Transcript Slide 1
Understanding and supporting
the student experience
Jan Stewart
Manager - Student Learning Support Services
Victoria University of Wellington
“It’s not about us: it’s about them”
• More students
• Diverse b’gds
• Do not have knowledge of uni
processes/structures
• Different levels of preparedness
• High fees and student loans creates
high expectation and demand
University environment
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Highly complex
Fragmented
Process driven
Piecemeal
Atomistic
Historically driven
Student services research –
Holistic models
Chickering (1969, 1993)
• Students are “not just degree seekers
and test takers”
• Introduced the developmental models
including social and emotional elements
SS research continued …..
• ACPA (American College Personnel Assoc) (1995)
• Student learning and development –key focii
• SS staff should …”attempt to make seamless what
are often perceived by students to be disjointed,
unconnected experiences by bridging organisational
boundaries and forging collaborative partnerships
with Faculty and others to enhance student learning”
SS research continued ….
• Consolvo (2002)
Pass the buck or Share responsibility ?
Key benefits of collaborative links
• Enhanced contact between students and staff
• More knowledgeable staff to help connect
students
• Better service uptake
• Reduced stigma
• Better student outcomes
Whole uni approach –
Beatty-Guenter Retention Strategy Model
(Johnston,2001)
Sorting
Supporting
Interviews
Pre-testing
Admission criteria
Bridging Courses
Student Union
Student Services
Access Funding
Staff Development
Curricular
redesign/assessment
Teaching & Learning
innovations
Research & Policy
Connecting
Induction/First year
Orientation
Student Activities
Peer Mentoring
Personal tutors/guides
Transforming
the Institution
Transforming
the Student
Study Skills
Developing
Active Learners
Academic&
Career Advice
B-G model –your thoughts…..
• Where is the library? and the various
library services?
• Where would you put it?
Issue of Plagiarism
Your thoughts ….
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Do you see the library here ?
Where?
How?
What doing ?
Working with others to support
the student experience
Key words :
• student centred
• holistic
• integrated
• transformational
• synthesis
• seamless
• engagement
Key shifts
• staff thinking
• processes
• delivery
• environments
• planning
• goals
• attitudes
3 stage continuum of
collaboration
• Engstrom and Tinto,2000
Stage 1- Student services as the “clearing
house” of information
Stage 2 – Co-operation with faculty where
traditional roles remain
Stage 3- Collaboration – equal, shared
and recognised roles and experiences
Your thoughts ….
• Where are you on the continuum?
• What is needed to get to stage 3 ?
VUW case study –Library &
SLS collaboration
• Regular meetings between staff groups and
managers
• Shared planning goals and projects
• Shared staff development
• Specific collaborative work plan objectives for
all staff
• Shared spaces – learner focussed , visible
and accessible
Final reflection
It takes a whole institution to educate
[and retain and support ] a student
Professor Sally Kift, ALTC
(With apologies to Hillary Clinton and african proverbs ! )
References
American College Personnel Association. (1994). The Student Learning Imperative:
Implications for student affairs. Washington, DC: American College Personnel
Association
Chickering, A., & Reisser, L. (1993). Education and identity. Second Edition. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Consolvo, C. (2002). Building Student Success through Enhanced, Coordinated Student
Services. Journal of College Student Development, 43(2), 284-287.
Cook, J.H. and Lewis, C.A. (eds) (2007) Student and Academic Affairs collaboration: The
divine comity, USA: NASPA
Johnston, V. (2001). Developing Strategies to Improve Student Retention: Reflections from
the Work of Napier University’s Student Retention Project. Paper presented at the SRHE
2001 Annual Conference: Excellence, Enterprise & Equity, University of Cambridge.
McInnis, C. (2002). Making the Transition: What Schools and Universities Can Do to get
Students in Second Year Successfully. Paper presented at the NAPSA, Adelaide.
Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Weaver, M. (ed) (2008) Transformative Learning Support Models in Higher Education,
London: Facet Publishing.