HERE to Stay? A 3 year study into the relationship
between doubting, engagement & student retention
Ed Foster
Student Engagement Manager
Centre for Academic Development & Quality
Nottingham Trent University
ed.foster@ntu.ac.uk
Agenda
• Student retention
• Background to the HERE Project
• Methodology
• Doubting
• Key findings
• Changing the University to support retention
• Discussion
Student Retention in the UK
•Over 40% of young people study at University
•£9,000 per year tuition fees & £4,000 living cost loans
• (fees increased in 2012)
•Selective recruitment system
Students apply half way through their pre-university education
They are offered a place based on predicted outcomes, confirmed in the summer
before they arrive
Most study A levels, increasingly BTEC diplomas
• Progression from first to second year (2011/12)
• Approx. 7% of students withdraw
• However, approx. 7% transfer, change courses, repeat the 1st year
• Best Performing University 1.5% drop out
• Worst performing University 25% of students drop out
Course completion (2011/12)
• 81% of students expected to complete their course within 4 years
Retention Research
• In the US, first study in retention looked at ‘student mortality’
(McNeeley, 1938, in Berger & Lyon, 2005)
• More sustained research since 1970’s
• Research in the UK, Australasia & Europe became more
prevalent from the late 1990’s
– Sector expansion and Widening Participation
– More recently tied to issues such as student engagement
Some students are more at risk of leaving
early
• Students with weaker entry qualifications
• Black & Minority Ethnicity students (BME)
• Science Technology Engineering & Management courses (STEM)
• Male students
• International students
• Students with vocational qualifications
• Mature students (21 or older)
• Some students with disabilities
But why?
• Reasons for withdrawal (Yorke & Longden 2004):
–
–
–
–
‘Poor’ initial choice of course
Dissatisfaction with the academic experience
Personal problems (including finance)
Lack of clear routes & strategies for coping
• Farsides & Woodfield (2003)
- Attendance at classes has a strong impact on retention
• Castles (2004)
- Reasons to stay were about support, coping strategies, ‘life challenger’,
love of learning & prior academic success
• Kuh et al (2008)
- Entry qualifications, family background and student engagement
• Torenbeek, Janssen & Hofman (2010)
- Prior success, time on task and academic success
• Witte, De Jonge & Schoonman (2014)
- Student self perceptions of ability to cope, dealing with problems, dealing
with stress
Tinto’s model of institutional departure
(1993)
Pre-entry
Attributes
Goals/
Commitments
Academic
system
Intentions
Academic
performance
Family
Background
Skills &
attributes
Faculty/ staff
interactions
Integration
Academic
integration
External
commitments
Extracurricular
activities
Peer group
interactions
Social System
Social
integration
Outcome
Intentions
Goal &
institutional
commitments
Goal &
institutional
commitments
Prior Schooling
Goals/
commitments
External
commitments
Departure
decision
Is this model accurate?
• Tinto’s model is ‘near paradigmatic’
• However, are academic & social factors held in equilibrium?
• Bryson & Hardy (2014) found that social factors come first
• Students feel that they fit in first socially and use that sense of
belonging to then feel part of the academic community
Braxton, Hirschy & McClendon (2004)
External
environment
Student entry
characteristics
• Motivation
• Control issues
• Self-efficacy
• Empathy
• Affiliation needs
• Parental
education
• Anticipatory
socialization
• Finances
• Support
• Work
• Family
• Community
Persistence
Initial
Institutional
commitment
Internal
campus
environment
• Academic
communities
• Active learning
• Learning
communities
• Cost
• integrity
• commitment to
welfare
Academic
integration
Subsequent
institutional
commitment
Background to the HERE Project
NAO & PAC reports
• HERE Project was one of seven projects
• NTU, partnered with Bournemouth & Bradford
• Set out to test two hypotheses
• What impact does student doubting have on retention & success?
• What impact do course teams have on retention & success?
• Focus on first year students
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/what-works-retention
Methodology
Methodology
• Mixed methods approach
• Doubting
• Seven large scale online surveys (over 3,000 responses)
• Interviews and focus groups with respondents
• Monitored progression of survey respondents
• Impact of course teams
• Audited ten course teams
– Interviewed staff
– Surveyed students
– Analysed course literature and processes
‘Doubt is not a pleasant condition,
but certainty is an absurd one’
Voltaire
Doubting
• Defined as having doubts about the course/ university serious
enough to consider leaving
• How many students are doubters in the literature?
– 21% Rickinson and Rutherford (1995) – 39% Sodexo (2010)
– Yorke & Longdon – 25% rising to 40%
• Doubting as a cause of withdrawal
– Gradual accumulation of doubts Ozga and Sukhnandan (1998)
– If this model is right, then it’s potentially extremely valuable
• Differences between doubters and leavers
– Internal factors - Mackie (2001), ability to adapt - Roberts et al (2003)
Key Findings
Approximately one third of first year students have experienced
doubts sufficiently strong to make them consider withdrawing at
some point during the first year.
Doubters reported a poorer quality experience than
students who have not doubted
• Measured 17 student experience factors
– For example ‘my subject is interesting’
– Tested both the importance and actual experience of a factor
• In most instances importance was higher than the actual experience
• Exceptions – social, peer & family support
– Average gap for non-doubters = 12%
– Average gap for doubters = 29%
– Tested seriousness of considering leaving in 2011, more serious doubts = poorer
experience
Poorer quality experience continued
• Doubters reported:
– Less likely to understand the differences between pre-university & university
– Less likely to have had difference explained
– Less likely to find pre-arrival course info accurate
–
–
–
–
–
Finding course less enjoyable
Fewer friends
Less likely to feel that they belonged
Found studies harder
Feeling less confident to ask for help
“I don’t seem very involved
with the University to be honest …
probably if I see my tutor on the road,
he wouldn’t recognise me”.
• Overall gave an impression of being far less well engaged with their
peers, their course and their university
• Evidence about UCAS tariff was inconclusive
Primary concerns were academic
• Lack of confidence coping
• Lack of sense of progress
• Lack of feedback
• Felt isolated from peers and tutors
There were four main reasons cited by
doubters for staying
• ‘Support from friends and family’
• ‘Adapting to course/ university’
• ‘Determination/ internal factors’
• ‘Future goals/ employment’
• Impact of friends & family = undervalued by students
• In 2009, open question
– Friends & family most important (particularly friends made at university)
• In 2011, when asked to choose from options
– Personal determination
– Future goals & employment
– Then friends & family
Changing the institution
Toolkit
– Series of recommendations & actions
– Written guide
– Recipe cards
– Designed to be used by course teams in meetings/ staff development
– www.HEREproject.org.uk
HERE Project Recommendations
Focus on supporting students in the following ways:
• Identify & respond to students
at risk
• Improve social integration
• Transition to HE
• Student motivation & goals
• Relationships & communications
with staff
• Active engagement
• Choosing the right course
• Sense of belonging
• Good communications & access
to student support
Learning Analytics
• NTU has developed a student dashboard
Student Departure
Conclusions & discussion
Conclusions
• Doubting is an important factor concerning persistence
– Doubters are more likely to leave early
– Warning signs are there & can be managed
• Doubters are less engaged, more disconnected from their peers,
course & university
– Seem to be less able to understand the differences
• Doubting is primarily related to the course experience
– Strongly suggest that institutional responses are therefore focused on the
curriculum and the course first
– Other factors are very important to particular groups
• Overall strategy
– Manage the factors that lead to doubting & support doubters
– At NTU we are beginning to use learning analytics to support staff
Dank u wel
• How does this chime with your experience?
• Do you have any questions or observations?
• Ed.foster@ntu.ac.uk
• www.HEREproject.org.uk