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

• 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)

Induction/First year OrientationStudent Activities

Peer MentoringPersonal tutors/guides

SupportingSupportingStudent Union

Student ServicesAccess Funding

Staff DevelopmentCurricular redesign/assessmentTeaching & Learning innovationsResearch & Policy

Transforming Transforming the Institutionthe Institution

SortingSortingInterviews

Pre-testingAdmission criteriaBridging Courses

ConnectingConnecting

Transforming Transforming the Studentthe Student

Study SkillsDeveloping Active LearnersAcademic& 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 ….

• 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:

NASPAJohnston, 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.

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