Improving the Student Experience

A practical guide for universities and colleges

Michelle Morgan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136729683
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The landscape of higher education (HE) has dramatically altered in the past 30 years and it continues to evolve and change. More students are entering HE and attending university or college on a global scale than ever before. Supporting and enhancing the undergraduate student experience across the student lifecycle, from first contact through to alumni, is a critical activity in higher education today not only to aid retention and progression but in a highly competitive HE market, the quality of the student experience is pivotal to an institution's ability to attract students. The student experience encompasses all aspects of student life, i.e. academic, social, welfare, with the academic imperative at the heart of it. However, the increasing costs of delivering HE, a reduction in government/ state funding and constraints on resources means delivering a quality student experience has never been more challenging for those working in HE.

Staff at all levels, and across all areas within an institution, are developing and implementing initiatives to improve and enhance the student experience whether they are at the coal face or on the periphery thus making them a 'Practitioner' in the student experience. This could include the admissions administrator improving the information available for potential applicants; the academic improving his/her feedback to students or central welfare departments ensuring that their services are being advertised and supported within a student's home unit (faculty/department/school/course).

In this book, the Editor, Michelle Morgan describes how her new student experience 'Practitioner Model' provides an organised and more detailed structure; guiding Practitioners in the identification of what they have to deliver, who they need to deliver it to and when they need to deliver it across her six key stages of the student lifecycle:

· First Contact and Admissions;

· Pre-arrival;

· Arrival and Orientation;

· Induction to Study;

· Reorientation and Reinduction (Returners' Induction)

· Outduction (preparation for life after undergraduate study).

The Practioner Model offers a new way of thinking in terms of delivering 'interlinked' academic, welfare and support activities at the home unit and university level to support the student in their university journey.

This book also provides working solutions to real problems in the form of exemplar case studies from the UK and internationally, including chapters from Liz Thomas, Di Nutt, Marcia Ody, Chris Keenan(UK), Mary Stuart Hunter, (USA), Kerri-Lee Krause and Duncan Nulty (Australia).

Good practice must be adaptable and transferable because one size does not fit all. It must also be cost effective. And here the authors shows how practitioners can adapt and customise the 40 case studies presented to help them not only improve and enhance the experience of their undergraduate students in their own institution (both full and part-time) but also to support their students' progression and retention.

Part 1

Setting the scene

Introduction

Higher education (HE) has changed dramatically in the past 30 years and it continues to evolve and change. Globally, more students than ever before are entering HE and attending university (university or college) at undergraduate and postgraduate level (UNESCO, 2009). The increase in diversity of the student body entering HE in terms of social background, age, gender and race, plus changes in curriculum design, delivery, assessment and evaluation has added complexity to the delivery of the efficient and effective provision of HE. It is no longer acceptable, if it ever was, to treat students entering this level of study as a homogenous group. Nor can we assume that what students need if they are to thrive, is what they received in the past.

Supporting and enhancing the ‘student experience’ throughout the student lifecycle (from first contact through to becoming alumni) is critical to success in higher education today for both the student and the institution. The student experience encompasses all aspects of student life (i.e. academic, social, welfare and support) with the academic imperative at the heart of it. As the HE market becomes increasingly competitive and as students become more demanding and better informed, providing an excellent quality student experience is crucial to organisational survival. It can increase the ‘retention’ of students by reducing withdrawal rates and aiding student progression as well as being pivotal to a higher education institution's (HEI) ability to attract students. However, the increasing costs of delivering HE, the reduction in government/state funding and resource constraints means delivering an excellent quality student experience has never been more challenging.

In recent years, undergraduate research and initiatives looking at the student experience have tended to focus on the ‘first-year’ experience (with subsequent years being neglected); learning and teaching or assessment and feedback. However, there is increasing recognition that the student experience involves more than just the first-year and ‘academic’ experience (Tinto, 2006; Thomas and Quinn, 2006; Morgan and Brown, 2009; Hunter et al., 2010).

The aim of this book

This book will assist managers, academics and members of the professional service teams within universities to improve the student experience throughout the entire student lifecycle. It is a working manual and introduces a new model, the ‘Student Experience Practitioner Model’ that interlinks the key activities of academic, welfare and support. There are 40 practical case studies outlining real solutions to actual problems. The introductory chapter identifies those involved in improving and enhancing the student experience; it explains the purpose and direction of the book and describes why the landscape of HE today is so different to that of 30 years ago. It is essential that senior university managers, who were educated at a time before mass participation in HE, recognise the situation facing modern students today and understand that students, their family, friends and society will critically appraise their entire university experience.

Chapter 1

The context of learning
in higher education

Michelle Morgan, Kingston University, UK

Who improves and enhances the student experience within HE?

As students progress through the student lifecycle at university, they need a range of academic and personal services plus advice and support in order to succeed. This requires the input, collaboration and coordination of a range of key service providers consisting of academic and professional service staff (non-academic staff) from across an institution at university level, and also the student's academic home unit with whom they tend to identify (referred to as the home unit hereafter). The home unit can be at faculty, department, school or course level. Professional service staff, although not directly involved in the academic strand of the student experience are essential contributors through their various roles and functions, such as student support and student funding.

Enhancing the student experience today is an important activity for all staff within HE. With the increasing pressures on HE, such as increased student numbers and declining resources, trying to improve and enhance the experience of the undergraduate student across the student lifecycle is often challenging, frustrating and confusing for staff. The student expects and demands support, advice and guidance which meets their specific needs (academic and personal) throughout their studies. For an institution that may have between 8,000 and 20,000 other students for whom they also need to provide a quality student experience, this is not only a major challenge but can seem impossible. There is the danger that an institution will minimise a change in student experience strategy if it does not appear to offer immediate monetary gain.

There are also contested themes within HE today. There is a growing concept of the student being a ‘customer’ rather than a ‘consumer’ of education, and a drive for students to be ‘clients’ and ‘partners’ with their institutions in their learning process. This is a substantial move away from the traditional delivery of HE. However, the benefits of making the student and institution face up to their joint responsibilities are beneficial to both. They must recognise that there is a myriad of issues, pressures and challenges in delivering and enjoying an excellent quality student experience.

Providing targeted individual support that leaves the student satisfied is a complex activity to comprehend and deliver. As a result, it is understandable why an institution, central support units or the student's home unit may adopt the fall-back position of the ‘one size fits all’ approach. This limited approach enables them to provide a range of basic services to all students as well as being seen to be doing ‘something’ to improve the student experience. However, this is not suitable for today's HE environment or the needs of the modern student.

The practitioner in higher education

Staff at all levels, and across all areas within an institution, are developing and implementing initiatives to improve and enhance the student experience whether they are directly engaging with students or on the periphery, thus making them all ‘practitioners’ in the student experience. This could include the admissions administrator improving the information available for potential applicants; the academic improving his/her feedback to students; or central welfare departments ensuring that their services are being advertised and supported within a student's home unit. Often, these changes are small and incremental and they have occurred because of feedback arising out of a specific activity by certain groups, such as students, staff or applicants. Sometimes, initiatives are university-wide and large scale, driven by external and internal requirements. Both processes can be informed by internal, national and international research and both make an important contribution to improving and enhancing the student experience. Regardless of how small or large the initiative, it is critical that any changes are at the very minimum communicated to all key service providers, staff and students and at best, and that all the key service providers are involved in the planning stage.

Purpose and direction of this book and how it can help the practitioner

The practitioner faces a huge challenge in delivering a high-quality student experience at all levels. This book will provide the practitioner with practical guidance and advice in improving the undergraduate student experience across academic, welfare and support areas. Although the case studies presented in this book are drawn from undergraduate initiatives, many can also be adapted and applied to the postgraduate student experience. The author plans to review specific postgraduate examples in a future publication.

Although there is a massive body of research which outlines the issues and problems facing higher education now (e.g. access; the first-year experience; retention and completion; and entrenching knowledge and skills) there:

• is limited research on improving the student experience across every stage of the student lifecycle;

• are few models to help the practitioner manage the student experience in, through and out of every stage of the student lifecycle;

• are few focused and dedicated practitioners’ guides or handbooks designed to provide examples of good quality and evidence-based initiatives across the student lifecycle that are relevant today.

This book aims to address these issues and to be an instrument in the toolbox of the practitioner for enhancing and improving the student experience at all levels and areas within an institution. This book will provide the practitioner with:

• a brief overview of how higher education has changed, and its impact on the practitioner and the next generation of students;

• a concise way of delivering ‘interlinked’ academic, welfare and support activities at faculty/department/school/course and university level to support the student in their university journey;

• a new Student Experience Practitioner Model to help practitioners navigate through the maze of student diversity across all levels of study, determining what to deliver, how to deliver it and to whom;

• a range of UK and international academic, welfare and support case studies outlining real solutions that colleagues have developed to overcome actual problems they have experienced in improving and enhancing the student experience across the undergraduate student lifecycle. These case studies cover many different scenarios commonly experienced by practitioners across an institution and have been specifically chosen for their transferability and adaptability for a diverse student body;

• a positive and proactive approach to managing the student experience and future development;

• a review of texts and sources by key authors in the area so that readers can improve and enhance their knowledge and understanding of issues relating to the student experience.

Contributors have been drawn from the UK, the USA and Australia where the student experience movement is well established. The educational structures in these countries are broadly similar in terms of the composition of the student body and university structures, although there will obviously be disparity between environments and the backgrounds of students between institutions and countries. The Student Experience Practitioner Model has been developed as a result of research in the field and practical experience by the editor. For the rest of the book, the Student Experience Practitioner Model will be referred to as the ‘Practitioner Model’.

The structure of the book

This book is a collection of 13 chapters. This chapter outlines the changes that have occurred in HE in the past few years and how it has impacted on the student experience and student retention. Chapter 2 will explain the rationale behind the Practitioner Model and its delivery.

The remaining chapters in Parts 2 and 3 that make up the main body of the book have been organised specifically to explore the particular stages, themes and core activities in the Practitioner Model. Each chapter contains an introduction and conclusion by a leading authority in the area who will introduce four practitioners’ case studies.

This book is not designed to be an overview of the research undertaken in the field but chapter authors highlight any relevant research where appropriate. The book does not cover aspiration activities for 14–18-year-old students (see HEFCE, 2001; Thomas and Slack, 1999) or best assessment and feedback practices (see Race, 2010; Gibbs, 2010), as these areas already have a vast range of dedicated texts. However, details of some of these have been included in the further reading list at the back of this book for those wish...

Table of contents

• Front cover
• Improving the Student Experience
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Preface
• PART 1 Setting the scene
• PART 2 The stages in the Student Experience Practitioner Model
• PART 3 Core activities in the student Experience Practitioner Model
• Further reading: information and practical advice
• Index