NTU Programme Induction Guide (2010 version)

New Student Induction
A Guide for Staff

Staff resources available at
http://www.ntu.ac.uk/CASQ/quality/welcome_week/index.html

Nottingham Trent University This version: June 2010
Programme induction short guide page 1 of 16

Introduction

This guide is intended to support staff developing programme inductions for new
students. It has been primarily written with the needs of new undergraduate
students in mind although we believe many of the principles will be relevant to
postgraduate students too.

We suggest that programme induction needs considering as one aspect of the
Student Life Cycle model (see below) and suggest that staff consider induction as
part of the wider issue of transition into HE that also includes ‘pre-entry activities’
and ‘first term’. We would argue that even the most-outstanding induction week
will do little more than introduce students to themes about new ways of learning
and so feel that transition activities need embedding throughout the first term
and, in some instances, first year.

Aspiration-
raising
Pre-entry
Employment activities

Moving through Induction
the course

First term/
Semester

After Layer, G., Srivastava, A. & Stuart, M., (2002)

New Student Induction at NTU: A Summary

Overall, NTU does well at inducting new students. Each year in the annual
Welcome Week survey, students consistently regard the university highly (over
80% of students rate the welcome they receive as 7+ out of 10) and speak
positively about the professionalism of the welcome they receive. Students give
positive feedback about their programme induction, but there is considerable
variation between schools. We have included an appendix showing the feedback
about different aspects of new student inductions at the end of this document.

In addition, there is increasing evidence that the difference between the
educational experiences in further education/ VI form college is significant. Gaps
in subject knowledge are more widely known about. Increasingly, there is
evidence that there are significant gaps in the skills and autonomy developed,
and approaches to study in post-16 education that can lead students to
misinterpret the experiences they encounter in the first few weeks of term,
particularly during programme induction.


Student Feedback about Programme Inductions

In 2006, students’ comments from the Welcome Week survey were analysed and
five main threads were identified about what they felt was the purpose of
programme induction. The threads were:

1) Students wanted greater knowledge about what the programme induction
involved

2) Students wanted significantly greater opportunities to make friends/
develop relationships during programme induction

3) Students, particularly mature students, wanted a programme induction to
take into account existing needs such as childcare

4) Students wanted to understand what their programme would be like and
understand the levels that they’d be expected to work at

5) Students wanted to understand how their programme would benefit their
future careers and life plans

In February 2008, fifteen students took part in three separate focus groups to
discuss themes for programme inductions. They were:

• Interviewed about their own experiences
• Asked to evaluate five sample induction programme timetables
• Asked to consider the five themes listed above, decide whether or not they
were the most relevant issues and prioritise them

However the students decided that the most important priorities for programme
inductions were:

1. Opportunities to make friends

2. To be told in advance what their induction involves

3. To understand what kind of learning is involved and be reassured that
they’ll cope

4. To be reminded how their course will benefit their future plans

5. The programme to fit around their other commitments, such as family and
employment

Ideas about how to facilitate the five priorities are listed in the following pages.

Whilst there are clearly other factors to consider, these five give programme staff
something useful to design an induction programme around. We have not
discussed some of the important administrative functions such as making module
choices, or embedding activities such as talks from the Students’ Union or
Student Support Services, etc. as we feel programme teams already understand


the issues here. Ed Foster (ed.foster@ntu.ac.uk ext 88203) from the Welcome
Week planning team is happy to come and talk to staff at any time about
programme induction.

Feedback gathered following Welcome Week 2009

As part of the ongoing review of programme induction, we ask students to reflect
on their experience of induction. In 2009, following feedback from the academic
schools, we asked for feedback against the following 8 criteria:

Criteria % of students Score in 2008
who rated the
experience as
4 or 5 out of 5
(positive or
very positive)
1. My lecturers/ tutors have been supportive and 81% 78%
approachable

2. My course induction has explained what kind of 73% Not asked in
learning I will engage with 2008

3. My course induction has left me feeling 70% 75%
motivated to study
4. My course induction was well organised 68% 67%
5. My course induction has given me a clear idea 61% Not asked in
about how my course can help me achieve my 2008
future goals
6. I found my course induction interesting 59% 57%
7. My course induction has provided me with the 58% 66%
opportunity to get to know others on my course
8. My course induction has given me the confidence 54% Not asked in
that I will be able to cope with my studies 2008

Overall the feedback is positive.

Clearly students feel that tutors are approachable and that the induction gave a
flavour of what was to come. Induction appeared to be less successful at
promoting confidence amongst students. Perhaps that’s quite realistic, the
evidence suggests that confidence comes once students start to understand how
they are expected to work and have received feedback confirming that they are
on track (Lowis & Castley, 2008). We’re therefore quite sanguine that students
give the response that they have.

We were interested to note that the feedback about future goals was quite low,
and that students felt that programme inductions could have been more
interesting. This may be due to the fact that students are contrasting it with the
busy social whirl of Welcome Week, but nonetheless, we would request that staff
strive to create interesting activities in the first week.

The score we are most concerned about is the one connected to friendship
making (point 7).1 Given that it was the highest priority for students, we were
disappointed that it was so low and appeared to have fallen back compared to
1
We were did not use the word ‘friends’ here, as there was potentially too many
issues about when someone actually had made a friend.


2008. We’d like to reiterate, that friendship was the most important issue for
new students and research conducted at NTU for the HERE project, strongly
suggests that it’s the most important reason cited by students who’ve considered
withdrawing for staying.

Further Reading

There are two relevant SEDA specials:

• Student Induction, edited by Frame
• Student Transition, by Cook & Rushton

There’s an excellent example of a very-involved approach to induction for
engineering students at Robert Gordon University, by N Edward that’s worth
reading as a source of inspiration.

There are plenty of excellent examples of programme inductions taking place
within NTU, but the best practice isn’t consistently adopted. It’s hoped that in
some way this resource will help rectify that situation. It’s entirely
understandable that there are plenty of pressures on teaching staff at the start of
term, but we do feel that all programme staff need to be significantly involved in
the induction of new students, not just the first year tutor.

Further information about Welcome Week events can be found at

http://www.ntu.ac.uk/CASQ/quality/welcome_week/index.html

If you would like to discuss course induction in any further detail, please don’t
hesitate to contact Ed Foster (ed.foster@ntu.ac.uk ext 8203), particularly if you
have good ideas to share.

June 2010


Student Priorities for Programme Induction

Priority Page

1. Opportunities to make friends 7

2. To be told in advance what their induction involves 9

3. To understand what kind of learning is involved and be 10
reassured that they’ll cope

4. To be reminded how their course will benefit their 12
future plans

5. The programme to fit around their other commitments, 14
such as family and employment


Opportunities to make friends

This was the most important factor to all the students who took part in focus
groups to discuss programme induction (February 2008).

In 2009, researchers from CASQ surveyed all first year students about a number
of aspects of their student experience, 656 students responded to the survey.
One key question was “Have you ever considered withdrawing from University?”
37% had at some point considered withdrawing, although most clearly decided to
stay. When asked “what factors helped you to remain?”, the most common
response was ‘friends and family’. Where specified, the most common reason
cited was friends made at University. Whilst clearly, the main focus of university
ought to be about learning, students are operating within a new and unfamiliar
context and peer support is crucial. Yorke & Longden (2008, p4) in their report
on the first year experience at University argue that good retention can be
augmented by “treating the curriculum as an academic milieu, and also in in
which student engagement is fostere”’.

Welcome Week is all about opportunities to make friends, and it is the
responsibility of all new students to develop relationships with their peers.
However, some students are placed at a disadvantage when making new friends
by the fact that they don’t live in NTU halls or commute locally from home.
Wilcox, Winn & Fyvie-Gauld (2005) found that students not in halls found it very
difficult to break into cliques formed amongst those students living in halls.
Social exclusion was found to be the most common reason for early departure
from University in their study.

Recommended actions

Message Boards
NTU uses a 2-stage strategy. Firstly, Integrated Marketing and the Students’
Union set up accounts with the most popular social networking sites (Facebook
etc) and use student ambassadors to talk to students about coming to university.
Secondly, we have Welcome Week Message Boards, which contain a section for
students to meet up with others on their course and discuss course-related
matters. We would encourage staff to introduce themselves here and, perhaps
more importantly, encourage appropriate second and final year students to
introduce themselves.

Icebreakers
There is an icebreakers guide in the Welcome Week section of the CASQ pages for
staff to use. We acknowledge that icebreakers can be overdone and some
students (never mind staff) don’t like them. Feedback on icebreakers can be
skewed by louder, more confident students dismissing their use, but frankly these
students don’t need them anyway. We don’t recommend going overboard, but a
couple of activities to get students sharing one another’s names or facing a task
or challenge would bring benefits.

Reduce the amount of Lectures
Edward (2001, p438) quoted a first year student from Plymouth University “When
you feel lost and bewildered, the last thing you want is long lectures.” Lectures,
whilst time-efficient, are potentially barriers to meeting peers and coping with the
anxiety of starting university. We strongly advocate reducing the amount of time


students spend passively receiving information in lectures. If you are going to
use lectures, please try and build icebreakers or group discussions in to them. If
it can be managed logistically, it would be better to run more information-giving
sessions in smaller groups with more opportunity for discussion.

Increase the amount of small group work
A number of programmes ask their students to work on tasks in small groups and
then report back on them, either during Welcome Week or as an integrated
learning and teaching activity in the first week of term. It’s interesting to note
that feedback from WW 2007 shows that on balance, students liked doing these
activities, but would have preferred to have been in subgroups of their seminar
groups, not just a selection of students from the first year cohort. They also
would have liked to work with more than one group to get to know a slightly
larger circle of students.

Start induction on Monday
Undergraduate inductions need fitting around Welcome to NTU in the Royal
Centre, but that will only last one hour (plus obviously travel time from Clifton
and Brackenhurst). Whilst it’s good to give students time to settle in and find
their way around the campus and city, it would be better to fit this time in after
they’ve had the chance to meet people on their programme. We would advocate
running some getting to know one another sessions on Monday.

Use second and third year student buddies
When asked, many second year students will say that they are happy to take part
as buddies, leaders of campus tours or even run small group discussions. The
experience at NTU has been that it can be a little more difficult to get them to
actually turn up and help with induction. It’s worth persevering with as they can
help translate academic language and help put students at their ease. There
tends to be a better take up if students are recruited during the summer term
rather than emailed over the summer holidays. Obviously they’ll need reminders
sending through the summer. It may also help recruitment if they have a clear
role to do.

Off-campus trips?
A number of programmes took students off campus to take part in activities such
as outdoors training, gallery visits, arts projects and using specialist tools.
Student feedback about these activities has been highly positive, although a few
students who stayed away overnight felt that they’d missed some opportunities to
make friends in the main Welcome Week programme. It’s particularly important
to warn students in advance so that they can plan ahead for any childcare needs.
Edward (2001) developed a highly complex induction programme for engineering
students at Robert Gordon University that involved students working as groups of
consultants and visiting a range of external sites and then producing reports on
their findings.


To be told in advance what their induction involves

Ozga & Sukhnandan (1997, 1998) researching problems with student retention
found that one of the most common reasons for early withdrawal amongst
students was a lack of preparedness for higher education. This was particularly
the case amongst young students who tended to adopt a passive approach to
university. Early leavers had often failed to anticipate the differences in teaching
and learning between further and higher education and instead had focussed
unrealistically upon aspects such as the social life. Students tended to
concentrate upon arriving at university, not what they would be doing once they
arrived.

The Welcome Week planning team are working with Integrated Marketing and
College Marketing Teams to make sure that the communication around Welcome
Week and programme inductions is co-ordinated as much as possible. We will try
and make sure that the projected deadlines are communicated to staff as clearly
as possible.

Many students are keen to do something to prepare for University before they
arrive, particularly once September begins, for example starting to read sections
of a core text.

Recommendations

Pre-entry activities
Bournemouth University have a programme called Stepping Stones to HE
(Keenan, 2008) in which students are asked to engage in some preparatory e-
learning prior to arrival that is then embedded into discussion and group activities
during the first week. We’d strongly suggest that programme teams consider a
similar approach.

Reading lists
Sending a reading list to all but the keenest students might be off-putting, but
recommending one key text to read might be more beneficial. It’s worth noting
that students in post-16 education are increasingly guided by tutors in their
reading, it appears relatively unusual to be expected to read a whole textbook on
their own, so it may be worth sending guidance about how you would expect
them to tackle a textbook along with any recommended reading.

Send out accurate timetables
Some of the students in the February 2008 induction focus groups received their
timetables the week before they arrived. They felt this was too late, perhaps
partly because in the discussion boards other students had received them earlier,
but mostly because they wanted to be able to anticipate what the induction was
going to be like. From a central organiser’s point of view, we believe that
probably the best time to send out timetables would be early in September
(between five to three weeks before students arrive at University). Some
students were critical that they only received instructions to turn up on the first
day, not what the actual week was going to be like, this meant that they were
surprised when the activities took up more or less time than they had expected.
We would recommend that as much as possible a complete timetable is sent out.


To understand what kind of learning is involved and
be reassured that they’ll cope
As has already been alluded, there are some significant differences between post
16 and the first year of higher education.

During Welcome Week 2007 (Foster, Bell & Salzano, 2008) & 2008, 100
interviews were conducted with new students to better understand their prior
experiences of studies.

Some key differences were identified as follows:

• Students are used to being taught in smaller, more intimate, groups
• They have often had very close relationships with their tutors,
interviewees told us about being able to ring their tutors at all hours
• They are used to significant amounts of feedback on drafts
• Students have produced extended pieces of writing, but have often done
so with word counts for particular sections or by submitting the work one
piece at a time
• Students have encountered fairly flexible deadlines, we were given
examples of tutors setting false early deadlines or providing some
discretion over extending deadlines
• Students have been able to re-submit strategically to improve grades
• Non-attendance is monitored closely and students are pursued if they fail
to attend.
• Finally, it was often tutors who asked to see students to discuss feedback
etc, many students were not experienced asking for help and guidance

Students were asked what would be the same or different about learning now
that they had started at University. Although some students were very aware of
the differences, many had naïve perspectives about concepts such as independent
learning and clearly would benefit from guidance from staff.

The transition into higher education is potentially significant and it can impact on
early withdrawal and perhaps more importantly a lack of understanding of the
form learning takes can hinder student engagement.

Recommendations

Discussions about differences
Run discussions with student groups about differences between learning in
post-16 and at university. Arts & Humanities have a well-developed learner
contract, it might be worth developed a learner contract between tutors and first
year groups through small group discussion. This might be an activity that 2nd
years could facilitate. It would require careful selection and briefing though as 1st
years pick up the unhelpful message about only needing to achieve 40% very
early in the first year.

Sample some learning activities
Clearly there’s a balance, if you start to deconstruct all the forms of academic
writing students might be expected to do, it will potentially kill off all enthusiasm/
scare students witless. But students are keen to understand some of what
learning at University is about, so provide opportunities to taste a range of


learning and teaching examples, but provide opportunities to discuss how they
might be expected to engage with them as they are engaging.

One of the most productive areas for discussion might be to look at student
feedback. In an NTU survey, around 80% of students in FE/VI form were able to
submit multiple drafts and get feedback on each draft. Students are therefore
likely to have conceptually a very different understanding of what feedback is and
what it’s used for. They may need help understanding how they are expected to
use summative feedback in subsequent assignments and be supported to develop
strategies to do so.

There may also be some benefit to introducing the students to sample
assignments, but it’s probably too soon for most.

Group activities
As well as creating good opportunities for students to make friends, group work
can give students the opportunity to start to understand learning in higher
education. At NTU, students have been asked to do a wide range of tasks during
induction: presentations on their academic subject, presentations on learning,
arts projects focussing on a key aspect of Nottingham, etc. If possible, students
should be given the opportunity to use any specialist equipment they will be using
(theodolites, computers, sewing machines etc) if health & safety and time allow.

Campus Tours
First year students often feel lost during the first few weeks of term and will
describe the confusion felt at having to navigate their way across the campus.
We would strongly advocate providing a campus tour as part of the induction
experience.

Key locations to visit might include:

• Nearest computer labs
• Programme Leader’s Office/ First year Tutor’s office/ School Office/
location for coursework hand in
• The library (particularly short loan and main shelves for the course)
• Student Support Services
• Students’ Union – particularly services such as The Employment Store, or
the Clubs & Societies’ notice boards

This might be an excellent activity for second year students to facilitate.

Course Reps & feedback
Although the first week may be a little too soon to hold course rep elections, it
would be valuable to introduce the concept during course induction. It may be
particularly useful to either bring in a course rep to the session or describe
changes that were brought about because of course reps or feedback.


To be reminded how their course will benefit their
future plans
Although the majority of students choose their programme because of the
reputation of the programme or institution, a significant number will make the
decision due to factors such as ‘reputation of the city’, ‘because friends or family
went to that institution’ or even for ‘no particular reason’ (Davies & Elias 2003).
Students entering through clearing may be a particular problem group as their
decision-making appears to be even less rational and thought-through.

Roberts et al (2003) found that the difference between students who had doubts
about their programme but stayed and those who had doubts and departed was
that the first group was able to see how the programme would benefit their future
careers/ life plans, whilst the second couldn’t. Johnstone (1999) found that
students who were motivated more by family expectations than personal goals
were almost 20% less likely to progress. Similarly, those who hadn’t actively
chosen a particular course, but just wanted to go to university/ leave home were
significantly less likely to progress.

The students at the focus groups were clear that they weren’t particularly
interested in the details of careers and planning for their future, but they did want
some inspiration about how the course would benefit them.

It would therefore appear to be a sensible precaution to encourage all students to
think about the benefits of the programme during their first few weeks.

Recommendations

Focus on graduation and graduate employment
For example, could a graduate recruiter who recruits from the programme speak
to the students? (Or a recent graduate who has done well?) We recommend in
the Opportunities to Make Friends section that students take part in group
activities with an end point such as a presentation. Could a graduate recruiter/
graduate/ careers adviser be involved in giving feedback to the presenters and
talk about what they’d expect to see in their industry? In 2006, two schools used
guest speakers, the then School of Computing and Informatics used a successful
graduate working in the games industry and Social Sciences invited in a
policeman to talk to the first years.

Graduate destinations
When introducing the programme to students, make sure that you tell them
about where graduates have gone on to work. It may also be worth talking about
placements to them. What student quotes do you have from recent graduates or
final students after their placements?

Engaging with the programme
There is a danger that talking about the outcomes of higher education will
encourage students to believe that just serving their time at university will lead to
them getting the graduate job they expect. It is therefore important to
emphasise how the skills and attributes will be developed.
• What will the students do that will build up attributes that employers are
looking for?
• What skills will they develop?
• What relevant knowledge will they have?


• What activities do they need to engage with in order to develop these
outcomes?

Wider benefits of the programme
Please note that we are not recommending that you talk about the benefits of the
programme purely in terms of employability. What other benefits will the
students gain from studying the programme?
• What do final year students say about what they have learnt about
themselves?
• How have they changed/ developed?


The programme to fit around their other
commitments, such as family and employment

How long should the induction timetable be?

Given that the University has limited resources, it’s clearly impossible to tailor the
timetable to suit the needs of all students. The focus groups in February 2008
were realistic about this and recognized that the priority ought to be about their
course induction, even if they wanted to be out partying. Of the five outcomes
discussed (making friends etc) this was the lowest priority.

In response to questions about timetabling, they felt that full-time students ought
to be prepared to be available 9 – 5 every day. They had some empathy for
mature students with childcare commitments and moderated their views
suggesting that 10 – 3 was more appropriate. It’s important to note that the
students didn’t feel that this was 10 – 3 every day though.

Students typically felt that induction ought to last 3 – 4 days, although not all day
long on all of those days. Some students with inductions lasting 4 days felt that
the content could have been covered in 3 if it had been paced better.

Furthermore, the feedback from Welcome Week satisfaction surveys has always
included criticisms of early morning starts; students feel that they need some
time to sleep in after a busy night partying. Obviously, there’s a danger that
programme teams will feel under pressure to create a timetable that runs for two
days starting at 11 and finishing at 3 with a healthy 2-hour lunch break in the
middle. We are not advocating this. It is interesting to note that two students
in the February 2008 focus groups complained that their inductions were too
short (a few hours on Thursday and Friday afternoon); they felt that this created
an unrealistic picture of what the course would actually be like once term started.

Perhaps the best guide would be to try and create a programme induction
timetable that has similar hours to the taught hours in the normal week. For
programmes with low contact hours, it may even be advisable to have more
contact hours than will be the case in the first year.

Recommendations

Clear timetable sent out in advance
Make sure that you clearly communicate to students what they are expected to
do during the programme induction and make sure that this includes a timetable

3 – 4 day duration
Run induction programmes over 3 – 4 days and make the overall number of
hours comparable with normal studies. We would recommend putting on
activities earlier in the week and, unless there is a timetabling need or sound
pedagogical reason, avoid activities on Friday.

Start on Monday
Start induction activities on Monday and fit them around Welcome to NTU,
starting with introductions, an opportunity for students to get to know one
another and what they’re expected to do in the week. For the schools with
Welcome to NTU talks in the middle of the day we recognise that this may be


harder to do as students may not wish to attend programme activities, Welcome
to NTU and then further programme activities. If this is the case, we’d strongly
advocate a Tuesday start.

Early starts and late finishes
If possible avoid early mornings and late afternoon sessions; this may be more
important on the first day. Clearly this is much easier to write than timetable.

Blocks of time
One piece of student feedback suggests that, during Welcome Week, students
would prefer to be taking part in induction activities in solid blocks of time rather
than in individual hours. Once again, this is easier to write than deliver, but it
may be particularly important during induction as students aren’t necessarily yet
comfortable using the social spaces and library spaces in the gaps.

Bibliography

COOK, A., and RUSHTON, B., 2008. Student Transition: Practices & policies to
promote Retention. UK: Staff & Educational Development Association.

DAVIES, R., and ELIAS, P., 2003. Dropping Out: A Study of Early Leavers from
Higher Education. Department for Education & Skills.

EDWARD, N., 2001. Evaluation of a constructivist approach to student induction
in relation to students' learning styles. European Journal of Engineering
Education, 26 (4), 429-440.

FOSTER, E., BELL, R. and AND SALZANO, S., 2008. “What’s a Journal?” -
Research into the Prior Learning Experiences of Students Entering Higher
Education. In: University of Wolverhampton, 7 - 9 May 2008.

FRAME, P., DR., 2002. Student Induction in Practice, SEDA Paper 113. UK: Staff
& Educational Development Association.

KEENAN, C., 2008. Students getting down to work before they start at university:
a model for improving retention. In: G. CROSLING, L. THOMAS and M. &
HEAGNEY, eds., Improving Student Retention in Higher Education: The Role
of Teaching and Learning. Abingdon: Routledge, 2008, .

LAYER, G., SRIVASTAVA, A. and STUART, M., 2002. Student Success in Higher
Education (Introduction). Action on Access.

LOWIS, M., and CASTLEY, A., 2008. Factors affecting student progression and
achievement: prediction and intervention. A two-year study. Innovation in
Education and Teaching International, 45 (4), 333-343.

OZGA, J., and SUKHNANDAN, L., 1998. Undergraduate non-completion:
developing an explanatory model. Higher Education Quarterly, 52 (3),
316-333.

ROBERTS, C., WATKIN, M., OAKEY, D. and FOX, R., 2003. Supporting Student
'Success': What can we Learn from the Persisters? .


WILCOX, P., WINN, S. and FYVIE-GAULD, M., 2005. It was nothing to do with the
university, it was just the people: The role of social support in the first-year
experience of higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 30 (6),
707-722.

YORKE, M., and LONGDEN, B., 2008. The first year experience of higher
education in the UK. The Higher Education Academy.

Appendix 1

Fry, Ketteridge & Marshall (2009, p117) conducted a literature survey about
programme inductions. They identified 15 characteristics relevant to an ideal
induction. Their findings suggest that an ideal induction programme would:

1. Be strategically located and managed
2. address academic, social and cultural adjustments that students may face
3. provide time-relevant targeted information
4. Be inclusive of all student groups
5. Address special needs of particular groups
6. Make academic expectations explicit
7. Include teaching staff at a personal level
8. develop required computing and e-learning skills
9. recognise existing skills and experience
10. Recognise different entry points and routes into higher education
11. Be inclusive of students’ families
12. Be student centred rather than organisation centred
13. Be an integrated whole
14. Be part of an ongoing extended programme
15. be evaluated with outcomes and actions communicated to stakeholders


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