7 social integration recipe card - draft March 2011

The HERE Project Toolkit
The HERE Project (2008-2011) researched the
impact of doubting on student retention and
appropriate strategies for programme teams to
adopt to help students remain.

This action card is designed for programme teams
to use in workshops to reﬂect upon their own
practices and consider ways of improving
retention.

Further information can be found at
www.HEREproject.ac.uk


practices and consider ways of improving
retention.


Theme 7 - Social Integration
a) Maximise opportunities to develop friendships in the curriculum
Support from friends & family was the number one reason cited by doubters for staying, particularly
friends made at University.

Interviews with programme teams suggest 5
possible strategies for:

• Social networking

• Pre-arrival activities

• Induction week

• Group work

• Peer support


"[I logged onto] some websites, like the week one
Social Networking message board and www.yougo.co.uk website, so I
actually met a couple of people that were coming to
What's the University strategy for using social Uni before I got here… I think that made it easier"
networking, particularly prior to students
arrival?

How can students on your course make
contact with one another before they arrive?

How could you use returning students to
engage new students in cyberspace?

What particular strategies ought you adopt to
help those students not in halls to meet one
another and with studentson your course?


practices.



practices.



"I was quite lucky in that we were given the group
Pre-arrival activities assignment [Stepping Stones 2HE]…the ﬁrst week…
to design a poster about a computing expert and the
What do you do to start engaging with the people that I had in that group are still my group of
programme before they arrive? friends now. I’ve been to their ﬂat, whilst they were
in student accommodation and things like that, and
Stepping Stones 2HE for example provides their house this year which isn’t quite as bad. It
students with a short pre-arrival research means I have had some interaction."
activitity that forms the basis of group work
during induction week. Sutdents are required
to conduct activities such as delivering poster
presentations and are encouraged to work
together in small groups.


"When you feel lost and bewildered, the last thing
Induction you want is long lectures"*
Induction can be a crucial time for helping
students to start building social networks

We suggest:
• Using ice breakers to help students spend in lectures and increase
learn one another's names opportunities for discussion
• Providing small group work with • Starting induction early in the week,
focussed academic tasks to help them give decent breaks and allow time to
spend time getting to know one take part in friendship activities such as
another joining clubs & societies in freshers fairs
• Reducing the amount of time students

(* quoted in Edward, N., (2001), Evaluation of a constructivist approach to student induction in
relation to students' learning styles, European Journal of Engineering Education, 2001, 26, 4,
29-440)


"On my course you have to do quite a lot of group
Group work coursework and projects - we started to
communicate with each other, that is how our
Whilst we acknowledge that when group friendship developed... naturally."
work goes wrong it can be a great source of
stress for students, encouraging them to work
together on a task can really help forge
friendships. Requiring them to work together
is likely to create more opportunities to learn
about one another than social events.
Students would perhaps benefit from more
mixing up at the start of the academic year to
There's a risk that some students feel create as large a pool of potential friends as
uncomfortable starting new groups, therefore possible.
consider strategies for encouraging
communication such as ice-breakers.

"I have never been so homesick as I was that
weekend… but what it did do was really pulled
Field trips [together] our friendships… because we were
Whilst in some respects, overnight field trips feeling a bit out of our depth… then when you
are expensive and time consuming to came back after then you really felt that you knew
organise, student participants spoke highly of people."
the social benefits of participating. Tehy may
provide a rite of passage that the whole group
can engage with. Students also felt they had How can you make best use of field trips or
benefitted from seeing staff in a different light off-campus visits?
too.

But field trips may also exclude those who
may benefit most from the experience such as
students living in their own homes with caring
responsibility.

“I really enjoyed PAL because you got to know so
many people because it’s held in your seminar
Peer Support groups”

The use of structured peer support can help
students to bond with one another. Second
and final year students offer support to
individuals or small groups of first years. How can you use the experience and
expertise of your returning students to support
This may take the form of buddying (primarily first years?
social support, often provided during at the
start of the year) or supplemental instruction/
Peer Assisted Learning (in which the primary
focus is consolidating students' learning, but
with a social focus).

"I have never been so homesick as I was that
weekend… but what it did do was really pulled
Field trips [together] our friendships… because we were
Whilst in some respects, overnight field trips feeling a bit out of our depth… then when you
are expensive and time consuming to came back after then you really felt that you knew
organise, student participants spoke highly of people."
the social benefits of participating. Tehy may
provide a rite of passage that the whole group
can engage with. Students also felt they had How can you make best use of field trips or
benefitted from seeing staff in a different light off-campus visits?
too.

But field trips may also exclude those who
may benefit most from the experience such as
students living in their own homes with caring
responsibility.

7 social integration recipe card - draft March 2011

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7 social integration recipe card - draft March 2011