• For students at risk of failure/underperformance
• Supporting successful transition Stage 1 to 2

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VALUE Three phases, three elements

• Phase A
• Interviews and support before exams
• Phase B
• support in exam results week and prior to exam
  re-sits summer key skills progress packs
• Phase C
• support as Stage 2 begins
• Including
• Subject discipline development, study and key
  skills, confidence building

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VALUE Numbers

• VALUE 2002
• Six departments
• 90 students
• 97 success rate
• VALUE 2004
• Ten departments
• 1 at Medway only
• 5 at Canterbury only
• 4 at both campuses
• 181 students
• 98 success rate

• VALUE 2001
• Four departments
• 39 students
• 97.4 success rate
• VALUE 2003
• Ten departments
• 2 at Medway only
• 6 at Canterbury only
• 2 at both campuses
• 120 students
• 98 success rate

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Successes

• For students
• confidence and academic success. Its made a
  great difference.
• gaining transferable skills
• fuller engagement with university life
• For departments
• increased understanding of retention
• improved exam results
• energising nature of involvement
• For the University of Kent
• improved retention
• good practice - transferability

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Transferability and comparability

• University of Kent
• Different student populations Canterbury, Medway
• 2004 VALUE MaP (mature and part-time students)
• x 2004 VALUE Transfer (post-exam credit
  rescue)
• Departmental support programmes
• SoS Project
• Loughborough University
• Manchester University
• Liverpool John Moores University
• Exeter University

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Sharing good practice

• Seven approaches, six foundation stones,
  many strategies.
• What works for you?

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For more information

• Please get in touch!
• J.G.Sellers_at_kent.ac.uk 01227-827124
• C.A.Cash_at_kent.ac.uk 01227-827616
• Unit for the Enhancement of Learning and
  Teaching
• University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NQ
• http//www.kent.ac.uk/uelt/learning/value