Improving the Student Experience: A practical guide for universities and colleges

ISBN-13: 9780415598798 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 232 str.

Beverley Bell

Opis

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."

Recenzje

'I found that the book gave a useful framework for the reader to think about how they approach delivering an excellent student experience and provided good examples of how to go about achieving it.' - Bethan Payne, Higher Education Policy Advisor at the National Union of Students, 2012

Spis treści

Foreword  1. Introduction  Part I: Supporting First Contact and the Admissions Process  2. Partner Institution Admissions  3. Effective Communication of Information to Applicants  4. First Contact and Beyond  5. Developing IT Systems for Points Based Immigration  Part II: Pre-arrival  6. Online Enrolment  7. Pre-school Arrival  8. Develop Me! Support Me! Engage Me!  9. Pre-arrival and Orientation Website  Part III: Arrival and Orientation  10. The 8 Strand Approach to Orientation for Fresher and Direct Entry Students  11. Residential Advisors Welcome and Support  12. International Programme  13. Planning and Improving the Quality of Parent Orientation Programmes  Part IV: Induction  14. Mapping Transitions  15. Supporting Women in Science and Engineering  16. Integrating Skills into the Curriculum  17. Leading on from Orientation  Part IV: Reorientation and Reinduction  18. Re-orientation and Reinduction for Returning Students  19. Tick Off to Take Off  20. Sustaining Global Perspective  21. Study Away Support  Part VI: Outduction  22. Graduation Festival  23. What Next? A Guide for Engineering Students  24. Outduction Research  25. Sophomore Solutions  Part VII: Academic Student Support and Development  26. A Student Voice in Learning & Teaching  27. Supporting Transitions  28. Super Personal Tutors  29. Getting it Right Second Time Around  Part VIII: Supporting Staff to be Supporters  30. Supporting the Supporters  31. Working Towards an Inclusive Induction  32. International Case Study  33. Responding to Student Expectations  Part IX: Learning and Teaching  34. Academic Peer Support  35. The Tool Box  36. Using Electronic Voting Systems to Enhance the Student Experience  37. Attendance Monitoring  Part X: Student Evaluation and Feedback  38. Mid-Module Feedback  39. Leeds Met Diary Room  40. Map Works  41. An Evidence Based Approach to Student Evaluation  42. Conclusion

O autorze

Michelle Morgan is a Learning and Teaching Coordinator and Student Experience Manager at Kingston University, UK.