Counting and Analysing Student Trends at Unisa 10 December 2009 Prof George Subotzky Executive Director: Information & Strategic Analysis

Acknowledgements The following staff members of DISA provided invaluable help and support in preparing the models : –Herman Visser –Hanlie Liebenberg –Lerato Tladi –Yuraisha Chetty –Esme Wiid –Herbert Zemann –Pamela Pistorius

Background and Context Counting and analysing student trends at Unisa is not as straightforward as might be assumed Accordingly, it is important to clarify: –The analytic needs of the various academic and support stakeholders –The appropriate business rules in each case To this end, DISA has prepared models for counting and analysing student trends These will be presented for stakeholder consultations early in 2010 so that the analyses can be conducted and disseminated as part of DISA’s annual calendarised workplan

Models for Counting & Analysing Student Trends Applications Enrolments Assessment: Active Students & Exam Results Graduations

Counting & Analysing Student Trends: 4 kinds of counts Headcount: – Unduplicated count of each individual student – irrespective of how many qualifications or courses s/he is registered for – This is the basic count of the number of students Qualification count: – Count of each individual students according to qualifications for which s/he is registered – This is useful and applicable for the colleges 5

Counting & Analysing Student Trends: 4 kinds of counts Course count: – Count of how many students registered for each course – This counts each student more than once according to how many courses s/he is registered for and is therefore higher than the HC – This is useful for the colleges, departments and operations FTE: – This calculates each student’s course load as a ratio of a full- time load, thus indicating the extent of full-time study – Eg: A student taking 5 modules in a qualification in which 10 modules per year is regarded as full-time, s/he counts as,5 FTE 6

Counting Students 7 Registration Temporary Provisional HC, QC & CC Enrolments (“Registered”) Provisional HC, QC & CC Enrolments (“Registered”) Formal Registered Formal Registered Cancellations Provisional HEMIS Cancelled + Non-Active Cancelled + Non-Active HEMIS Active CC, FTE, TIU QC, HC HEMIS Active CC, FTE, TIU QC, HC Re-instatements Provisional CC Enr DoHET Reporting & Subsidy DoHET Reporting & Subsidy Non-formal Official HEMIS submissions of headcounts & FTEs to DoE based on census days: 1 st Submission(31 Oct):Preliminary 2 nd Submission (30 Apr): Preliminary 3 rd Submission (31 July): Final Audited Provisional headcounts and coursecounts of registrations/enrolments from opening of registration in December on Previous year’s figures are updated as a result of subsequent cancellations

Gross Enrolments Admitted C Non- Active Nett Enrolments CAbsentWrote Results Out. Fail Sup. Admitted Pass C SA SW SRO SF SP Drop Out Re-registration (Repeaters+ Stopouts) Re-instatement C Not Admitted Attrition

Course Attrition Rate = (CA + NA + Abs)/Gross Enrolments “Attrition View”: Purpose – track attrition Course Attrition Rate = (CA + NA + Abs)/Gross Enrolments “Attrition View”: Purpose – track attrition Course Success Rate = Passed/Nett Enrolments “Retention View”: Purpose – track success & retention Course Success Rate = Passed/Nett Enrolments “Retention View”: Purpose – track success & retention Exam Results Metrics 4 Key Indicators Key Counts Exam Pass Rate = Passed/Wrote “Sitting View”: Purpose – review assessment tool Exam Pass Rate = Passed/Wrote “Sitting View”: Purpose – review assessment tool Degree Credit Success Rate = WFTEs/Nett Enrolments “Subsidy View”: Purpose – track subsidy income Degree Credit Success Rate = WFTEs/Nett Enrolments “Subsidy View”: Purpose – track subsidy income

Spreadsheet Model

Total Number Of Final Year Students Sitting For Exams Gross Graduands Gross Graduands Confirmation of Completion: Not admitted Graduation Ceremony Graduation Ceremony Confirmation of completion: Admitted Confirmation of Completion: Postal(non- ceremony) Absent Attend Nett Graduands Nett Graduands Attend (Conferred ) Attend (Conferred ) Postal (Absentia ) Non-Ceremony Postal (Non-Ceremony) Postal (Non-Ceremony)

Gross Applications Research Masters and Doctoral S1, Y1, Honours, Btech, Structured Masters S2 Nett Applications Student No Issued Gross Applications Student No Issued Unsuccessful Applications Model