1. Student Expectations: Implications for Retention Deborah Le Play De Montfort University

2. Introduction Background What do students expect? Interim findings -Work in progress Why do students leave? Snapshot of early leaver interviews The discourse of retention and attrition What does it all mean? Implications for retention - Discussion

3. Apprehending the student experience government initiatives and agendas; institutional schemes and frameworks; tension between student as individual and student body as a ‘collective’; academic response(s); changed/ing student expectations; student as learner; student as ‘consumer’?

4. Expectation … Expectation allows us to predict, anticipate, prepare for situations; emotional responses encourage the pursuit of adaptive rather than maladaptive behaviours (Huron, 2006) – and there are many levels of emotional response to expectation and to the outcome of expectation – anticipation, excitement, trepidation, fear, apprehension; joy, happiness; relief; disappointment, sadness, anger

5. What do students say about their expectations, their ‘experience’? Some key themes from semi-structured interviews with 8 first year u/g students (all student reps) from across 3 faculties in one post-92 institution between weeks 6-12 of term 1 2009-10 Student life: making friends early on; “feels like a holiday at first then the initial buzz wears off”; cost of ‘stuff’; “you need living skills”; accommodation Academic work: ‘drafts; referencing; contact hours; workload; organization of time Student/tutor relationship: ‘equal respect’; ‘personal’

6. Reasons for leaving early :snapshot Context: one post-92 institution; one faculty (Humanities – 4 Departments) between October 2007 and December 2009 PersonalMedicalFinancialCourse UniversityCityStudent life Career changeEmployment

8. Student life-academic life – broad themes My medical issues have been brought on by the pressures of study. I didn’t realize the work involved… I’m commuting and feel isolated. I’ve not settled in to uni life. I had problems with accommodation at the start and everything went downhill from there. I’m local and I didn’t feel settled in the class; everyone else is in Halls.

9. The discourse of retention and attrition The student experience – a collective experience based on a common student ‘culture’? Undergraduates bring to the institution ‘cultures’ based on individuality and individualism which do not necessarily fit neatly into the academic mould.

10. The aim should be to minimize ‘culture shock’ (Rendon et al, 2000) Rather than requiring students to fit the existing institutional culture (integrative model based on Tinto, 1975, 1988, 1993) institutional cultures could/should be adapted to fit better the needs of increasingly diverse students (Tierney, 2000; Zepke & Leach, 2005)

11. Kneale (1997, p.129) argues that there is “a cognitive disjunction between our [the institution’s] expectation of students and the actuality”. Furedi (2004) questions the wisdom of adapting institutional cultures to meet those of its undergraduates; such cultural attitudes serve to create a climate of low expectations and lead to a culture of dependency.

12. Future directions … concluding thoughts Understand and acknowledge the change in power dynamics between student and tutor/institution/HE (student as ‘partner’) and its potential Institutional responses in debates on retention and attrition tend to try to fit students into existing cultures based in academic practice and in disciplines. However...

13. Future directions … concluding thoughts Institutional cultures [could]should be adapted to fit better the diversity of students (Zepke & Leach, 2005) Dual socialization is possible when the overlap between two cultures is fostered and it is the institution’s responsibility to support students in their “transit between two cultures” (Rendon et al, 2000)

14. Challenge Find ways of adapting practice within the academic field by “making early contacts an affirmation of students’ cultural capital; by teaching to value diversity; and by adapting assessment practices to acknowledge diversity” (Zepke & Leach, 2005).

15. Going forward? How do we rise to the challenge? By taking a more critical position with regard to academic practice; By adopting a more honest and transparent approach to ‘expectation’;

16. By acknowledging the changed and changing nature of student experiences and cultures in supporting transition to HE, in curriculum development and in assessment practices; By re-focussing energies on undergraduate study as a transition in itself during which individual students develop not only as learners but also to become fulfilled, valued and effective participants in society.