Adding value to students in higher education: a 5-year analysis of student attainment of National Governing Body Awards in a UK Outdoor Education Degree Programme

Recent interest in ways of assessing the performance and ‘value-added’ aspects of higher education and how universities can enhance graduate employability skills has prompted this study into the acquisition of National Governing Body Award (NGBA) qualifications by students on a UK outdoor education degree programme. Students' age, gender, academic and NGBA qualifications, short-term and long-term goals on entry and after each year of study were compiled for students on the BSc (Hons) Outdoor and Environmental Education course at Liverpool John Moores University (n?=?151 students from five cohorts, 1998–2002). Some 78% of entrants held at least one NGBA with 36%, 9% and 2% holding ≥5, ≥10 and ≥15 NGBAs, respectively, and 100% of graduates held at least one NGBA with 57%, 35% and 8% holding ≥5, ≥10 and ≥15 NGBAs, respectively. Students with non-A-level entry held more NGBAs than students who entered with A-levels but A-level entry students gained NGBAs at a faster rate than those without A-levels. There was no clear relationship between students' age and either the number of NGBAs held on entry, or the number gained during the programme. There was a weak inverse relationship between the number of NGBAs that students held on entry and the number gained while on the programme. The data offer virtually no evidence that the pursuit and acquisition of NGBAs' impacts on students' academic achievement as measured by the class of degree that they are awarded. Comparisons of A-level entry points with final degree class showed surprisingly similar distributions in all classes except for first class awards, where students with A-level entry performed twice as well. Males held a significantly greater number of NGBAs on entry than females (mean of 4.8 compared to 2.9) but once on the programme, the achievements of males and females are equal. Analysis of 57 students' short-term and long-term goals showed that 74% and 72% of students specifically stated their intention to achieve NGBAs in their short-term and long-term goals, respectively, with 50% fully achieving their short-term goals by the end of the programme. Students who are good at setting achievable goals and have well-developed time management and study skills are more likely to be successful in courses such as this, which are demanding, require a lot of hours outside the formal class contact time, and require high level decision-making skills to be able to manage successfully conflicts in time and resources.