The document provides an overview of the HERE Project Toolkit, which is based on recommendations from the HERE Project to improve student retention and engagement. The toolkit focuses on 9 themes addressed by different university programs. This summary focuses on Theme 3 of relationship and communication with staff, and Theme 5 of social integration. Theme 3 discusses the importance of staff-student relationships and communication about the program. Theme 5 discusses the impact of social integration and friendship on student retention, and ways programs can enhance social networking, induction, and peer support. The document provides discussion points and examples for universities to consider in addressing these themes through their programs.

1. The HERE Project Toolkit
Ed Foster & Sarah Lawther - Nottingham Trent University
Christine Keenan & Natalie Bates – Bournemouth University
Becka Colley & Ruth Lefever – University of Bradford

2. Structure of session
Project overview
Introduction to Toolkit
Theme 3 Relationship and communication with
staff
Theme 5 Social integration
Summary

3. About the HERE Project

4. HERE Project
Higher Education: Retention & Engagement
Two areas of work
- Students who have considered withdrawing
- What can we learn from programmes?
Focus on first year

5. Methodology
Strand 1 – Doubting
•Student research
•1/3 of students have considered withdrawing
•Doubters experience difference from non doubters?
•Consider factors that reduce leaving and increase
staying
•Findings led to programme survey questions

6. Strand 2 – Programme research
•10 programmes across three institutions
•Appreciative enquiry approach - what works?
•Survey of students on same programme
•Case study questions and examples
•9 Themes
6

7. Findings
•Different programmes addressed different themes
according to nature of cohort
•No magic bullets, but lots of small interventions
that when combined make a difference
•Influences how we work with programmes
•Knowing your students
7

8. About the Toolkit

9. The HERE Project toolkit
•Based on
–9 recommendations to improve retention and
engagement
–Each with suggested actions
–Diagnosis comes as
part of the first theme
–Suggest teams implement strategies that work
for them

10. Using the Toolkit
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 1
Take Stock Consider „student Review
„Identify students transition‟ &
at risk‟ „social integration‟ Subsequent
team
Programme Team meeting/ meetings
leader away day
Review
Look at formal & Reflect on own progress, reflect
informal data practices, discuss and consider
Ask questions recommendations other themes
- What do you & make plans
already know?

11. Evaluation
•What worked for you?
•Using your findings to inform future planning
•Enabling others to learn from your findings

12. Using the Toolkit
•Currently pilot
•Summary
•Cards – intention is to prompt thinking
•How do you address themes? What works well?
What could you share? What could be improved?

13. We will focus upon
3 Improve the relationship and
communication with staff
5 Social integration

14. 3 Relationship and communication with staff

15. 3 Relationship and communication with staff
•3.1 How do you support the staff/ student
relationship?
•3.2 How do you communicate with students about
the programme?
•3.3 How do you communicate within the
programme team about students?
•3.4 How do students communicate to the
programme about improvements/issues and how
are responses to these communicated back to the
students?

16. •What do you already do?
•What works well?
•What could be improved? (how?)

17. 3.1 Enhancing the staff/student relationship
–Doubters less likely to say that they felt at least
one member of their course team knew them
personally (2011) at all three institutions
–Less likely to say that they felt confident about
talking to a tutor if they had a problem or
concern

18. 3.1 Enhancing the staff/student relationship
•Focus group findings – „feeling known‟ (2008)
•Students were most likely to speak to (NTU 2011)
–Tutor/lecturer/module or course leader (137)
–Friends or course mates (39)
–Personal tutor (22)
–Family (11)
–Central services (such as Counselling, Disability
support, Careers, Academic support) (11)

19. 3.1 Enhancing the staff/student relationship
Association with doubting (NTU, 2009)
•I feel confident that I can cope with my
coursework
•My subject is interesting
•I feel valued by teaching staff
•I am confident that I will have enough money to
complete my course
•My taught sessions (such as lectures, seminars)
are interesting.

21. • What is that makes students feel valued?
(Thomas, 2002, p. 432)
•Disparities in Student Attainment (DiSA)
–Relationships to build learning
–Misconceptions of roles
–Lecturer as interlocutor
•Contact with academic staff becoming more
significant for continuation (Yorke and Longden,
2008, p. 2)
–Large cohort seem small “encourage a perception
of smallness” (ibid, p. 50)

23. 3.2 Communicating with students about the
programme
•Doubters more likely to report that the course was
disorganised
•Doubters were more likely to describe prior
information about the course as inaccurate
•Changes during year „just in time‟ information
•Communicating when away and on return
•During summer - resits
•Programme roles and processes (what are exam
boards?)

25. 3.3 Communicating within the programme
team about students
•Whole team approach to transition (Pargetter et al
1998)
•How do you know which students are not
engaging? At risk of leaving?
•Monitoring of student behaviour?
•How is this communicated to the team?
•Formal and informal opportunities

26. 3.4 Adopting a whole team approach to
communicating changes to students
•How do students give feedback to the course about
the course?
•How are changes made communicated back to
students?
•Different types of feedback from students to the
course
–Informal and formal
–How is this shared within the team?
–How is this fed back to students?
–How are changes that can‟t be made fed back to
students?

27. 5 Social integration

28. Improve social integration
• Pilot study – surveyed leavers – would have probably stayed if
they‟d known about the students‟ union clubs and societies
• 2009 survey – most frequently reported reason for staying cited by
doubters was “friends and family” (friends made at university =
most important single group)
• “My new friends have been able to help me get through many
hardships, so they are part of the reason why I have been able to
stay”
• 2011 survey – students who had never considered leaving reported
a larger circle of friends than their doubting peers
• Role of friendship is complex

29. Impact of friendship = complex
• Figure 26 Student Transition Survey 2011 (NTU) How many
‘good’ friends have you made since starting at university?
24.0%
7+
32.0%
15.8%
5-6
18.6%
31.5% Doubters
3-4
30.7% Non doubters
21.2%
1-2
14.4%
7.5%
None
4.2%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

30. What we found
• Doubters are less likely to report that their course is friendly.
• Student doubters also cited the lack of social opportunities as a
factor that led them to consider doubting.
• We note with some concern that between 2009 and 2011, students
report a lower level of satisfaction with their social lives. Between
the two surveys, if anything, the partner institutions have sought to
improve the social and community opportunities available through
better design and use of campus space.

31. 5. Improve social integration
• Consider social integration under the following sub-headings:
5.1 Enhancing pre-arrival activities including social networking
5.2 Enhancing programme induction
5.3 Extending the use of group work (eg field trips)
5.4 Considering the use of peer support (Buddies and Supplemental
Instruction: PAL)

32. Social integration within the academic
sphere: examples of implementation
5.1 Benefits in social networking but considerably more in providing
dedicated pre-arrival activities embedded within online social
interactions.
5.2 Imaginative induction curriculum that maximises opportunities
for students to build their social and academic integration
5.3 Importance of group work during the transition/induction period
– supports friendship making and builds support networks
5.4 Tremendous value of working with and having access to higher
level students – formal schemes eg PAL, informal networks eg
disability mentoring, PGR mentors

33. Discussion points:
• What opportunities are available for students to get to know each other
prior to starting at university?
• What is the role of friendship during the transition and induction phase?
• How can the university/course team successfully support effective social
and academic integration at this stage in the student journey?
• How can the university build on the sense of excitement and
professional challenge that the students arrive with?
• How could online activities/discussions be utilized to promote a sense of
belonging?
• In what ways could group activities for students be increased in the first
few weeks of term?
• What are the most effective ways to explain differences between
learning at university and learning prior to university?

34. Summary

35. References
• 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 Stu-dent Retention in
Higher Education: The Role of Teaching and Learning. Abingdon:
Routledge
• Pargetter, R., McInnis, C., James, R., Evans, M., Peel, M., Dobson, I.
(1998) Transition from Secondary to Tertiary: A Performance Study,
[online] , availa-ble at
http://www.dest.gov.au/archive/highered/eippubs/eip98-
20/contents.htm
• Thomas, L., 2002. Student retention in Higher Education: the role of
insti-tutional habitus, Journal of Education-al Policy, Vol. 17, No. 4,
pp. 423–32
• Yorke, M. and Longden, B., 2008. The First Year Experience of
Higher Education in the UK. York: Higher Education Academy
• More info at www.HEREproject.org.uk