Stay with the Programme: Update on the Evolving Strategy for Retaining Business Students Owen Ross

Reminder of the Retention Strategy AIT Business School circa 1,600 students 3 Departments Only HEI in the Midlands Region Diversity and Inclusion Dimensions of diversity Educational (CAO, Mature/Life Experience) Dispositional (self-esteem, EI, 1st in family to HE) Circumstantial (age, disability, caring role) Cultural (Language, EAL) Specific socio-economic profile Economic resources Academic and Assessment literacies Contents of Presentation: Reminder of the Retention Strategy Student Meetings and the “Intervention Plus” Student Performance Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics Reflections and Considerations

REMINDER OF RETENTION STRATEGY Significant Effort and Infrastructure Relating to Retention 000s of Man hours Learning and Development for Higher Education (2010) Student Meetings (2013) Habit Forming (2013) Programme Development (2014 & 2015) Parents Evenings (2013) Briefing for Students with failed modules (2014) Intervention Plus (2016 & 2017) Semester 2 Meetings (2017) Bespoke Retention Officer (2017) Captured Current Model on Diagram

HOD – STUDENT MEETINGS Intervention for students who failed S1 Carefully Planned Reconciliation of Many Elements Performance, Esteem, Personal Life, Mental Health, Resilience, Determination, Personal Organisation, Respect, Humanity, Work-Life Balance and many, many more.

Intervention Plus Brought about by experience at last year’s Student Meetings: I choose to pass Informed by Business Psychology Team Motivational techniques Empathy Creation of 10 different interventions to give to students Allocated longer time to student meetings – took 1st years only Invited 36 Students to attend 20 Did attend 16 Did not attend

Intervention Plus Passed S2 Exams: Passed year 12 of 20 who attended (60%) 1 of 12 who didn’t (8.3%) Passed year 14 of 20 who attended (70%) Statistically, students who attended the meetings were over 8 times more likely to pass than those who didn’t

Semester 2 Meetings Geared at 1st year students who failed their 1st exam in S2 Meetings were very informative Students knew nothing about supports They didn’t attend briefing or did and couldn’t hear anything Peter Melinn contacted every 1st year in the department eligible to repeat Timely reminder Motivate Info re registering and supports

Taken Digital Marketing off AQA 2016 intake -departmental total of over 85% eligible to progress Three programmes at over 90% Business Psychology Business (ab Initio) HC in Business Taken Digital Marketing off AQA 1.1 in 4th year 15%; CAO HC up 30% 1st Prefs

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics B September 2016 100 November 2016 98 91 January 2017 94 77 March 1st 2017 92 71 June 2017 88 69 September 2017 (2nd Year) 72 59 Repeating 1st year attending 6 10 Repeat 1st year externally December 2017 67 54 March 1st 2018 63 51 % Students still Active 79% 61% Official Progression Rate 75% 86%

Reflections & Considerations A First year retention model and increasing progression rates are not the same thing Increasing the rate March – March 6 weeks S2 1st Year 12 Weeks S1 2nd Year 6 weeks S1 2nd Year Performance in Business on this issue is understated by official Figures Options open to us to focus on the rate and/ or total performance

Reflections and Considerations Banner project to give more data Sept 1st year – March 2nd Year; Show patterns on key drop out points S1v S2 repeats, RP v RX In order to “rate chase” should we focus on S3? Do we need to consider supports for repeat students Contact from AIT Motivational talks? Access to Tutors?

Questions, Observations and Criticisms