Common use of Retention and Student Success Clause in Contracts

Retention and Student Success. The University is committed to improving the retention and success of all its students and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is the intention of the University to sustain and enhance a range of learning and teaching, pastoral and welfare, and employability services and structures, to support the retention and success of all of its students throughout their time at the University, and to continue to monitor the relative performance of those from disadvantaged groups. This is an area in which the University plans to increase its investment in 2015-16 and beyond in order to sustain and improve its performance, in particular with regard to disadvantaged students. In addition to existing measures which inform and support the enhancement of learning, teaching and employability across the University, interventions will be strengthened to offer particular support to students who may have been disadvantaged, whether through background or prior educational experience; through disability; as care leavers; or because of other circumstances. Department and subject initiatives The University has previously invested resource in a small number of pedagogic research projects, several of which have been focused on the design and evaluation of new interventions to support and enhance the retention and success of students. This has included work on, for example, the BME student experience, and also on examining the impact of pre-induction social networking on the student transition to higher education. In 2012-13, the University launched its own “Retention and Success” programme in which additional resource has been targeted actively towards academic areas or programmes where there is some evidence from performance data that they may benefit from improving performance in student retention and achievement, in particular with students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The University will continue to invest in this scheme in 2015-16. Funded initiatives might include activities such as pre-entry bridging days for incoming students with particular entry profiles; the extension of pre-induction social networking; and strategies to review or develop innovative aspects to learning, teaching and assessment. Programme teams will be encouraged to draw on reports and examples from the retention and success project undertaken by HEFCE, the Xxxx Xxxxxx Foundation and Action on Access. The University’s Student Retention and Success programme is already generating positive feedback from students and staff. At University level, the steering group set up to support the programme is providing a valuable mechanism for bringing together academic, student support and professional staff. This group is identifying both institutional and local changes that need to take place in order to provide sustainable solutions to improving retention and success across all discipline areas. This includes, for example, developing ways for departments to monitor retention at a local level; providing guidance on how to collect data from students in an ethical manner; disseminating ideas on improving retention and success from the “What Works?” project; and facilitating meetings between departments to share practice. As a result of this work, we are developing guidance for wider use throughout the University. The University has also presented its work on retention at various national conferences. The University is also part of the HEA Change programme, where it is being further recognised and supported in its commitment to improving retention and success for all students, and in particular those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Peer mentoring and peer assisted study schemes These schemes build on the University’s expertise in school and college mentoring activity to deliver training, and then to manage, students who act as mentors to other students, particularly targeting as mentees those from traditionally disadvantaged groups. Students from a WP background are actively recruited as leaders. Investment will be increased in 2015-16 and will build on pilot schemes delivered in 2013-14 and 2014-15. This will enable the University to provide staffing resource both to train and support mentors and to co-ordinate work in additional academic areas. Such initiatives, particularly those based in the students’ own areas of study, are known to be valuable in increasing student retention and success, and our existing expertise provides a strong base from which to develop peer and academic-related mentoring support. Pilot schemes already in place are being reviewed and findings from this will inform the development of these schemes.

Retention and Student Success. The University is committed to improving the retention and success of all its students and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is the intention of the University to sustain and enhance a range of learning and teaching, pastoral and welfare, and employability services and structures, structures to support the retention and success of all of its students throughout their time at the University, and to continue to monitor the relative performance of those from disadvantaged groups. This is an area in which the University plans to increase its investment prioritise and continue to invest in 2015-16 2018/19 and beyond in order to sustain and improve its performance, in particular particularly with regard to disadvantaged students. In addition to existing measures which inform and support the enhancement of learning, teaching and employability across the University, interventions will be strengthened to offer particular support to students who may have been disadvantaged, whether through background or prior educational experience; through disability; as care leavers; or because of other circumstances. Department and subject initiatives The University will continue to direct significant investment towards institutional level mechanisms and developments to improve student retention and success. Good practice developed through both the University’s own Student Retention and Success programme and the University’s involvement in the HEA’s What Works? 2 Change programme will continue to be shared and embedded across departments across the University. Evaluation of these programmes has previously invested resource in shown that retention is a small complex issue, with multifaceted reasons why students find it difficult to achieve, or decide to leave Higher Education. However the evaluation has highlighted a number of pedagogic research projects, several areas of good practice which have been focused on found to have the design greatest impact. These include study skills development within the academic framework; attendance monitoring; developing students’ sense of belonging; and evaluation the benefits of new interventions peer mentoring. The University recognises that overall there remains still further work to do in the area of retention and student success, particularly to support and enhance the retention and success of students. This has included work on, for example, the BME student experience, and also on examining the impact of pre-induction social networking on the student transition to higher education. In 2012-13, the University launched its own “Retention and Success” programme in which additional resource has been targeted actively towards academic areas or programmes where there is some evidence from performance data that they may benefit from improving performance in student retention and achievement, in particular with those students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The University is particularly committed to investing in a number of cross institutional approaches which it will continue to invest develop, extend and evaluate. These approaches include: Attendance and student engagement monitoring and follow up Working on external and internal evidence suggesting that good attendance leads to better student outcomes, the University intends to add further investment in this scheme in 2015improvements to its systems for attendance and other student engagement monitoring, follow-16. Funded initiatives might include activities such as pre-entry bridging days up and support for incoming students with particular entry profiles; the extension poor patterns of pre-induction social networking; and strategies to review or develop innovative aspects to learning, teaching and assessment. Programme teams will be encouraged to draw on reports and examples from the retention and success project undertaken by HEFCE, the Xxxx Xxxxxx Foundation and Action on Access. The University’s Student Retention and Success programme is already generating positive feedback from students and staff. At University level, the steering group set up to support the programme is providing a valuable mechanism for bringing together academic, student support and professional staff. This group is identifying both institutional and local changes that need to take place in order to provide sustainable solutions to improving retention and success across all discipline areas. This includes, for example, developing ways for departments to monitor retention at a local level; providing guidance on how to collect data from students in an ethical manner; disseminating ideas on improving retention and success from the “What Works?” project; and facilitating meetings between departments to share practice. As a result of this work, we are developing guidance for wider use throughout the Universityengagement. The University attendance monitoring pilot (2015/16) has also presented its work been rolled out across the majority of the University’s campuses in 2016/17, using an in-house system based on the University’s own app and online reports. This produces real-time accessible reports for both staff and students and provides academic staff with the tools to monitor and follow up in a timely manner students with attendance issues, and strengthen support for these students to be successful at University. Future investment in this area will include extending established attendance monitoring mechanisms, reporting and follow-up processes to the development and use of wider learning analytics for oversight and facilitation of individual students’ academic progress. The University is linking with JISC on these developments, which will be taken forward during 2017/18 and 2018/19. Study skills support Underpinned by evidence from the sector, and endorsed by our Senior University Teaching Fellows and Learning and Teaching Sub-committee, the University believes that the most effective approach to developing academic skills is through embedding study skills in the curriculum, rather than only through one-off or generic sessions for students once they experience difficulties. The University is therefore continuing to prioritise the embedding of academic skills in the curriculum at every level and throughout modules, but in particular at level 4 where there is the most pressing need to improve student retention at various national conferencesand achievement. The University is also making additional investment to extend its team of study skills advisers, who work closely with the faculty-based Senior University Teaching Fellows to take forward this ongoing development work with academic staff. This joint approach will also focus on exploring ways to improve the success and attainment rates of students with entry qualifications other than ‘A’ levels. As well as maintaining its timely responses to individual student requests for one-to-one and individualised email ‘feedforward’ support, the Study Skills Advisory Team will continue to develop more targeted work with particular groups of students and staff. Mathematics skills support The provision of tailored mathematics tutorial support in subject areas with a significant mathematical element have been found to have a very positive impact upon students’ academic achievement in mathematics related topics; in particular for those subject areas attracting students with non-standard entry qualifications. The University will therefore continue to support the provision and development of targeted mathematics support, and the extended skills and knowledge coverage gained from the recent creation of a dedicated mathematics adviser post will be maintained. In addition an e-learning maths programme will be developed to support the work of study skills advisers and tutors and provide access for students across the University, as needed and in their own time and space. This e-learning programme could also be adapted for use by schools and colleges. Study skills resources Students will continue to receive free texts relating to their programme of study in their first year, which include a study skills book. The Study Skills Advisory Team will also extend development and enhancement of its online resource bank of support activities for both staff and students, accessed through a dedicated site on the University intranet. Disability support As a result of reduction in funding for students with a declared disability through Disability Support Allowance, the University continues to raise the profile of available assistive technologies through our Assistive Technologist, who has a remit to work with and support students with technology and learning resource needs. It is also exploring ways it can make assistive technologies more accessible to all students, by making core assistive technology available across the whole University. In addition, the appointment of a Senior Disability Officer also provides extra support to students with a declared disability. As well as support already offered including drop-in sessions, this role will develop and enhance the successful support groups for disabled students introduced in the 2016/17 academic year: one aimed at students with a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome/high functioning autism, and one for other disabled students. Both of these groups aim to support transition and integration into HE. A further targeted project, aimed at supporting successful outcomes for students with a diagnosis of a mental health difficulty, aims to establish a baseline measure and drive improvements in successful outcomes for this student group. We aim to reduce the overall differential in successful outcomes between students with declared disabilities and those without by 0.5% each year. Students with specific learning differences will continue to be targeted pre-entry to raise awareness of the self-help resources available at the University, and this will be followed up with targeted support aiming to build their academic confidence and improve their outcomes. A suite of academic study skills for students with a specific learning differences and group/seminar based academic study skills sessions aimed at disabled students will continue to be made available, with an increased emphasis on the availability of podcast sessions to improve their accessibility to students. The University has established minimum standards for online programme materials and is exploring further inclusive learning approaches such as more extensive use of online learning resources, lecture capture and continued advice to academic staff on inclusive learning and teaching practice. Male students As the overall success rates and degree classifications of male students in the University are consistently lower than those of female students, our Student Support and Guidance team plans to run a project exploring the university experience of male students at our institution, including those from social-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Recommendations and interventions based on the outcomes will then be developed. Understanding their particular experiences and barriers to success will provide a sound starting point, against which targets may then be later refined. Black and minority ethnic (BME) students The success rates of BME students at level 4, and their degree outcomes (firsts and upper seconds) require improvement to address disparities with white students. The University will extend its work on developing greater inclusivity in the curriculum and build on existing research in an effort to better understand and meet its target to reduce differences in outcomes, working through its Learning and Teaching Insitute, the Senior University Teaching Fellows, and other faculty-based initiatives. Part-time students The University will build on its own research of the part-time student experience and work to develop and enhance its provision and support for part-time study. Work to support and promote part-time study will include wider promotion of the part-time student bursary, a review of the resources on offer to part-time students to ensure comparability with the full-time student experience and a review of existing provision which could be better tailored to the part-time student. Development work with the Students’ Union to promote the engagement and representation of part-time students will be maintained. Student belonging, feedback and representation The importance of students’ sense of belonging to an academic community and the student voice in developing retention initiatives and enhancing academic provision was recognised in evaluation of the University’s department-led retention initiatives. The University has a Student Engagement Officer and a Student Engagement Strategy, which aims to improve and build on existing processes and develop creative projects to ensure every student feels able to contribute to the academic learning community at the University of Xxxxxxx. The University will continue to develop its mechanisms for gathering and using student feedback, including through a newly-refreshed First Year Experience Survey, to ensure that it understands and is acting upon the views of all its students. The Student Engagement Officer will continue to facilitate the collation and triangulation of student feedback from a range of sources to ensure that all students, including those from less advantaged backgrounds, understand that their views form an important part of the HEA Change programme, where it is being further recognised University’s enhancement work at all levels. The University will ensure that its Student Academic Representatives (StARs) scheme continues to include and supported in its commitment to improving retention support diversity and success for all studentsinclusion of representation from students with protected characteristics and from under-represented groups, and in particular those from disadvantaged backgroundsmature and part-time students. Peer mentoring and peer assisted study schemes These schemes build on the University’s expertise in school and college mentoring activity to deliver trainingThis scheme delivers training for, and then to managesupport to, students who act as mentors to other students, particularly targeting as mentees those subject areas where there has been historically lower retention of students from traditionally disadvantaged groupslow participation neighbourhoods. Students from Peer Mentoring is to continue to be expanded in 2018-19, in terms of the number of Mentors and Mentees participating. Peer Mentoring has a WP background greater focus on transition to the University, including online (email) mentoring providing support to new students during the pre-arrival phase between results days and University Induction. Further developments to the Peer Mentoring scheme to be explored include mentoring of Level 6 students, and incorporating alumni/industry professionals. These projects are actively recruited as leadersintended to support students across the whole student-lifecycle. Investment will Care leavers We offer a specific support package for care leavers, which includes a named contact to support with all aspects of university life, budgeting sessions, accommodation all year round, assistance when applying for financial support, support with childcare and support into employment or further study. Currently there are 65 care leavers at the University, and 23 have made contact with Student Welfare. The most common issues are financial problems, mental health issues and academic concerns. In addition, we offer the Care Leaver Bursary, to all care leavers who meet the eligibility criteria. Young carers We recognise that it can be increased in 2015-16 difficult balancing university life with responsibilities at home and will build on pilot schemes delivered in 2013-14 and 2014-15. This will enable for this reason there is a dedicated person at the University to provide staffing resource both to train support Young Adult Carers. Currently there are 5 students, who have identified themselves as young adult carers and support mentors four students are receiving the Young Adult Carers Bursary, which consists of £1,500 per year. Department and to cosubject initiatives Building on the work of previous department-ordinate work in additional academic areas. Such led targeted student success initiatives, particularly those based in the students’ own areas University will also continue to offer departments the opportunity to bid for funds to deliver specific targeted interventions or to do a specific piece of study, are known research related to be valuable in increasing student retention and student success. As an example of subject-specific investment, the University is committing additional resource to the support to pre-registration nurses, including whilst on placements. The Faculty of Health and our existing expertise provides Social Care is establishing appointments to a strong new role of Practice Learning Lecturer in recognition of the added support required by many nursing students, particularly the high proportion from low participation backgrounds, during the practice element of the programme. This is in response to the small but growing evidence base demonstrating the significant impact of the first placement on the student nurse and the potential impact this can have on attrition from which to develop peer the programme. There is also evidence of the importance of the final transitional placement in preparing the student nurse for their role as a qualified professional. An accompanying evaluation project will review the impact of the role on both the student experience and academic-related mentoring support. Pilot schemes already in place are being reviewed and findings from this will inform the development of these schemesretention.