Framing attrition in higher education: a complex problem

This study situates student attrition within the strategic framework of Australian public universities. It draws on organisational theory to describe higher education within a bureaucratic framework. The study uses a quantitative approach to undertake a content analysis of attrition and retention policy statements from all Australian universities. This reveals that Australian universities, and the higher education sector as a whole, are attempting to address attrition within their existing bureaucracies. Attrition however is a wicked problem that includes many variables outside the influence of universities, which limits the potential of strategic approaches to problem solving. The practical implications of these findings are that current approaches to attrition are likely to fail. The wicked nature of the attrition problem needs to be taken into account when developing strategies or policies within higher education.     

Creating a connection: tackling student attrition through curriculum development

The issue of student attrition (where students leave a programme of study for any reason) is maintaining a high profile across the higher education sector and is a key concern for those delivering nurse education. Many authors have pointed out the cause for concern that student nurse attrition raises and its impact on the higher education institution (HEI), on the student body generally, on partners in practice, and on the student who leaves. The reasons that student nurses leave their programmes of study are similar to the reasons that other students leave (financial, personal, academic, lack of support, etc). For student nurses there are also issues with their experiences in practice. It is clear that with all student attrition, the reasons for leaving are complex in nature. It must be accepted that there are some issues that cannot be addressed by HEIs, but that ways to tackle attrition and to enhance student retention must be high on the agenda of any education provider. Individual programmes of study can utilise approaches to curriculum development that aim to enhance the student experience. The introduction of an enquiry‐based learning strand to the curriculum of one pre‐registration nursing programme aims to address some of the reasons for student attrition, namely: lack of support, poor academic performance, lack of study skills, disillusionment and low motivation, lack of confidence, and the theory‐practice gap resulting in stressful practice experiences. Enquiry‐based learning (EBL) is not seen as a panacea for student attrition, but it is seen as a positive way in which to enhance the student experience.     

‘Should I stay or should I go?’: unpacking teacher attrition/retention as an educational issue

The paper starts from the observation that teacher attrition/retention seems to be a wicked issue: it seems to have strong face validity and a commonsense meaning, but the literature doesn’t provide a clear and distinctive definition. In the first section, the author analyzes the different ways in which the issue of teacher attrition and retention is problematized—in general and educationally—as the basis for a definition: as an educational issue, teacher attrition and retention refers to the need to prevent good teachers from leaving the job for the wrong reasons. Arguing that teacher attrition/retention constitutes both a problem and a challenge, he continues in the second part of the article foregrounding several lessons learned from the research on teacher attrition. A first lesson is related to the central role of social relationships and teachers’ need for social recognition as well as sense of belonging. Secondly, the impact of performativity policies on teacher attrition is discussed. A final lesson looks at teacher attrition and retention from the perspective of career and teachers’ work lives. The conclusion section outlines an agenda for teacher education, teacher induction, and school development to positively deal with the challenge to keep the good teachers in teaching.     

Relationship between measures of academic quality and undergraduate student attrition: the case of higher education institutions in the Colombian Caribbean region

Undergraduate student attrition is a major concern in higher education. It is usually explained by the impact of student attributes; however, recent developments in student success literature point to the need of exploring institutional practices that may impact a student's decision to abandon their studies. The current weight of academic quality assurance for Colombian higher education institutions (HEI) and what such measures may mean for how HEI fulfill their missions indicates the need to consider a possible relation between such quality measures and undergraduate student attrition. Using official databases from the Colombian Ministry of Education for the year 2009, this study explores through analysis of variance the relationship between attrition and three measures of academic quality: accreditation status, professional test scores required to graduate (Saber Pro Exam) and the number of research groups at HEI. The scope of the study is the Colombian Caribbean region and the sample includes 19 HEI. Study results demonstrate that the percentage of accredited undergraduate programs at HEI was the only measure of quality assurance, out of the three explored, that showed a statistically significant relationship with undergraduate student attrition rates.     

Disciplinary exclusion: wicked problems in wicked settings

This paper uses Rittel and Webber’s categorisation of wicked problems in order to interrupt discourses around school behaviour. Each of the 10 characteristics suggested by Rittel and Webber are examined using the English education system as a vehicle by which to consider and interrogate their complexity. This endeavour is crucial as although the characteristics of wicked problems naturally overlap, the cannot, and should not, be conflated if we wish to understand how different facets of a wicked problem shed light, and create shadows, that impact on all members of a school community. That school communities can be wicked settings adds nuance to the complexity of the problems that we face when educating students whose behaviours challenge the norms of their educational environment.     

Professional staff contributions to student retention and success in higher education

ABSTRACT

Student attrition remains a persistent problem within the Australian higher education sector. Contributing factors include financial, reputational and quality issues, which can pose significant risks for a university’s sustainability. Institutional culture is fundamental to decisions student make about withdrawing or remaining in higher education. Therefore, student retention requires a sustained, deeply embedded commitment from all parts of the institution, placing student experience at the forefront of all activities in the student lifecycle. Applying a lifecycle approach to the way in which institutions think about student retention benefits students by providing comprehensive and consistent support. Given that less is known about how professional staff contribute to student academic learning journeys as part of whole of institution responses to student retention, this paper focusses on the contributions that professional staff make within the student lifecycle and how they can most readily map their contributions to student retention and success.     

Assessment innovation and student experience: a new assessment challenge and call for a multi-perspective approach to assessment research

The impact of innovative assessment on student experience in higher education is a neglected research topic. This represents an important gap in the literature-given debate around the marketisation of higher education, international focus on student satisfaction measurement tools and political calls to put students at the heart of higher education in the UK. This paper reports on qualitative findings from a research project examining the impact of assessment preferences and familiarity on student attainment and experience. It argues that innovation is defined by the student, shaped by diverse assessment experiences and preferences, and therefore its impact is difficult to predict. It proposes that future innovations must explore assessment choice mechanisms which allow students to shape their own assessments. Cultural change and staff development will be required to achieve this. To be accepted, assessment for student experience must be viewed as a complementary layer within a complex multi-perspective model of assessment, which also embraces assessment of learning, assessment for learning and assessment for lifelong learning. Further research is required to build a meta-theory of assessment to enhance the synergies between these alternative approaches and minimise the tensions between them.     

Teaching and learning cultures in higher education: a mismatch in conceptions

ABSTRACT

Instructional approaches in higher education that foster learning based on internal values are required with the enrollment of wider and more diverse audiences. The current study explores this challenge with a focus on the relationship between students’ learning cultures and the way instructors’ view them. We interviewed 76 students and six instructors at an established academic institution. Data comprised of 210 students’ and 146 instructors’ utterances that were analyzed using mixed methods. Findings revealed a mismatch of instructors’ conceptions about the learning culture of the typical student, potentially leading to compromises in their teaching practices. We provide evidence that reciprocal relations exist between cultures of teaching and learning, contributing to the wicked challenges of rethinking the role of teachers in reinforcing passive learning cultures in undergraduate education. Adoption of internal-based values teaching approaches can help break this feedback loop.     

Addressing the wicked problem of quality in higher education: theoretical approaches and implications

This article explores the wicked problem of quality in higher education, arguing for a more robust theorising of the subject at national, institutional and local department level. The focus of the discussion rests on principles for theorising in more rigorous ways about the multidimensional issue of quality. Quality in higher education is proposed as a wicked, ill-defined problem that is under-theorised yet associated with high stakes policy-making and funding, particularly at the macro national level. Theoretical frameworks informing the quality debate in higher education are explored before proposing four sensitising concepts as potential vehicles for enhancing theory-building around quality in higher education. The article concludes by considering practical implications for governments, universities and departments grappling with the complex suite of problems associated with defining, theorising, measuring and demonstrating quality in higher education.     

A study of accounting students' motives,expectations and preparedness for higher education

Framed by the accounting education change debate and growing national concern regarding student attrition, this paper examines the perceptions of first‐year students as they commence their study of accounting at an Irish university. It explores a range of factors which impact on students' learning: their motives for entering higher education, their rationale for selecting an accounting programme, their preparedness for further study and their expectations. The findings offer accounting educators the opportunity to have a greater sensitivity to, and a better understanding of, their students. This will enable better‐informed curriculum, teaching and assessment within the accounting discipline, aiding students' transition to higher education and leading to higher quality learning.     

Does accelerating access to higher education lower its quality? The Australian experience

In the pursuit of mass higher education, fears are often expressed that the quality of higher education suffers as access is increased. This quantitative study considers three proxies of educational quality: (1) prior academic achievement of the student, (2) attrition and retention rates and (3) progression rates, to establish whether educational quality suffers when supply is significantly increased. The period of analysis (2009–2011) saw just such an increase in higher education places in Australia, as universities prepared for the removal of all caps on undergraduate domestic student places in 2012. Our analysis reveals that, whilst widening access results in more students with lower levels of academic achievement entering higher education, this does not necessarily equate to a lowering of educational quality. Furthermore, although on average student progression rates dropped slightly, retention rates actually increased in the majority of universities, suggesting high levels of student perseverance. In addition, there were already wide variations in attrition and progression rates between universities, and the changes observed between 2009 and 2011 did not lead to substantial alterations.     

论学校教育中的惩戒及其应用

惩戒的本质在于通过对学生不合范行为的制裁和规约，使学生产生对不合范行为的羞耻感和对苎苎的，重之尊感，抑制学生身上的恶性、彰显善性，从而达到教育的目的。学校教育中的运用惩戒必须注意遵循五大原则并要注意处理好几个问题。     

The role of gratitude in enhancing the relationship between doctoral research students and their supervisors

While increasing attention is being placed on the crucial importance of a positive supervisor–student relationship, few studies have investigated how to enhance this. Our paper investigates the effect of gratitude practices, proposing it brings both focus and intentionality to the student–supervisor relationship resulting in better research outcomes and, by implication, a positive impact on attrition rates. Recent research has demonstrated that increased attention to gratitude can enhance relational well-being, but only a few studies investigate the role of gratitude in the higher education context. This qualitative case study explores the impact of gratitude as an intervention, following eight Ph.D. students and their two supervisors, in the schools of physical sciences, and medicine over a six-week period of focused attention on practices of gratitude. Findings revealed that all participants noted a positive impact in the areas of communication, social and emotional well-being, as well as on the research process itself.     

The Relationship Between Institutional Expenditures and Degree Attainment at Baccalaureate Colleges

Enhancing student persistence and effectively managing financial resources present important challenges to higher education. Surprisingly, existing student persistence and attrition models offer little insight into the potential links between institutional expenditures and student persistence. This study examines the impact of institutional expenditures on 6-year cohort graduation rates at 363 Carnegie-classified Baccalaureate I and II institutions. The results suggest a positive and significant relationship between instructional and academic support expenditures and cohort graduation rates. As a result, researchers might consider ways to integrate expenditure variables into student persistence models. Institutions also might seek out ways to shift financial resources to areas that enhance student persistence and degree attainment. Additional research may serve to strengthen student persistence frameworks and improve links between persistence research and financial decisionmaking in colleges and universities.     

Design principles for addressing wicked problems through boundary crossing in higher professional education

To an increasing extent, society requires professionals to cross boundaries in order to deal with wicked problems. However, little is known about how interventions in higher professional education (HPE) foster learning through boundary crossing in the context of addressing wicked problems. Drawing upon the three-dimension model of wickedness by Head and Akkerman and Bakker’s model of the dialogical learning mechanisms of boundary crossing, this study aims to generate conjectures for design principles for the design of educational practices that will foster students’ skills for addressing wicked problems through boundary crossing. This study applied a multiple case study design addressing six existing practices in HPE. The research questions were: (1) What characteristics of wicked problems are present in the selected educational practices? (2) How does the boundary crossing take place in the selected educational practices? (3) How is student learning during boundary crossing fostered in the context of dealing with the characteristics of wicked problems? Data were derived from document study, semi-structured interviews, and observations. The study conjectures that learning experiences at boundaries in the open-ended, joint effort of addressing wicked problems should be fostered and elicited by balancing and leveraging constructive tension and by making use of boundary objects and brokers.     

Dropouts and turnover: The synthesis and test of a causal model of student attrition

The purpose of this research is to investigate the determinants of student attrition in institutions of higher education. A causal model was developed which synthesized research findings on turnover in work organizations and on student attrition. Questionnaires were distributed to university freshmen (N = 1,171). The data was analyzed using multiple regression and path analysis. The regressions produced anR ² = .36 for females and .27 for males. Findings indicate that three surrogate measures for pay were significantly related to intent to leave for both sexes and that the theories and determinants developed in research on turnover are useful in studies of student attrition.Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April 1979.     

From departure to arrival: Re-engaging students who have withdrawn from university

Despite institutional strategies to prevent student withdrawal, attrition remains a concern across higher education sectors in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. In the case of Australian universities, attrition rates have remained consistently high since 2002. Some level of attrition is inevitable, but universities can influence the circumstances and the consequences of departure. This article draws on two research projects conducted within an Australian institution. The studies confirm that withdrawing students: often leave for personal reasons; are typically young and from under-represented backgrounds; generally remain positive about higher education; and are relatively likely to return to the sector in future. Despite our findings, institutional strategies around the point of departure remain variable and, contrary to their stated intentions, departing students are rarely seen as future students by the institutions from which they withdraw. Preventive strategies need to be combined with broader institutional policies designed to re-engage and re-recruit the cohort of departed students.     

New academics negotiating communities of practice: learning to swim with the big fish

Abstract

Student evaluations of teaching constitute a recurring theme for debate within the tertiary education literature particularly in relation to validity and reliability. My aim in this paper is to highlight the dependence of student evaluative capabilities on their own beliefs and assumptions about knowledge constituting ‘ways of knowing’, which will differ from one student to the next, and to advocate that this is taken into account when evaluations of teaching are analysed and interpreted. I begin by addressing the nature of the student evaluation process, its current perceived status in higher education and in relation to student expectations in the present consumerist culture from which universities are not exempt. I then go on to focus on cognitive development implicit in higher education, and consider its impact on student expectations and consequent evaluations. Finally, I suggest that promoting an understanding of changing and developing epistemic assumptions of students should be an essential component of the explicit curriculum to the benefit of both students and lecturing staff, and recommend the exploration of more qualitative approaches to student evaluation.     

Measuring the impact of competition in local government education markets on the cognitive achievement of students

In this paper, the role of interjurisdictional competition among school districts is examined. Using 1970 California school district data and controlling for a variety of education inputs, achievement scores are found to rise as the local education market becomes more competitive. This relationship continues until a competitive threshold is reached, beyond which additional districts have no impact on achievement. It is estimated that three to four school districts per county are necessary to create a competitive market in education. These findings are consistent with similar studies examining the effect of entry in the private sector. Additionally, the results show a variety of parental, school and student inputs to be significant in “producing” student achievement.     

加纳中小学教师流动的原因及对策研究

当今世界各国基础教育普及运动已取得颇为有效的成果,学生入学率大幅提高,然而教师的高流动率成为保障基础教育质量的最大障碍。加纳教师协会及教师与教育工作者联合会针对此问题,对近千名教师开展了问卷调查,欲找出教师流动的原因,并据此提出了保留教师的建议性政策,这些意见对我国教师流动问题对策研究具有重要的启示意义。