Here project final report appendices

HERE Project (2008 – 2011) Final Report

Appendices

The HERE Project 2008-11 Final Report Appendices
Page 1 of 110

Contents
Appendix 1 ....................................................................................................................... 4
The HERE Project 2009 Student Transition Questionnaire ................................................. 4
Appendix 2 ..................................................................................................................... 16
The HERE Project 2011 Student Transition Questionnaire ............................................... 16
Appendix 3 ..................................................................................................................... 31
Details of the ten programmes who participated in the HERE Project Strand 2 research .. 31
Appendix 4 ..................................................................................................................... 39
Further statistical analysis Student Transition Survey data (2009) NTU ............................ 39
A. Academic Experience ................................................................................................................................................... 40
B. Support, Resources and Future Goals .................................................................................................................. 41
C. Student Lifestyle ............................................................................................................................................................. 41
How to Read the Box Plots.............................................................................................................................................. 43
Factor A - Academic Experience box plot ................................................................................................................ 45
Factor B - Support, Resources & Future Goals box plot .................................................................................... 46
Factor C - Student Lifestyle box plot .......................................................................................................................... 46
Cramer’s V: demographics and student destinations ........................................................................................ 47
Appendix 5 ..................................................................................................................... 51
The HERE Project: Strand 2, Research into programmes with better than peer rates of
retention ........................................................................................................................ 51
Why we developed two sets of review questions .................................................................................................. 52
Appendix 6 ..................................................................................................................... 62
Interview questions with full prompts for researchers .................................................... 62
Appendix 7 ..................................................................................................................... 75
HERE Project Programme Student Survey ....................................................................... 75
Appendix 8 ..................................................................................................................... 82
The impact of student demographics on doubting .......................................................... 82
Particular groups of students more likely to doubt ........................................................................................ 83
Students with disabilities ................................................................................................................................................ 83
Gender ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 88
Application Process (Clearing) ..................................................................................................................................... 90
Accommodation................................................................................................................................................................... 94
Living Independently (2009 only) ............................................................................................................................... 98
First Generation in Higher Education .................................................................................................................... 100
Mode of study ..................................................................................................................................................................... 103

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UCAS Tariff (2011 only) ................................................................................................................................................ 105
Appendix 9 ................................................................................................................... 108
NTU Tutorials early draft .............................................................................................. 108

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Appendix 1

The HERE Project 2009Student Transition
Questionnaire

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The HERE Project 2009 Student Transition
Questionnaire1

Please note this was an online survey so the layout was slightly different in the
survey presented to the students.

About the research

NTU has been asked to conduct academic research to better understand the
experience of students starting university by the Higher Education Funding Council
for England (HEFCE) because we have an excellent reputation in retaining students.
This research (the HERE Project) will be used to improve the experience of future
students here at NTU and at other universities.

What data do we need?
We are interested in your experience here at NTU, in particular, how you are finding
learning here and if you have had doubts about staying on your course. It would be
very helpful for our research if we could also look at your course marks during your
time at university and incorporate these with other research findings. This will only be
done with your permission and we will ask you about this at the end of this survey.

What will be done with the data?
We take the protection of your identity seriously. The data will be analysed and
anonymised: when we report our findings your answers will not be linked to you as
an individual. Anonymised data and findings may be shared with various staff
members of the university to help identify the ways in which we can improve the
experience of future students here at NTU (for example to develop activities such as
Welcome Week). Anonymised data and findings may also be used in academic
papers and shared with other universities. If you wish to withdraw from the study at
any time please notify either sarah.lawther@ntu.ac.uk or ed.foster@ntu.ac.uk.

1
The example shown here is the NTU survey.

Page 5 of 110

I agree that my anonymised answers can be used here at NTU, in academic
papers, and shared within the HE sector.

Most questions will require a simple click in a box; some will require more open-
ended comments. All completed questionnaires will be entered for a prize draw to
win £50 of Amazon vouchers.

Thanks for your time.

Q1 Can you tell us your student ID number? We will use this number to
contact you if you win the prize draw. If you choose to withdraw, we will use this
number to trace your answers and delete them from the research. When we analyse
the data we will separate your answers from your ID number.
My ID number is

Q2 How much have you enjoyed your course so far?
Please use a scale of 1-5, where 1= “not at all” and 5= “very much”

Q3 Before you started your course at NTU, did you read any materials to
help prepare you for your course (e.g. prospectus, course induction materials)?
Yes Go to Q4
No Go to Q5

Q4 Was the information from NTU before starting your course;
Very accurate
Reasonably accurate
Not very accurate
Very inaccurate

Q5 Please rate the following aspects of your studies, where 1 = “strongly
disagree” and 5 = “strongly agree”, on balance,

My subject is interesting
My course is well organized

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I have enthusiastic lecturers teaching on my course
My taught sessions (such as lectures, seminars) are interesting
Lecturers are accessible
I feel valued by teaching staff
The assessment on my course is what I expected it to be
The feedback I receive about my work is useful
I feel confident that I can cope with my coursework

Q6 Please rate the following aspects of your studies, where 1 = “strongly
disagree” and 5 = “strongly agree”, on balance,

My fellow students are supportive
My family is supportive
I have easy access to University resources (e.g. computers, library books that
I need)
I would know where to go within the university if I had a problem
I like the house/flat/halls that I am living in
I have an enjoyable social life
I am confident that I will have enough money to complete my course
Completing my degree will help me achieve future goals (eg career)

Q7 Please rate how important the following aspects are to you, where 1 =
“not important at all” and 5 = “very important”…
My subject is interesting
My course is well organized
I have enthusiastic lecturers teaching on my course
My taught sessions (such as lectures, seminars) are interesting
Lecturers are accessible
I feel valued by teaching staff
The assessment on my course is what I expected it to be
The feedback I receive about my work is useful
I feel confident that I can cope with my coursework

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Q8 Please rate how important the following aspects are to you, where 1 = “not
important at all” and 5 = “very important”…
My fellow students are supportive
My family is supportive
I have easy access to University resources (e.g. computers, library books that
I need)
I would know where to go within the university if I had a problem
I like the house/flat/halls that I am living in
I have an enjoyable social life
I am confident that I will have enough money to complete my course
Completing my degree will help me achieve future goals (eg career)

Q9 Since coming to university has anyone at NTU explained to you the
difference between learning at university and your prior learning, particularly
learning since age 16 (eg A‟ Levels, BTEC)?
Yes
No

Q10 Do you feel that you understand the differences between learning at
university and earlier learning?
Yes, in some detail
Yes, a little
No

Q11 How difficult have you found your studies so far this year?
Please use a scale of 1-5, where 1= “not at all difficult” and 5= “very difficult”

Q12 How hard have you worked so far this year?
Please use a scale of 1-5, where 1= “not at all hard” and 5= “very hard”

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Q13 In your first year at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), how much focus
are you putting on the following? Please use a scale of 1-5, where 1 = “no
focus at all” and 5 = “a lot of focus”
Family
Friends from home
My academic studies
Part-time work
Social life at university
Volunteering and other community activity
Other

Q14 What grade are you aiming for when you graduate?
70+ (1st)
60-69% (2:1)
50-59% (2:2)
40-49% (3rd)
0-39% (Fail)

Q15 What grade are you aiming for at the end of this academic year?
70+ (equivalent of a 1st)
60-69% (equivalent of a 2:1)
50-59% (equivalent of a 2:2)
40-49% (equivalent of a 3rd)
0-39% (equivalent of a Fail)

Q16 Do you have a personal tutor?
Yes Go to 17
No Go to Q18

Q17 How often do you see your personal tutor?
Weekly
Fortnightly
Monthly
Less often

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Q18 Have you considered withdrawing at any point during your first year at
NTU?
Yes, but I have decided to stay at NTU Go to Q19
Yes, and I have decided to leave NTU Go to Q20
Yes, but I haven‟t made up my mind about my future plans Go to Q20
No, I have never considered withdrawing Go to Q21

Q19 What has helped you decide to stay on your course?

Q20 Please tell us what made you consider leaving NTU

Q21 How do you think the University could improve the academic and
pastoral support for students?

Q22 Is there anything that we haven‟t asked that you‟d like to share with us?

Q23 What age are you?
16 - 18
19 - 21
22 - 25
26 - 45
46+

Q24 Are you…?
Male
Female

Q25 At which academic school at are you studying?
Nottingham Business School
Nottingham Law School

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School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Science
School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
School of Art and Design
School of Arts and Humanities
School of Education
School of Science and Technology
School of Social Sciences

Q26 What level are you studying?
Undergraduate (BA/BSc)
Undergraduate (Foundation level)
Further Education

Q27 Which course are you studying?

Q28 Are you…?
Full-time
Part-time
Distance learner

Q29 What part of the world are you from?
UK Go to Q30
European Union (EU) Go to Q31
Outside European Union Go to Q31

Q30 What part of the country are you from?
Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
East Midlands
Rest of the UK

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Q31 At what campus are you based?
City
Clifton
Brackenhurst
None (e.g. distance learner)

Q32 Which type of accommodation do you currently occupy whilst studying?
NTU / UPP halls of residence
Private halls of residence
Private rented / shared house
Living with relative(s)
Own home

Q33 Please tick the category below that you feel is the most appropriate
classification of yourself.
Asian or Asian British - Bangladeshi.
Asian or Asian British - Indian.
Black or Black British - African.
Black or Black British - Caribbean.
Chinese.
Mixed - White and Asian.
Mixed - White and Black African.
Mixed - White and Black Caribbean.
Other Asian background.
Other Black background.
Other Ethnic background.
Other Mixed background.
Other White background.
White - British.
White - Irish.
Other
I do not wish to declare

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Q34 Do you consider yourself to have a disability?
No, I have no known disability go to Q36
Yes go to Q35
I do not wish to declare go to Q36

Q35 If yes, please specify
dyslexia
visual impairment
deaf/hard of hearing
mobility or wheelchair user
mental health
autistic spectrum
hidden disability
more than one disability
disability not listed above
I do not wish to specify

Q36 Did you apply to NTU…?
Through the standard UCAS process
Through UCAS at clearing

Q37 Was this your first choice of university?
Yes
No

Q38 Is this your first time living independently?
Yes
No

Q39 Are you the first person in your immediate family (we mean parents,
brothers, sisters) to go to university?
Yes
No

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Q40 How could we improve this survey?

We would like to conduct further research, for example, focus groups. If you
would like to be invited to take part in further research please tick the box
below.
I agree to be invited by email to take part in further research

The HERE project will run for three years. Do you give permission for your
course marks and enrolment status to be accessed from University records
and incorporated anonymously with other research findings? If you do, please
tick the box below.

I agree to allow my course marks and enrolment status to be accessed from
University records during the time I am registered here and incorporated
anonymously with other research findings. To ensure the protection of your identity,
we will store this information separately from your student ID number.

Thank you for your feedback. By clicking on the submit button now, we will
enter you into the prize draw to win £50 worth of Amazon vouchers. If you are
a winner we will contact you via your student email. Good luck!

Final page confirmation (after respondents click submit)

Thank you very much for completing this survey, your responses have been
submitted.

Remember, if you would like to withdraw at any point from this survey you are free to
do so with no affect on your studies. If you would like to discuss any issues
connected to participation in the project please contact sarah.lawther@ntu.ac.uk.

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If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this questionnaire and would
like any further information or would like to discuss this with anyone, you may wish to
visit the NTU Student Support Services webpage for further information or speak to
your personal tutor.

Page 15 of 110

Appendix 2

Questionnaire

Page 16 of 110

Questionnaire2

survey presented to the students.

About the research

Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has been asked to conduct academic research to
better understand the experience of students starting university by the Higher
Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) because we have an excellent
reputation in retaining students. This research (the HERE Project) will be used to
improve the experience of future students here at NTU and at other universities.

What data do we need?
We are interested in your experience here at NTU, in particular, how you are finding
learning here and if you have had doubts about staying on your course.

What will be done with the data?
We take the protection of your identity seriously. The data will be analysed and
anonymised: when we report our findings your answers will not be linked to you as
an individual. Anonymised data and findings may be shared with various staff
members of the university to help identify the ways in which we can improve the
experience of future students here at NTU (for example to develop activities such as
Welcome Week). Anonymised data and findings may also be used in academic
papers and shared with other universities. If you wish to withdraw from the study at
any time please notify either sarah.lawther@ntu.ac.uk or ed.foster@ntu.ac.uk.

Most questions will require a simple click in a box; some will require more open-
ended comments. All completed questionnaires will be entered for a prize draw to
win £100 of Amazon vouchers.

2
The example shown here is the NTU survey.

Page 17 of 110

Your feedback will help us to continue to improve the learning experience for new
students.

I agree that my anonymised answers can be used here at NTU, in academic
papers, and shared within the HE sector.

Please click "next" to continue.

Can you tell us your student ID number? When we analyse the data we will
separate your answers from your ID number. If you choose to withdraw from
the research, we will use this number to trace your answers and delete them
from the research.

As an incentive to complete the survey, we will randomly select one of the completed
surveys and award a prize of £100 worth of Amazon vouchers to the lucky
respondent.

My student ID number is....

Thank you very much. Please click "next" to continue.

How much do you agree with the following statement?

Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1= "strongly disagree" and 5 = "strongly agree"

1 - Strongly disagree 2 3 4 5 - Strongly agree

Completing my degree will help me achieve my future goals

Page 18 of 110

How useful did you find Welcome Week for the following?
Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = "not at all useful" and 5 = "very useful"
1 - Not at all useful 2 3 4 5 - Very useful

Making friends

Feeling that you belonged to your course

How important is working hard at your studies to you?
Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = "not at all important" and 5 = "very important"

1 - Not at all important
2
3
4
5 - Very important

How interesting is your course?
Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = "not at all interesting" and 5 = "very
interesting"

1 - Not at all interesting
2
3
4
5 - Very interesting

What makes your subject personally interesting to you?

Page 19 of 110

How enthusiastic are your lecturers?
Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = "Not at all enthusiastic" and 5 = "very
enthusiastic"

1 - Not at all enthusiastic
2
3
4
5 - Very enthusiastic

Do you feel at least one member of your course team knows you personally?

Yes
No

Do you feel confident that you could talk to your tutors if you had a problem or
concern?

Yes
No

Have you struggled with any aspects of your course so far?

Yes
No

Have you spoken to anyone about it?

Yes
No

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Who have you spoken to about your struggles with your course?

Have you received any support or additional help?

Yes
No

How much do you agree with the following statement?
Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1= "strongly disagree" and 5 = "strongly agree"
1 - Strongly disagree 2 3 4 5 - Strongly agree

I have an enjoyable social life at University

How frequently on average do you take part in the following leisure activities?
If you do not take part in an activity, please select "N/A"

More than once a day Daily Weekly Monthly Less frequently than
once per month N/A
Community activities & volunteering
Facebook/ other social networking sites
Participate in clubs or societies
Play computer games
Pubs
Night clubs
Reading
Religious activities
Visit the gym/ play sports
Watch performances (gigs, comedy, theatre etc)
Watch TV
Visit other friends homes/ halls

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How many good friends have you made since starting University?

None
1-2
3-4
5-6
7+

How friendly are the people on your course?
Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1= "very unfriendly" and 5 = "very friendly".

1 - Very unfriendly
2
3
4
5 - Very friendly

Why do you feel this is so?

How much do you feel you fit in on your course?
Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1= "not at all" and 5 = "very much".

1 - Not at all
2
3
4
5 - Very much

Why do you feel this way?

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Have you ever considered withdrawing from (leaving) University at any point in
your first year?

Yes
No

How seriously have you considered doing so?
Please use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1= "a little" and 5 = "very seriously".

1 - A little
2
3
4
5 - Very seriously

When did you consider leaving?
Please tick all that apply.

Before I arrived
Welcome Week
During the first term
After Christmas
Now
Other, please specify

Please tell us what made you consider leaving.

Problems associated with my course
Student lifestyle (social life, problems with other students etc)
Finance
Homesick
Personal problems
I doubted whether this course would help my future goals

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Other (please specify in the box below)
Other, please specify

Please tell us the most important reason for considering leaving.

Problems associated with my course
Student lifestyle (social life, problems with other students etc)
Finance
Homesick
Personal problems
I doubted whether this course would help my future goals
Other

Have you made a decision about whether to stay at University?

Yes, I have decided to stay
Yes, I have decided to leave
No, I haven't made my mind up yet

Please tell us what made you decide to stay.

Friends made at University
Family
Friends from home
Lecturers
Personal tutor
Course staff (e.g. administrators)
Professional support staff (e.g. counsellor, student support services)
Problem was solved
Future goals/ employment
Personal determination to stick at it
I adapted to life at University
I started to enjoy my subject

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Changed course
Other

Please tell us the most important reason for deciding to stay.

Friends made at University
Family
Friends from home
Lecturers
Personal tutor
Course staff (e.g. administrators)
Professional support staff (e.g. counsellor, student support services)
Problem was solved
Future goals/ employment
Personal determination to stick at it
I adapted to life at University
I started to enjoy my subject
Changed course
Other

Is there anything the University could do to help you stay?

Is there anything else you would like to add?

What age are you?

16 - 18
19 - 21
22 - 25
26 - 45
46+

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Are you...?

Male
Female

At which academic school are you studying?

Nottingham Business School
Nottingham Law School
School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Science
School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
School of Art and Design
School of Arts and Humanities
School of Education
School of Science and Technology
School of Social Sciences

What level are you studying?

Undergraduate (BA / BSc)
Undergraduate (foundation level)
Further Education

Which course are you studying?

Are you...?

Full-time
Part-time
Distance learner

Page 26 of 110

What part of the world are you from?

UK
European Union (EU)
Outside of the EU

What part of the country are you from?

Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
East Midlands
Rest of the UK

At what campus are you based?

Brackenhurst
City
Clifton
None (e.g. distance learner)

Which type of accommodation do you currently occupy whilst studying?

NTU / UPP halls of residence
Private halls of residence
Private rented / shared house
Living with relative(s)
Own home

Page 27 of 110

Please tick the category below that you feel is the most appropriate
classification of yourself.

Asian or Asian British - Bangladeshi
Asian or Asian British - Indian
Asian or Asian British - Pakistani
Black or Black British - African
Black or Black British - Caribbean
Chinese
Mixed - Asian and White
Mixed - Black African and White
Mixed - Black Caribbean and White
Other Asian background
Other Black background
Other Ethnic background
Other Mixed background
Other White background
White - British
White - Irish
Other

Do you consider yourself to have a disability?

No, I have no known disability
Yes

Please specify your disability.

Dyslexia
Autistic spectrum
Visual impairment
Hidden disability

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Deaf / hard of hearing
More than one disability
Mobility or wheelchair user
Mental health
Disability not listed above
I do not wish to specify

Did you apply to NTU...?

Through the standard UCAS process
Through UCAS at clearing
Other

How many UCAS points do you have?

160 or less 201 - 220 261 - 280 321 or more
161 - 180 221 - 240 281 - 300 Don't Know
181 - 200 241 - 260 301 - 320

Are you the first person in your immediate family (i.e. parents, brothers, sisters)
to go to university?

Yes
No

It would really help us to understand the student experience if we could follow your
future progress. Do you give permission for your enrolment status to be accessed
from University records and incorporated anonymously with other research findings?
If you do, please tick the box below.

I agree to allow my enrolment status to be accessed from University records during
the time I am registered here and incorporated anonymously with other research
findings. To ensure the protection of your identity, we will store this information
separately from your student ID number.

Page 29 of 110

Thank you very much for your feedback. By clicking on the "submit" button below,
you will have completed the survey.

Page 30 of 110

Appendix 3

Details of the ten programmes who participated in
the HERE Project Strand 2 research

Page 31 of 110

Details of the ten programmes who participated in
the HERE Project Strand 2 research

1) Programme3 from The Business School, BU
246 (full-time) students, four year course (placement year during third year) with
good retention rates. Course uses first year tutor role and Peer Assisted Learning
(PAL) scheme.

4 staff interviews: Course leader, 2 SeniorLecturers and 1 other Lecturer (this
lecturerwas also the first year tutor for the course)

Student survey 27% (67 students)

Retention data4 for previous cohorts (number of first year students who withdrew
from the programme and the number progressing from year 1 to year 2 over 3 years):

Registry data
Left Cont‟d to yr 2 Total no. 1st
years
06/07 11.3% 88.7% 221
07/08 5.8% 94.2% 225
08/09 6.3% 93.7% 253

2) Programme from The School ofDesign, Engineering and Computing, BU
155 (full-time) students, recent significant rise in student numbers. Personal tutor
system now replaced first year tutor role due to rise in student numbers.

2 staff interviews: Course Leader and 1 SeniorLecturer

3
Further details about the context of the programmes and why they were chosen for this study can be found in the Case
Studies for each programme.
4
We do not have data for all institutions for gender of these programmes nor those who have transferred course or who are
repeating a year.

Page 32 of 110


Retention data for previous cohorts (number of first year students who withdrew from
the programme and the number progressing from year 1 to year 2 over 3 years):

Registry data
years
06/07 N/A N/A N/A
07/08 14.3% 85.7% 70
08/09 10.3% 89.7% 117

3) Programme from the School of Health and Social Care, BU
46 (full-time) students, high retention figures for this three-year professional course.
There is a placement on each year of the course.

4 staff interviews: Course Leader, 2 Senior Lecturers and 1 other Lecturer (this
lecturer was also the first year tutor for the course)

Student Survey 37% (17 students)


Registry data
years
06/07 2.2% 97.8% 46
07/08 0.0% 100% 46
08/09 4.9% 95.1% 61

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4) Programme from School of Applied Sciences, BU
41 (full-time) students, STEM subject, two placements (first and second year),
employment and future goals a key focus of course.

3 staff interviews: Course Leader, Framework Leader and PAL leader


Retention data gained for previous cohorts (number of first year students who
withdrew from the programme and the number progressing from year 1 to year 2
over 3 years):

Registry data
years
07/08 9.5% 90.5% 21
08/09 9.1% 90.9% 33

5) Programme from the School of Management, UoB
94 students, non-sandwich route and therefore lower entry tariff; predominantly aged
under 21; all full time; nearly a quarter international students.

4 staff interviews: Associate Dean (Undergraduate Programmes), Director of Studies
(Stage 1), Senior Lecturer, Undergraduate Programmes Manager

Student survey 9.6% (9 students)

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Retention data5 for previous cohorts (number of first year students who withdrew
from the programme and the number progressing from year 1 to year 2 over 3 years):

Registry data
years
06/07 6.0% 43.9% 82
07/08 12.4% 41.6% 89
08/09 12.9% 51.5% 101

6) Programme from the School of Lifelong Education & Development, UoB
305 students (73 of which part time), foundation year students, low entry tariffs,
predominantly local students, high proportion of mature students.

2 staff interviews: Lecturer; Deputy Manager – Academic Administration


Retention data for previous cohorts (no. of first year students progressing from year
1 to year 2 over 3 years):

Registry Foundation Year (all courses Foundation year (all courses –
data and students) part-time students only)

Left Cont‟d Total no. 1st Left Cont‟d to Total no. 1st
to yr 2 years yr 2 years
06/07 5.9% 47.1% 130 4.9% 87.8% 45
07/08 2.4% 33.3% 152 0% 25.8% 23
08/09 14.3% 75.4% 272 21.9% 76.4% 55

5
We do not have data for all institutions for gender of these programmes nor those who have transferred
course or who are repeating a year. Where we do have further information, this is provided in the Case Study
for the programme.

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7) Suite of six programmes from the School of Computing, Informatics & Media,
UoB (shared common first year)
73 students in total – including 5 joint honours courses, STEM subject, low entry
tariff compared to accredited course that runs in the same department, high
proportion of male students, local students and those taken via clearing.

3 staff interviews: Dean of School; First Year Tutor; Student Support Secretary



Registry data
Left Cont‟d to yr 2 Total no. 1st years
06/07 23% 57.4% 61
07/08 15.7% 68.6% 51
08/09 14.1% 71.9% 57

8) Programme from the School of Life Sciences, UoB
90 students; STEM subject, sandwich route, professionally accredited, high entry
tariff; very high retention rates

2 staff interviews: Programme Leader; Programme Leader (they both had the same
title)

Student Survey 28.9% (26 students)

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Registry data
Left Cont‟d to yr 2 Total no. 1st years
06/07 0% 69.1% 97
07/08 0% 97.6% 82
08/09 0.9% 97.2% 108

9) Programme from College of Business, Law and Social Sciences, NTU
38 full time students - typically with low entry tariffs and a “range of issues on top of
the normal transitional issues” (programme leader) such as severe financial hardship,
a very difficult family life, dependents, and cultural issues.

3 staff interviews: Programme Leader, Year Tutor and a Senior Lecturer who
teaches the first year.


Registry data
Retention 2007/08
88% continuing (total no. 1st years 80)6

10) Programme from College of Business, Law and Social Sciences, NTU
408 full time students (altogether), programme offered as single and joint honours (in
combination with other social science subjects).

3 staff interviews: Programme Leader joint honours programme and Programme
Leader of single honours programme, Senior Admissions Tutor.

6
Figures are data from central NTU data/registry. Please see case study for further discussion of figures.

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Registry data
Retention 2007/087
90% continuing (430 first years)

7
Figures are data from central NTU data/registry. Please see case study for further discussion of figures.

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Appendix 4

Further statistical analysis Student Transition
Survey data (2009) NTU

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Further statistical analysis Student Transition
Survey data 2009 (NTU)

The larger sample size at NTU (2009) allowed further statistical tests to be carried
out. As the sample for the Student Transition Survey was a convenience one, there
were, however, some statistical tests that could not be conducted.

Tests were carried out8 on both the initial, larger data set to look at doubting/non-
doubting (656 students) and on the smaller data set of those students that gave us
permission to monitor their destinations (370 students). In this smaller data set we
identified whether students had continued with their studies9 or whether they had
withdrawn.

Larger NTU data set(656 students): doubting

Factor analysis

A factor analysis (using KMO measure of sampling adequacy, Bartletts test of
Sphericity, Principal Component Analysis and a Rotated Component Matrix) was
carried out that provided us with three component factors:

A. Academic Experience

1. My subject is interesting
2. My course is well organised
3. I have enthusiastic lecturers teaching on my course
4. My taught sessions (such as lectures and seminars) are interesting
5. Lecturers are accessible
6. I feel valued by teaching staff
7. The assessment on my course is what I expected it to be

8
By Nick Foard, Nottingham Trent University
9
Students were said to have continued if they were still enrolled at the same institution. This therefore included students who
were repeating their first year and who had transferred to another course within the same institution.

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8. The feedback I receive about my work is useful
9. I feel confident that I can cope with my studies

B. Support, Resources and Future Goals

10. My fellow students are supportive
11. My family is supportive
12. I have easy access to University resources (e.g. Computers, library books that
I need)
17. Completing my degree will help me achieve my future goals

Rotated Component Matrixa
C. Student Lifestyle
Component

1 2 3

My subject is interesting .572 .354 -.037
14. I like the house/ flat/ halls that I am
My course is well organised .653 .052 .042

I have enthusiastic lecturers .758 .130 .030 living in
teaching on my course

My taught sessions (such as .744 .208 .036 15. I have an enjoyable social life
lectures and seminars) are
interesting
16. I am confident that I will have enough
Lecturers are accessible .658 .153 .033
money to cope
I feel valued by teaching staff .773 .071 .175

The assessment on my .658 .158 .186
course is what I expected it
to be
Item 13. “I would know where to go within
The feedback I receive about .623 .078 .327
the University if I had a problem” did not fit in
my work is useful

I feel confident that I can .443 .279 .350 well with other factors and is therefore not
cope with my studies

My fellow students are .108 .642 .307
included as part of any further factor
supportive
analysis.
My family is supportive .044 .706 .217

I have easy access to .215 .609 .075
University resources (e.g.
computers, library books that A regression analysis was then used to look
I need)

I like the house / flat / halls .163 -.045 .725
at whether these new variables: „Academic
that I am living in
Experience‟, „Support, Resources and
I have an enjoyable social life -.010 .361 .669

I am confident that I will have .097 .169 .587 Future Goals‟ and „Student Lifestyle‟ could
enough money to complete
my course indicate whether a student was more likely to
Completing my degree will .292 .589 -.032
help me achieve future goals
have doubts about being at university. A
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. number of other variables were also included
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
inRotation regression analysis: age, gender, whether the respondent was the first person
a. the converged in 5 iterations.

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in the immediate family to go to university, whether NTU was their first choice of
university, whether this was their first time living independently, whether they had
applied though clearing.

It was found that there was no link between doubting and the variables; age, whether
the respondent was the first person in the immediate family to go to university,
whether this was their first time living independently or whether they had applied
though clearing.

It was found that the variable that had the most impact10 on whether a respondent
had had doubts was „Academic Experience‟; the more positive their course
experience was rated, the less likely students were to have had doubts about being
at university. The variables that also had an impact in order of decreasing
importance (that is, with the most important at the start) were; „Student Lifestyle‟,
„Support, Resources and Future Goals‟11, and gender (females were twice as likely
to have had doubts than males). We can infer from this then that the more positive
an experience we can create for our students in these areas the less likely they are
to have doubts; creating a positive course experience being most important here in
reducing doubting.

Cramer’s V

A Cramer‟s V12 test was applied to the 17 Student Experience Factors (for all 656
respondents) to see whether there was an association between these variables and
doubting.

This table illustrates the strength of association between these factors and doubting
in order of strongest association first (the top five have been highlighted).

10
This impact could not be tested for statistical significance, as the sample is a convenience sample.
11
Again, a positive experience of these variables increased the odds of being a non doubter.
12
Cramer‟s V provides a measure of association between variables ranging from 0 to1 (the higher the number, the stronger the
association).

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NTU Student Transition Survey data 2009
Cramer‟s V
Agree/Disagree
I feel confident that I can cope with my coursework 0.42
My subject is interesting 0.318
I feel valued by teaching staff 0.316
I am confident that I will have enough money to complete my
course 0.315
My taught sessions (such as lectures, seminars) are interesting 0.269
The assessment on my course is what I expected it to be 0.267
Lecturers are accessible 0.263
I have enthusiastic lecturers teaching on my course 0.26
The feedback I receive about my work is useful 0.233
My course is well organized 0.229
Completing my degree will help me achieve future goals (eg
career) 0.217
I have an enjoyable social life 0.215
My family is supportive 0.213
My fellow students are supportive 0.209
I would know where to go within the university if I had a problem 0.196
I like the house/flat/halls that I am living in 0.182
I have easy access to University resources (e.g. computers,
library books that I need) 0.135

We have used box plots to illustrate the impact of these variables on continuation/
persistence.

How to Read the Box Plots

The box plot illustrates how the scores given by NTU students in answer to the
statement “I feel confident that I can cope with my studies” (rated from 1-5 where 1=
strongly disagree and 5= strongly agree) vary according to their subsequent
destination, recorded in the following four groups:

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- No doubts and stay
- Have doubts but stay
- Have doubts & leave
- No doubts but leave-

The box illustrates the middle fifty percent of cases. The thick black line across the
box illustrates the median value. The vertical lines either side of the box (with a T at
each end) indicates the remaining cases except the outliers, which are indicated by a
dot (with the reference number of each case alongside).

You will note that in the box plots, the group „No doubts but leave‟ often has a higher
overall level of satisfaction. This group only contains four respondents and so the
score needs to be treated cautiously.

Testing the impact of the three variables on retention (December 2009)

Box plots were created to illustrate patterns between students‟ destinations and their
factor analysis scores.

A pattern emerges for factor A. Academic Experience:

Students with no-doubts who continued have a higher score than doubters who
stay.
In turn, doubters who stay have a higher academic experience score than
doubters who leave.
Therefore doubters who leave have the lowest score of all.

As is often the case with the analysis of individual factors, we note that non-doubters
who leave actually have a very high level of satisfaction. However, we are only
dealing with very small numbers of students (4 at NTU) and so have not particularly

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focused on these sets of answers.

If we discount the small number of non-doubters who withdrew, a trend emerges.

Dissatisfaction with the academic experience is associated with doubting. Therefore,
the more dissatisfied a student is with the experience, the more likely they are to
have doubts and to leave early. Scoring lowly in these factors is therefore fairly
useful as a predictor for doubting.

Factor A - Academic Experience box plot

However this was not the case for the other two factors: B. Support, Resources and
Future Goals and C. Student Lifestyle.

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Factor B - Support, Resources & Future Goals box plot

There is a general trend towards lower satisfaction in factor B amongst doubters, but
is only marginal, scoring lowly in these areas is not particularly useful as a predictor
for doubting.

Factor C - Student Lifestyle box plot

In factor C Student Lifestyle Factors, students who have doubts and leave actually

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score higher than students with doubts and stay. Scoring lowly in this area is not
useful as a predictor for doubting and/ or withdrawing.

When taken together this appears to reinforce the message that doubting is primarily
driven by academic factors.

Cramer‟s V: demographics and student destinations
A Cramer‟s V test13 also explored the relationship between demographics and
student destinations within the sample. The table below lists all values of Cramer's V
association with the „persistence/doubters‟ variable14, in descending order.

Variable Cramer's V
Type of disability 0.308
Full/part-time 0.285
Age 0.222
UCAS/clearing/other 0.168
First time living independently 0.163
Ethnicity 0.159
School 0.154
From which part of the country 0.142
Accommodation 0.14
Gender 0.118
From which part of the world 0.116
Campus 0.086
NTU first choice 0.082
Disability 0.07
First person in family to attend university 0.035

It is of note that there is a low association with disability, but a higher association
with type of disability. This may be because there are small numbers of students who

13
Cramer‟s V provides a measure of association between variables ranging from 0 to1 (the higher the number, the stronger the
association).
14
This variable looked at the destinations of student respondents: students with no doubts who stayed, students with doubts
who stayed, students with doubts who left, and students with no doubts who left.

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declared a disability (24) which may exaggerate small differences. This may be
worthy of further exploration.

A cross tabulation of „persistence/doubters‟ variable with age revealed that students
in the 22-25 age group are most likely to have doubts but that none of this age group
left. Students who were 46 and over were most likely to leave (although there were
small numbers here).

A cross tabulation of the „persistence/doubters‟ variable with mode of study found
that (although very small numbers of students) part time students were more likely to
have doubts and more likely to leave than full time students. We believe that this is
worth exploring further in future studies.

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Confidence and student destinations (NTU 2009)

The single Student Experience Factor with the strongest association with doubting is
„I feel confident that I can cope with my studies‟.

Relationship between the statement „I feel confident that I can cope and the
impact upon the destination of students within the sample (2009) NTU

Which factors have a relationship with confidence? (NTU 2009)

We then sought to identify which factors had a relationship to confidence. Further
statistical analysis15 at NTU looked at whether there was a correlation between
student responses to the statement „I feel confident that I can cope with my studies‟
and their responses to the 17 Student Experience Factors‟.This analysis therefore
looks at the link between confidence and these factors rather than
doubting/persistence.

15
Pearson correlation

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The strongest associations related to feedback and assessment. The variables „the
feedback I receive about my work is useful‟16 and „the assessment on my course is
what I expected it to be‟ had the strongest correlation with confidence in coping (both
.399). The variable „I feel valued by teaching staff‟ had the next strongest correlation
with confidence (.396) followed by „my subject is interesting‟ (.369)17.

16
Correlation for each of these variables is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
17
The HERE Project interim report (2009-10) tested the following five factors: „Lecturers are accessible‟, „The feedback I
receive about my work is useful‟, „I would know where to go within the university if I had a problem‟, „My fellow students are
supportive‟, „Do you have a personal tutor?‟. For this report, all 17 Student Experience Factors were tested.

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Appendix 5

The HERE Project: Strand 2, Research into
programmes with better than peer rates of retention

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The HERE Project: Strand 2, Research into
programmes with better than peer rates of retention

Why we developed two sets of review questions

It was decided that two sets of review questions would be developed. The first would
be shorter, containing an outline of question areas that we wanted to ask programme
teams. This was sent to programme staff before they were interviewed so that they
could gain an idea of question areas we wanted to ask about. Within this outline we
also included some of our research findings. This was so that our interviewees could
see why we were asking about certain topics, but also as a way of sharing our
research findings. Our aim here was that this would involve staff in our research, that
it would be a means of communicating our findings to staff with the hope of affecting
change at this level. What we found was that it encouraged discussion around these
themes and interest in our research. This version also included details of the
research purpose, research design, anonymity and intended use of the research
data (to comply with ethical guidelines).

This outline of questions was then developed further based on a more detailed
statistical analysis of Strand 1. This second set of review questions was for the
researchers and included more detailed questions and areas to prompt during the
interview that were based on our findings.

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The HERE Project: Strand 2

Research into programmes with better than peer rates of retention

Guide for staff participants

Research Purpose Research Design

The HERE project is a 3 year research project funded by The focus of our research is to find out what works best
HEFCE/ PHF as part of the “What Works? Student in your programme to support retention. We have applied
Retention & Success” programme of work. We are the principles of the Appreciative Inquiry approach in
interested in student retention, but unlike most studies we order to do this. Appreciative Inquiry “…focuses on
are primarily investigating why students stay rather than identifying and developing what works in an organisation
why they leave. The work has two strands: students with rather than trying to fix what doesn‟t” (Dovestone and
doubts who stay and those actions programmes can take Keenaghan, 2006, p5). We will ask you about what you
to better support retention. do best in your programme to support students to stay.
We would then like to ask you about specific areas that
Our aim is to find out what works in your programme to
we have found (from our Strand 1 research) that appear
support retention and help first year students to stay at
to support retention.
university. We are primarily looking for good practice and,
whilst we will seek to be rigorous, we are looking for
examples of good practice, not flaws and weaknesses.
Our Strand 1 research collected feedback from just under
1,000 first year students between March & May 2009.

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Approximately 1/3 had, at some point, doubted and We would be particularly interested in exploring any
considered withdrawing from university. Importantly, the research or evaluation that you have carried out into your
reasons for doubting were not the same as the reasons own practice (formal and/or informal).
that doubters cited for remaining. For example, the most
common reason for doubting related to the course (poor
initial choice, dissatisfaction with some aspects of the Anonymity
experience etc.), but the main reason that doubters cited
The information that we collect from you will be reported
for subsequently remaining were associated with support
anonymously. A programme, for example, may be
from friends and family (particularly friends made on the
referred to as „a large programme within the School of
course).
Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University‟.
We have therefore structured the questions to reflect the Individuals will not be identifiable from the information
need to reduce activities likely to lead to doubting and reported. No incentives will be offered to staff for
also to enhance those activities that support students participation in the interview. Participants may withdraw
who have doubts. from the project at any time and ask for their data to be
destroyed.
What would we like to find out?

We would like to know what you do in your programme to
support students with retention. Data will be stored according to the Data Protection Act
1998. An audio recording of the interview will be made
We would like to find out what you actually do (rather
only with permission. This will be stored safely and not
than what you would like to do or think would work given
made available to those outside the project. Data will be
more time/resources etc). Where possible we would like
kept for six years after the end of the project in line with
to explore actual activities, examples and practices.
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current ethical guidelines. After this time, the data will be The data will also be used to produce academic articles
destroyed. and conference presentations.

Doveston, M., and Keenaghan, M., 2006. Improving
Intended use of the research data
classroom dynamics to support students‟ learning and
The data will be used to report on progress for the “What social inclusion: a collaborative approach. Support for
Works? Student Retention & Success” programme of Learning, 21(1), pp.5-11.
work. A final report will be produced that makes
recommendations (based on evaluation and evidence
from all projects within the programme) about how best to
support student retention across the sector.

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Interview Structure

The structure below illustrates the areas that we would like to ask you about. We may prompt you for further
details, and are happy for you to give us additional information that you feel is relevant.

Questions

Background information about the programme

Can you give us some background information about your programme, common issues, types of students, its particular
challenges to retention etc.

What works?

What is it that your programme does now when it is at its best in terms of retaining students?

What is it about your programme that makes this possible?

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Programme Practice

Reducing leaving Increasing staying

COURSE RELATED SUPPORT FROM FRIENDS & PEERS

The most common reasons that students who answered our The most common reason that students gave for why they
questionnaire gave for having doubts about being at had decided to stay (after having doubts) was because of
university were course related, for example, wrong choice of „friends and family‟. Friends were mentioned most often, and
course, describing difficulties in making the academic students often described friends they had made at university
transition to HE and problems with the workload. Students such as „seminar buddies‟.
who had had doubts about being at university (doubters)
were much less likely to agree with the statement „I‟m Can you tell us about the kinds of things that you do that
confident that I can cope with my studies‟ than non help students get to know each other?
doubters.

Could you tell us what you do in your course that you think
helps students in these areas?
(Academic transition, coping with work, choice of course,
problems with the course).

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RELATIONSHIP/COMMUNICATION WITH STAFF ADAPTING TO UNIVERSITY
Students that we spoke to in our qualitative research that In our focus groups, all students who had never had doubts
had not had doubts about being at university all described could describe a time when they felt they belonged to the
that they had „someone they could talk to‟ (be it a lecturer, university, and this was often linked to recognizing faces, or
personal tutor, or so on) about their work if they needed to. places. More of these students (non doubters) described
Student doubters were also much less likely to agree that taking part of the social life of the university (student union,
they felt valued by teaching staff. student ambassador) than student doubters.

Can you tell us what you do to help students feel part of the
Could you tell us about communication between staff and university?
students on your programme (such as written, online,
informal etc)?

ADAPTING TO THE COURSE
Students described adapting to the course, getting to know
the staff, starting to enjoy the subject and course as reasons
for staying after having doubts.

Can you talk about what you do to facilitate adapting to the
course?

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LIFE OUTSIDE OF STUDY DETERMINATION AND INTERNAL FACTORS
The second and third most common reasons that students Some students said that it was internal factors such as their
gave for having doubts about their course were „student desire not to quit that helped them stay here.
lifestyle‟ (which included problems with accommodation,
with other students such as flat mates, feeling unhappy with Could you tell us if there is anything that you do in your
their social life) and „financial problems‟. programs that would support such students (some of which
may be staying here mainly because they don‟t want to
Could you tell us about how you have communicated to
leave, rather than a desire to stay)?
students where to go if they had a problem with their
finances, accommodation, or problems with other students?

STUDENTS MORE LIKELY TO DOUBT FUTURE GOALS
Our initial analysis of the survey data found that mature The second most common reason that students cited as a
students were more likely to have had doubts about being at reason for staying after having doubts was „future goals and
university than non mature students. Students who employment‟.
completed our survey and said that they had a disability
were also more likely to have doubts than those students We would like to hear about how the programme (and in
that did not declare a disability. particularly any activities you do) relates to future student
goals (both employment goals and personal goals if
Can you talk to us about who you see as „at risk‟ students in appropriate).
your programme and tell us about anything that you do
because of these students?

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Closing questions

Can you summarise why you think your retention rate is as good as it is and what it is you do best?

What have you plans to improve on?

It would be extremely beneficial if we were able to survey some of your students, may we do so?

As this is a pilot study for further research, could you also tell us if there any questions that we haven‟t asked that you
think would be useful?

We are happy to share our findings with you. Is this something you are interested in? We could, for example, facilitate a
workshop about the project, forward presentations, academic articles etc.

Thank you very much for taking part in this research.

Contacts

NTU

Ed Foster ed.foster@ntu.ac.uk

Sarah Lawther sarah.lawther@ntu.ac.uk

Bournemouth

Chris Keenanckeenan@bournemouth.ac.uk

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Natalie Bates nbates@bournemouth.ac.uk

Bradford

Rebecca CurrantR.Currant@Bradford.ac.uk

Ruth Lefever r.lefever@bradford.ac.uk

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Appendix 6

Interview questions with full prompts for researchers

The HERE Project 2008-11 Final Repo
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Interview questions with full prompts for researchers
Prompts are in blue

The HERE Project: Strand 2

Research into programmes with better than peer rates of retention

Research Purpose

The HERE project is a 3 year research project funded by Research Design
HEFCE/ PHF as part of the “What Works? Student
The focus of our research is to find out what works best
Retention & Success” programme of work. We are
in your programme to support retention. We have applied
interested in student retention, but unlike most studies we
the principles of the Appreciative Inquiry approach in
are primarily investigating why students stay rather than
order to do this. Appreciative Inquiry “…focuses on
why they leave. The work has two strands: students with
identifying and developing what works in an organisation
doubts who stay and those actions programmes can take
rather than trying to fix what doesn‟t” (Dovestone and
to better support retention.
Keenaghan, 2006, p5). We will ask you about what you
Our aim is to find out what works in your programme to do best in your programme to support students to stay.
support retention and help first year students to stay at We would then like to ask you about specific areas that
university. We are primarily looking for good practice and, we have found (from our Strand 1 research) that appear
whilst we will seek to be rigorous, we are looking for to support retention.
examples of good practice, not flaws and weaknesses.
Page 63 of 110

Our Strand 1 research collected feedback from just under more time/resources etc). Where possible we would like
1,000 first year students between March & May 2009. to explore actual activities, examples and practices.
Approximately 1/3 had, at some point, doubted and
We would be particularly interested in exploring any
considered withdrawing from university. Importantly, the
research or evaluation that you have carried out into your
reasons for doubting were not the same as the reasons
own practice (formal and/or informal).
that doubters cited for remaining. For example, the most
common reason for doubting related to the course (poor
initial choice, dissatisfaction with some aspects of the
Anonymity
experience etc.), but the main reason that doubters cited
for subsequently remaining were associated with support The information that we collect from you will be reported
from friends and family (particularly friends made on the anonymously. A programme, for example, may be
course). referred to as „a large programme within the School of
Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University‟.
We have therefore structured the questions to reflect the
Individuals will not be identifiable from the information
need to reduce activities likely to lead to doubting and
reported. No incentives will be offered to staff for
also to enhance those activities that support students
participation in the
who have doubts.

What would we like to find out?
Data will be stored according to the Data Protection Act
We would like to know what you do in your programme to 1998. An audio recording of the interview will be made
support students with retention. only with permission. This will be stored safely and not
made available to those outside the project. Data will be
We would like to find out what you actually do (rather
kept for six years after the end of the project in line with
than what you would like to do or think would work given
Page 64 of 110

current ethical guidelines. After this time, the data will be from all projects within the programme) about how best to
destroyed. support student retention across the sector.

The data will also be used to produce academic articles
and conference presentations.
Intended use of the research data
Doveston, M., and Keenaghan, M., 2006. Improving
The data will be used to report on progress for the “What
classroom dynamics to support students‟ learning and
Works? Student Retention & Success” programme of
social inclusion: a collaborative approach. Support for
work. A final report will be produced that makes
Learning, 21(1), pp.5-11.
recommendations (based on evaluation and evidence

Page 65 of 110

Interview Structure

The structure below illustrates the areas that we would like to ask you about. We may prompt you for further
details, and are happy for you to give us additional information that you feel is relevant.

Questions

Background information about the programme

Can you give us some background information about your programme, common issues, types of students, its particular
challenges to retention etc.

Prompt – size, profile of students, UCAS tariff/actual entry, typical issues, any changes over last few years. Are there key
times students are more at risk?

What works?

What is it that your programme does now when it is at its best in terms of retaining students?
Why do you think it works? (ie what are you basing this on? Evidence rather than just what staff opinion)
What is it about your programme that makes this possible?
Prompt – specific examples and practices
Actions that you take as a programme on retention? Why do you think you have good rates of retention?

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Do you use statistical data on retention for example, have you analysed your own rates of student retention, has anything
changing such as retention rates improving/worsening and any actions taken Have you any evidence (formal and informal)
to support why your retention is as good as it is? (we will also ask about this as we go along).How do you evaluate your
programmes? (eg module evaluation forms?)

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Prog
ram
me
Reducing leaving Increasing staying
Prac
tice

Course Related Support from friends & peers

The most common reasons that students who answered our The most common reason that students gave for why they
questionnaire gave for having doubts about being at had decided to stay (after having doubts) was because of
university were course related, primarily; wrong choice of „friends and family‟. Friends were mentioned most often, and
course, describing difficulties in making the academic students often described friends they had made here such
transition to HE, coping with the workload and feeling as „seminar buddies‟.
confident that they would be able to complete their work.
Can you tell us about the kinds of things that you do that
Could you tell us what you do in your course that you think help students get to know each other?
helps students in these areas?
What do you do in induction to enable students to get to

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Academic transition know each other? Activities in induction, social, making
What do you do to induct students? How long is the friends, icebreakers. Throughout year?
induction period/how do you see induction? (prompt What opportunities do students have to get to know each
academic induction here?) other within the course/taught sessions? (prompt - peer
How do students come to understand the differences mentoring? PAL scheme Bournemouth formal and informal,
between learning in FE and learning in HE? (particularly the online)
differences in assessment and feedback) What opportunities do students have to get to know each
Prompt – FE outreach work, skills, independent learning, other across the university and what do you do as
use of language., programmes to encourage this? Prompt – advertise
Coping with work volunteering, events
How do you support students with managing their workload?
Can you talk us through how you support students with Do students work together? If so, how often is this?
gaining confidence in their work?
How do you support students who may be achieving lower
grades /aiming for lower grades?
Choice of course
What prior information do you give students?
What prior contact do you have with students ?Prompt –
interview, open day, online, marketing
Problems with the course
Do you have students who are not enjoying their course or

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appear unmotivated and if so can you talk us through how
you deal with these students?

RELATIONSHIP/COMMUNICATION WITH STAFF ADAPTING TO UNIVERSITY
Students that we spoke to in our qualitative research that In our focus groups, all students who had never had doubts
had not had doubts about being at university all described could describe a time when they felt they belonged to the
that they had „someone they could talk to‟ (be it a lecturer, university, and this was often linked to recognizing faces, or
personal tutor, or so on) about their work if they needed to. places. More of these students (non doubters) described
Student doubters were also much less likely to agree that taking part of the social life of the university (student union,
they felt valued by teaching staff. student ambassador) than student doubters.

Could you tell us about communication between staff and Can you tell us what you do to help students feel part of the
students on your programme (such as written, online, university?
informal etc)?
Who would students talk to if they had a problem with their Can you tell us what you do to help students feel part of the
academic work? (personal tutor or other) university? (prompt finding their way around university?
How would they know who to talk to and how would recognizing faces etc)
students access them? How do you get to know your students? (face recognition?)
What is the format of written information given to students? Can you tell us what you do to help students understand
And when is this given? (prompt course handbook, university systems (such as handing in work, special

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givenmemory stick etc and given all at start/in stages etc) situations panels etc)
What online communication is there?

ADAPTING TO THE COURSE
Students described adapting to the course, getting to know
the staff, starting to enjoy the subject and course as reasons
for staying after having doubts.

Can you talk about what you do to facilitate adapting to the
course?
How do students get to know staff?
Can you tell us about how you make your students feel
valued by the teaching staff?
Can you talk us through how do you make the course
interesting? The taught sessions/subject interesting?

LIFE OUTSIDE OF STUDY DETERMINATION AND INTERNAL FACTORS
The second and third most common reasons that students Some students said that it was internal factors such as their
gave for having doubts about their course were „student desire not to quit that helped them stay here.

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lifestyle‟ (which included problems with accommodation,
with other students such as flat mates, feeling unhappy with Could you tell us if there is anything that you do in your
their social life) and „financial problems‟. programs that would support such students (who are staying
here mainly because they don‟t want to leave, rather than a
Could you tell us about how you have communicated to desire to stay)?
students where to go if they had a problem with their Prompt – reflective practice, is there anything you do to get
finances, accommodation, or problems with other students? them thinking about these kinds of things eg motivation,
dealing with for example not enjoying part of the course
being disappointed with grades, resilience

STUDENTS MORE LIKELY TO DOUBT FUTURE GOALS
Our initial analysis of the survey data found that mature The second most common reason that students cited as a
students were more likely to have had doubts about being at reason for staying after having doubts was „future goals and
university than non mature students. Students who employment‟.
completed our survey and said that they had a disability
were also more likely to have doubts than those students We would like to hear about how the programme (and in
that did not declare a disability. particularly any activities you do) relates to future student
goals (both employment goals and personal goals if
Can you talk to us about who you see as „at risk‟ students in appropriate).
your programme and tell us about anything that you do Can you talk us through how the course relates to career
because of these students? employment goals the students may have? Placements –

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What do you do to support students with disabilities? (both voluntary, or part of course (compulsory)
in the curriculum and outside) Support during and after?
What do you do to support mature students? (both in the
curriculum and outside) (what age bracket do you count as Also future non-career related goals?
mature? Difference between over 21 and over 24?) Sense of future self, identity, happiness, achievement –
Who do you see as your at risk students? What do you do growing as a person
about at risk students/monitoring at risk students prompt –
attendance monitoring, use of retention figures, poor
performance (what do you actually do?)

Closing questions

Can you summarise why you think your retention rate is as good as it is and what it is you do best?

What have you plans to improve on?

It would be extremely beneficial if we were able to survey some of your students, may we do so?

As this is a pilot study for further research, could you also tell us if there any questions that we haven‟t asked that you think would
be useful?

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We are happy to share our findings with you. Is this something you are interested in? We could, for example, facilitate a workshop
about the project, forward presentations, academic articles etc.

Thank you very much for taking part in this research.

Contacts

NTU

Ed Foster ed.foster@ntu.ac.uk

Sarah Lawther sarah.lawther@ntu.ac.uk

Bournemouth

Chris Keenanckeenan@bournemouth.ac.uk

Natalie Bates nbates@bournemouth.ac.uk

Bradford

Rebecca CurrantR.Currant@Bradford.ac.uk

Ruth Lefever r.lefever@bradford.ac.uk

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Appendix 7
HERE Project Programme Student Survey

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survey presented to the students18

NTU has been asked to conduct academic research to better understand the
experience of students in their first year at university.

We are looking at programmes to see what we can learn about what helps students
to stay at university. We would like to know what it is that your programme does that
helps students to stay so where possible we would like you to tell us about actual
activities, examples and practices that you have found to be helpful (if any).

All completed questionnaires will be entered for a prize draw. The first prize is a £30
Tesco voucher, the second prize is a £15 Tesco voucher.

This survey has been set up so that your answers will not be linked to your email
address so the answers you give will be anonymous. As the researcher, I will be
provided with a list of email addresses of students that have responded (to enter for
the prize draw) but these will not be linked to your answers in any way.

If you have any questions at all, please do get in touch with me, Sarah, at
sarah.lawther@ntu.ac.uk

Please tick to confirm that you have read the questionnaire information

Yes (question requires an answer)

Consent
I understand that my participation is voluntary.

18
This is the survey that was sent to students in our programme research at NTU via survey monkey. Some additional
questions were asked at UoB and BU and these are referred to in the report where relevant.

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I understand that the information I give will be anonymised.

I agree that anonymised data and findings may be used in academic papers and
shared within NTU and with other universities.

Consent agreement

Yes I have read and agree to the above consent information

No, I do not agree to give my consent


1 Can you tell us what you like best about your course?

2a How interesting do you find your course?
Please use a scale of 1-5, where 1= “not at all interesting” and 5= “very interesting”

1 2 3 4 5

2b What makes it interesting/not interesting (as you indicated in question 2a)?

3 How friendly are the students on your course?
Please use a scale of 1-5, where 1= “not at all friendly” and 5= “very friendly”

1 2 3 4 5

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4a How valued do you feel by staff on your course?
Please use a scale of 1-5, where 1= “not at all valued” and 5= “very valued”

1 2 3 4 5

4b Can you tell us what makes you feel this way? Are there any specific
examples that you can give us?

5 Have you made any good friends on your course? (please circle)

Yes No

6a Can you give us any examples of opportunities in your course to make
friends during induction?

6b Can you give us any examples of opportunities in your course to make
friends after induction?

7a Have you considered withdrawing from your course at any point during the
academic year? (Please circle one of the following)

No, I have never considered withdrawing Please go to question 8a

Yes, and I have decided to stay at NTU Please answer questions 7b,7c and 7d

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Yes, and I haven‟t made up my mind about my future plans Please go to question
8a

7b Can you tell us if there is anything about your course that has helped you
decide to stay?

7c Is there anything about any other aspects of your life that have helped you
decide to stay?

7d Can you also tell us what made you consider leaving?Please then answer
question 8a onwards

8a How confident do you feel that you can cope with your coursework?
Please use a scale of 1-5, where 1= “not at all confident” and 5= “very confident”

1 2 3 4 5

8b How does this compare to when you began the course? Please circle one of
the following;

I feel less confident I feel about the same I feel more confident

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8c Can you tell us what is it about your course that makes you feel this way?
Can you give specific examples?

9a Do you feel that you understand how learning at university is different from
your previous learning?

Yes No

9b If yes, please could you give examples of what has happened on your
course to help you understand the difference?

10a Is your course helping you to achieve your future goals?

Yes No

10b If yes, can you tell us how?

11 Thinking back over your first year, when did you feel most committed to
being on your course? Can you describe how you felt and what made this
possible?

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12 If you had to pick one thing that you think that the course team do best,
what would it be? Can you tell us how this affects you?
(requires an answer)

13 Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about that you think may
be relevant to our research?

Thank you very much for completing this survey.

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Appendix 8

The impact of student demographics on doubting

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The impact of student demographics on doubting

Particular groups of students more likely to doubt

Students with disabilities

University of Bradford

2009
46.7% (7 out of 15) of students who considered themselves to have a disability had
considered withdrawing
34.6% (27 out of 78) of students with no known disability had considered
withdrawing
3 students did not wish to declare (one of whom had had doubts) had considered
withdrawing.

2011
25.2% (63 out of 250) of students with no known disability had considered
withdrawing
33.3% (3 out of 9) students who did not wish to declare had considered withdrawing

UoB 2009
Disability Doubters Non-doubters Overall
No, I have no 77.1% 88.6% 85.4%
known disability
Yes 20.0% 9.1% 12.2%
I do not wish to 2.9% 2.3% 2.4%
declare

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UoB 2011
Disability Doubters Non-doubters Overall
No, I have no 80.8% 90.3% 87.8%
known disability
Yes 15.4% 6.8% 9.1%
I do not wish to 3.8% 2.9% 3.2%
declare

Type of disability (2011) University of Bradford
Of those that stated that they did consider themselves to have a disability:

57.1% (4 out of 7) of those with dyslexia had consdiered withdrawing, as had:
66.7% (2 out of 3) of those with a visual impairment
0% (0 out of 1) of those who are deaf/hard of hearing
0% (0 out of 1) of those who are mobility or wheelchair users
50% (1 out of 2) of those who selected a mental health disability
0% (0 out of 0) of those on the autistic spectrum
0% (0 out of 3) of those with a hidden disability
50% (1 out of 2) of those with more than one disability
60% (3 out of 5) of those who said their disability was not listed above
50% (3 out 6) of those who did not wish to specify

UoB Disability Doubters Non-doubters Overall

Dyslexia 28.6% 18.8% 23.3%
Visual impairment 14.3% 6.3% 10.0%
Deaf/ hard of hearing 0.0% 6.3% 3.3%
Mobility or wheelchair user 0.0% 6.3% 3.3%
Mental health 7.1% 6.3% 6.7%
Autistic spectrum 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Hidden disability 0.0% 18.8% 10.0%
More than one disability 7.1% 6.3% 6.7%
Disability not listed above 21.4% 12.5% 16.7%

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I do not wish to specify 21.4% 18.8% 20.0%

Bournemouth University
2009
60% (6 out of 10) of students who considered themselves to have a disability had
43% (33 out of 76) of students with no known disability had considered leaving
33% (1 out of 3) of students who did not wish to declare had considered withdrawing

2011
40.8% (42 out of 103) of students with no known disability had considered leaving
0.0% (0 out of 1) of students who did not wish to declare had considered withdrawing

BU 2009
Disability Doubter Non-doubter Overall
No known 82.5% 89% 85.4%
disability
Declared 15% 9% 11.2%
disability
Do not wish to 2.5% 2% 3.4%
declare

BU 2011

Disability Doubter Non-doubter Overall
No known 85.7% 89.7% 88.0%
disability
Declared 14.3% 8.8% 11.1%
disability
Do not wish to 0% 1.5% 0.9%
declare

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Nottingham Trent University
2009
Students who declared a disability were more likely to have had doubts. 36% of
those students who declared that they had no disability had considered withdrawing
(n=595). However, 50% of those who stated they had a disability had declared that
they had considered withdrawing, as did 52% of those who chose not to declare.

NTU further statistical analysis 2009
Overall continuation of the students who granted us permission to monitor their
progress was worse than non-disabled peers although we need to be cautious here
as these were very small numbers of students. The Cramer‟s V test, however,
indicated that whether a student declared a disability had a low association with
continuation compared to other factors. There may be a link with type of disability
and continuation although again the numbers are very small.

Type of disability (2011) Notingham Trent University

NTU Disability Doubters Non-doubters Overall
No, I have no known 95.9% 92.7% 93.9%
disability
Yes 4.1% 5.7% 5.1%
I do not wish to declare 0% 1.6% 1.0%

Of those students (20) that declared a disability, 6 students were doubters and 14
were non-doubters.

55.6% (5 out of 9) of those with dyslexia had considered withdrawing, as had:
0% (0 out of 0) of those with a visual impairment
0% (0 out of 1) of those who are deaf/hard of hearing
0% (0 out of 1) of those who are mobility or wheelchair users
0% (0 out of 1) of those who selected a mental health disability
0% (0 out of 0) of those on the autistic spectrum
0% (0 out of 1) of those with a hidden disability

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0% (0 out of 2) of those with more than one disability
0% (0 out of 4) of those who said their disability was not listed above
100% (1 out 1) of those who did not wish to specify

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Gender

2011
25.6% (46 out of 180) of female students had considered withdrawing and 29.4% (30
out of 102) of males had.

2009
28.2% (20 out of 71) of female students had considered withdrawing and 27.5% (14

UoB 2009
Gender Doubters Non-doubters Overall
Male 41.2% 41.6% 41.6%
Female 58.8% 58.4% 58.4%
Prefer not to say N/A N/A N/A

UoB 2011
Male 39.0% 35.0% 36.0%
Female 59.7% 65.0% 63.6%
Prefer not to say 1.3% 0.0% 0.4%


2009
49% (30 out of 61) of female students had considered withdrawing and 35% (9 out of
26) of males had.

2011
44.6 % (37 out of 83) of female students had considered withdrawing and 36.1% (13

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BU 2009

Male 23% 35% 30%
Female 77% 65% 70%

BU 2011


Male 26.0% 33.3% 30.3%

Female 74.0% 66.7% 69.7%

2009
41% of female students at NTU had considered withdrawing, only 31% of males had.

NTU further statistical analysis 2009
A regression analysis found that the odds of being a non-doubter are almost double
for males (see Appendix 4) .

2011
NTU
Male 29.5% 35.6% 33.6%
Female 70.5% 64.4% 66.4%

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Application Process (Clearing)

2009
26.1% (24 out of 92) of students that entered university through the normal UCAS
process were doubters.
Of those students who applied through clearing 23.1% (3 out of 13) were doubters
and 35.3% (6 out of 17) of those who applied direct to the university were doubters.

2011
29.1% (53 out of 182) of students that entered university through the normal UCAS
Of those students who applied through clearing 25.0% (13 out of 52) were doubters.
25.0% (9 out of 36) of those who applied direct to the university were doubters.
18.2% (2 out of 11) who applied through other means were doubters.

UoB 2009

Application process Doubters Non-doubters Overall

Through standard UCAS 72.7% 75.0% 73.6%
process
Through UCAS clearing 9.1% 10.9% 10.1%

Applied directly to the 18.2% 12.0% 14.7%
university
Other 0.0% 2.1% 1.6%

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UoB 2011
Application process Doubters Non-doubters Overall
process
university
Other 2.7% 4.6% 4.1%

2009
49% (36 out of 73) of students that entered university through the standard UCAS

Of those students who applied through clearing or directly to the university, doubters‟
figures were low – 17% (1 out of 6) of students who applied through UCAS at
clearing were doubters; 17% (1 out of 6) of students who applied directly to the
university were doubters; and 0% (0 out of 1) had selected „other‟ route to university.

2011
43.4% (49 out of 113) of students that entered university through the standard UCAS
0.0% (0 out of 2) of students who applied through UCAS at clearing were doubters.
0.0% (0 out of 3) of students who applied directly to the university were doubters.
0.0% (0 out of 0) had selected „other‟ route to university.

BU 2009
Route to university Doubters Non-doubters Overall
Through standard UCAS 94.7% 78% 86%
process
Through UCAS clearing 2.6% 11% 7%
Applied directly to the 2.6% 9% 6%

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university
Other 0% 2% 1%

BU 2011
Route to university Doubters Non-doubters Overall
process
university
Other 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

NTU

2009
Students who had entered NTU through clearing were more likely to have doubts
than students entering university through the normal UCAS process. Amongst
students entering University through the normal UCAS process, 37% were doubters,
amongst those who entered through the clearing process, 45% had considered
leaving university. However, this is slightly contradicted as we also asked the
question „was this your first choice of University?‟. 38% of those who answered „yes‟
had considered withdrawing, only 31% of those who said „no‟ felt the same.

Whether a student had gone through clearing had the fourth strongest (from our list
of demographics) association with the „persistence/doubters‟ variable 19, as indicated
by the Cramer‟s V test (see Appendix 4).

19
This variable looked at the destinations of student respondents: students with no doubts who stayed, students with doubts
who stayed, students with doubts who left, and students with no doubts who left..

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2011
NTU Route to Doubters Non-doubters Overall
university
process

Other 70.0% 9.8% 6.9%

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Accommodation

2009
Students living in private halls of residence – 52.9% (9 out of 17) and those living
with other relatives – 60% (3 out of 5) were most likely to have doubts – although
these are small numbers. 27.5% (8 out of 29) of those living in a private
rented/shared house had considered withdrawing, as had 26.3% (5 out of 19) of
students living in their own home; 20% (5 out of 25) of students living in Bradford
halls of residence. Students living with their parents were least likely to doubt at
1.2% (5 out of 29).

2011
22.9% (8 out of 35) of those living in UoB halls had experienced doubts
33.9% (21 out of 62) in private halls had
25.5% (13 out of 51) living in private rented/shared house
18.2% (6 out of 33) living with relatives
32.2% (29 out of 90) in their own home had
8.3% (1 out of 12) of those who preferred not to sat has had doubts

UoB 2009
Accommodation Doubters Non-doubters Overall
UoB halls of 14.3% 22.2% 20.0%
residence
Private halls of 25.7% 10.0% 13.6%
residence
Private rented/ 22.9% 23.3% 23.2%
shared house
Living with 22.9% 28.9% 28.0%
relatives*
Own home 14.3% 15.6% 15.2%
Prefer not to say N/A N/A N/A

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UoB 2011
UoB halls of 10.3% 13.2% 12.4%
residence
residence
Private rented/ 16.7% 18.5% 18.0%
shared house
Living with 7.7% 13.2% 11.7%
relatives
Own home 37.2% 29.8% 31.8%
Prefer not to say 1.3% 5.4% 4.2%


2009
50% (18 out of 36) of those living in BU halls of residence
62% (8 out of 13) of students living in private halls of residence experienced doubts
32% (6 out of 19) of students living in a private rented/shared house
55% (6 out of 11) living with parents had
0% (0 out of 0) of students living with other relatives
22% (2 out of 9) of those living in their own home

2011
43.6% (24 out of 55) of those living in BU halls of residence experienced doubts
47.2% (17 out of 36) of students living in a private rented/shared house
55% (3 out of 12) of students living with parents had
100% (1 out of 1) of students living with other relatives
33.3% (5 out of 15) of those living in their own home

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BU 2009
Accommodation Doubter Non-doubter Overall
BU halls of residence 45% 37% 41%
Private halls of 20% 11% 15%
residence
Private rented/shared 15% 26% 22%
house
Living with parent(s) 15% 11% 13%
Living with other 0% 0% 0%
relative(s)
Own home 5% 15% 10%

BU 2011
Accommodation Doubter Non-doubter Overall
BU halls of residence 48.0% 44.9% 46.2%
Private halls of Not asked in 2011
residence
Private rented/shared 34.0% 27.5% 30.3%
house
Living with parent(s) 6.0% 13.0% 10.1%
Living with other 2.0% 0% 0.8%
relative(s)
Own home 10.0% 14.5% 12.6%

2011
NTU 2011
NTU/UPP halls of 52.7% 45.4% 47.8%

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residence
residence
Private rented/ 12.3% 18.0% 16.2%
shared house
Living with relatives 8.2% 11.1% 10.2%
Own home 4.8% 7.8% 6.9%

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Living Independently (2009 only)
30.1% (25 out of 83) of those students living independently had doubted compared
to 23.7% (9 out of 38) of students who were not living independently.

Of those living independently, 35.9% (14 out of 39) were doubters who were doing
so for the first time. 31.4% (11 out of 35) had doubts and were not living
independently for the first time (only 74 of the 83 students living independently
answered this question, therefore these percentages are calculated using the
number who answered).

UoB Doubters Non- Overall profile of
Living Independently? Doubters survey
Yes 73.5% 66.7% 68.0%
No 26.5% 33.3% 32.0%

45% (30 out of 67) of those students living independently had experienced doubts,
compared to 50% (7 out of 14) of students who were not living independently and
had doubts.

Of those students living independently, 55% (22 out of 40) were doubters living
independently for the first time. 26% (6 out of 23) of students for whom it was not
their first time living independently had considered withdrawing (63 of the 67
students living independently answered this question, therefore these percentages
are calculated using the number who answered).

BU Doubters Non- Overall profile of
Living Independently? Doubters survey
Yes 81% 84% 83%
No 19% 16% 17%

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If yes, is it for the first Doubters Non- Overall profile of
time? (out of total Doubters survey
numbers)
Yes 79% 53% 63%
No 21% 47% 37%

37% of students who lived away from home for the first time had doubts and so did
those students who were not living away from home for the first time. Those living
with relatives were least likely to have doubts (30%), those in private halls the most
(42%), other types of accommodation such as NTU halls had doubt rates of 37 –
39%.

Page 99 of 110

First Generation in Higher Education

2009
24.1% (13 out of 54) of students who were the first person in their immediate family
to go to university experienced doubts.
32.4% (22 out of 68) of students who were not the first person in their immediate
family to go to university considered leaving.

2011
family to go to university considered leaving
4 students preferred not to say (3 of whom had doubts)

UoB 2009
First person in Doubters Non-doubters Overall
family at
university
Yes 37.1% 46.6% 52.7%

No 62.3% 53.4% 47.3%
Prefer not to N/A N/A N/A
say

UoB 2011
First person in Doubters Non-doubters Overall
family at
university
Yes 39.0% 41.1% 40.5%
No 57.1% 58.5% 58.1%

Page 100 of 110

Prefer not to 3.9% 0.5% 1.4%
say

2009
39% (19 out of 49) of students who were the first person in their immediate family to
go to university experienced doubts.

53% (21 out of 40) of students who were not the first person in their immediate

2011


BU 2009
First to go to university in Doubter Non-doubter Overall
immediate family?
Yes 47.5% 62% 55%
No 52.5% 38% 45%

BU 2011
immediate family?
Yes 59.2% 52.2% 55.1%
No 40.8% 47.8% 44.9%

Page 101 of 110

2009

48% of respondents to the survey stated that they were the first person in their
immediate family to come to university, 39% of them had doubts compared to 35%
amongst those for whom other members of the family had already experienced
higher education.

2011
immediate family?
Yes 44.5% 42.2% 42.9%
No 55.5% 57.8% 57.1%

Page 102 of 110

Mode of study

2011
27.4% (75 out of 274) of full time students were doubters compared to 30.0% (3 out
of 10) part-time student respondents (again the numbers are very small here)

2009
28% (33 out of 118) of full time students were doubters compared to 50% (2 out of 4)
of part time student respondents – although the number of part-time students is very
small.

UoB 2009
Mode of Study Doubter Non-Doubter Overall
Full time 96.2% 96.6% 96.5%
Part time 3.8% 3.4% 3.5%

UoB 2011
Mode of Study Doubter Non-Doubter Overall
Full time 94.3% 97.7% 96.7%
Part time 5.7% 2.3% 3.3%


2009
46% (38 out of 83) of full time students were doubters. None of the part-time
respondents (0 out of 1) or part-time distance learners (0 out of 2) had experienced
doubts.

2011

Page 103 of 110

45.8% (54 out of 118) of full time students were doubters. There were no part-time
students.

BU 2009
Mode of Study Doubters Non-Doubters Overall
Full-time 100% 100.0% 100.0%
Part-time 0% 0% 0%
Part-time distance 0% 0% 0%
learner

BU 2011
Mode of Study Doubters Non-Doubters Overall
Full-time 100% 93.5% 97%
Part-time 0% 2.2% 1%
Part-time distance 0% 4.3% 2%
learner

2009
The very small number of part-time respondents (14 students) were more likely to
have doubts than their full-time counterparts (43% compared to 37% amongst full
time students).

2011
NTU mode of study Doubter Non-Doubter Overall
Full time 98.6% 97.4% 97.8%
Part time 0.7% 1.6% 1.3%
Distance learner 0.7% 1.0% 0.9%

Page 104 of 110

UCAS Tariff (2011 only)

60% (3 out of 5) of those students who had 160 or less points were doubters
25% (2 out of 8) of those with 161-200
38.5% (5 out of 13) of those with 201-260 points
32.0% (8 out of 25) of those with 301+ points
40% (4 out of 10) of those who did not know were doubters

UoB UCAS tariff Doubters Non- Overall
points doubters
160 or less 10.7% 4.1% 6.5%
161-200 7.1% 12.2% 10.4%
201-260 17.8% 16.3% 16.9%
261-300 21.4% 22.5% 20.8%
301+ 28.6% 32.7% 32.5%
Don't know 14.3% 12.2% 13.0%

50.0% (1 out of 2) of students with 0-160 UCAS points had experienced doubts
0.0% (0 out of 0) of students with 161- 200 UCAS points
71.4% (5 out of 7) of students with 201-260 UCAS points
50.0% (5 out of 10) of students with 261-300 UCAS points
43.3% (13 out of 30) of students with 301+ UCAS points
18.2% (2 out of 11) of students who did not know how many points they had
100.0% (1 out of 1) of students who said UCAS were not applicable to their
application

Page 105 of 110

BU UCAS tariff points Doubters Non- Overall
doubters
160 or less 10.7% 4.1% 6.5%
161-200 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
201-260 18.5% 5.8% 11.4%
261-300 18.5% 14.7% 16.4%
301+ 48.1% 50.0% 49.1%
Don't know 14.3% 12.2% 13.0%
Points not applicable to 3.7% 0.0% 1.6%
application

28.6% (2 out of 7) of those students who had 160 or less points were doubters
66.7% (4 out of 6) of those with 161-200
33.1% (40 out of 121) of those with 301+ points
32.4% (53 out of 170) of those who did not know were doubters

NTU UCAS tariff Doubters Non- Overall
points doubters
160 or less 1.4% 1.7% 1.6%
161-200 2.8% 0.7% 1.3%
201-260 18.1% 14.0% 15.3%
261-300 14.6% 19.7% 18.0%
301+ 27.8% 26.9% 27.2%
Don't know 36.9% 38.9% 38.0%

Page 106 of 110

Is there a link between lower UCAS tariff point on entry and whether students
struggled with their work?

Students‟ self-perception of struggling to cope (count by UCAS tariff band)
(NTU 2011)

UCAS tariff points Yes, I did struggle No, I didn't Total in each tariff
with work struggle with band
work
160 or less 5 2 7
161-200 6 0 6
201-260 46 22 68
261-300 49 31 80
301+ 71 50 121
Don't know 100 70 170

Students‟ self-perception of struggling to cope (percentage by UCAS tariff
band) (NTU 2011)

UCAS tariff points Yes, I did struggle No, I didn't Total in tariff band
with work struggle with
work
160 or less 71.4% 28.6% 100.0%
161-200 100.0% 0.0% 100.0%
201-260 67.6% 32.4% 100.0%
261-300 61.3% 38.8% 100.0%
301+ 58.7% 41.3% 100.0%
Don't know 58.8% 41.2% 100.0%

Page 107 of 110

Appendix 9

NTU Tutorials early draft

Page 108 of 110

NTU Tutorials Early Draft
This short schedule is intended to give an overview of how NTU is starting to think of
strategies for embedding the findings of the HERE Project into the student learning
and teaching experience. It has been developed using the HERE Project toolkit and
assumes 15 sessions delivered once per fortnight. This schedule is indicative only
of the early discussions and will be amended to reflect different disciplinary practices.

Session Workshop themes Tutor role HERE Project toolkit
no. themes

Term 1 Social integration

point of contact, ally, referrer to professional support and also a channel back to the programme.
reflect upon their application into and across the curriculum. The tutor also plays a pivotal role as the first
The tutorial proposal is intended to help students develop effective learning methods for university, but also to
1 Induction – ice breakers,
building a learning community,
Communication &
sources of support
relationships with staff
2 Planning & time management

3 Research skills & group
Student Support
problem solving activities

4 Writing for university –
analysing previous students‟ Transition to learning in
texts HE

5 Referencing skills & reflections
on the first term

Term 2 Motivation & future goals

6 Future goals (particularly
careers), name games & Transition to learning in
challenges HE

7 Learning from feedback

8 Linking between academic Student Support
modules

Page 109 of 110

9 Problem solving & study
support/ central services

10 Better learning skills

Term 3 Transition to learning in
HE
11 Revision & Exam skills

12 How will year 2 be different?
Communication &
13 Mapping learning this year relationships with staff

14 Planning inductions for students
next year – advice and activities

15 Future goals & what happens
next?

Page 110 of 110

Here project final report appendices

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Here project final report appendices