Love, death and money are some of the reasons first-year students across the globe drop out — not to mention the academic hardships they often encounter.
The intricacies of coping at varsity — the first-year experience — are the focus of international study by the higher education sector.
In South Africa the added impetus of government subsidy allocations based on completed qualifications has forced universities to take a closer look at the throughput and retention of students.
In response to the challenge Stellenbosch University established a First-Year Academy in 2007 and the work it is doing is attracting attention across the world.
A chance meeting between Dr Ludolph Botha, senior director of the university’s division for academic support, and Dr Betty Siegel, served as an impetus. Siegel, an expert on issues affecting first-year students and a founder member of the International First-Year Experience Movement, was the longest-serving female vice-chancellor in the United States before her retirement from Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
Botha and Siegel met at a conference in Hawaii and she was invited to the Cape to advise the university about how to get the First -Year Academy to work.
With the support of Professor Chris Brink, the vice-chancellor at the time, the university began wrest-ling intensively with the elements that shape the academic performance of first-year students.
Following an initial investigation in 2005, the university realised it did not want another brick-and-mortar structure.
Brink appointed a coordinating committee to come up with an innovative solution. They set up subcommittees which looked at factors such as the role of technology, the schooling system and lecture attendance. The committee’s report was passed at the end of July 2006, the outcome of work with structures across the university, including the deans of faculties. “There were no surprises. Everyone worked together. It was a truly creative outcome,” says Botha.
The First-Year Academy targets first-year students and their parents when they arrive on campus. They are introduced to its goals and the students are told what is expected of them to achieve success in their studies.
The programme is supported by enhanced tutor and mentor systems within departments and in residences and by the establishment of teaching and learning coordinating points within each faculty — a role often taken on by existing faculty committees.
The “out-of-class” experience is also important. Dr Susan van Schalkwyk, coordinator of the First-Year Academy, says: “This year the res-ed programme trained almost 400 student mentors to work in small groups with both the residential and commuter or non-residential students.”
Against this network of academic support structures, the First-Year Academy uses early assessment as a core strategy. This means that within the first six weeks of study every first-year student is assessed in each of the modules he/she is enrolled for. Their marks appear on the student portal. “If the student obtained 70% and the class average is 75% the student can confront the question: Where am I?,” she says.
Lecturers and faculties screen the marks to get an overview of students’ achievements. “If a student is failing all modules, there is a problem. But if a student is doing well in all the modules and failing only one then a lecturer could, for example, start looking at the factors that could have impacted on achievement,” says Van Schalkwyk.
Parents and guardians of students can then take timeous remedial action to prevent the student from dropping out. “We provide parents with information on how to read the results and make it clear that no one fails solely because of these results — although they can contribute to a final mark for the module,” says Van Schalkwyk.
The university is conducting a four-year longitudinal study to track the impact of the early assessment strategy. “It would be dangerous to comment on the success or failure at this time. But there is no doubt that the level of debate and dialogue about first-year issues has increased — and that alone is a positive deve-lopment,” she says.
Research is under way to establish a model to predict academic success and assess the effect of large classes on student achievement.
Van Schalkwyk points out that the First-Year Academy is not only about struggling students. “One of our concerns has been that the top performers should not fall out of the loop. We look at first-year students holistically and we want to create a place for each first year.”
This led to an awards ceremony at which the top 30 first-year students across each faculty were selected and each had to write to the lecturer who had the greatest influence on them during their first year. The lecturer, in turn, had to write back explaining the student’s success. The lecturers and students were honoured at a dinner hosted by vice-chancellor Professor Russel Botman.
The First-Year Academy is not planning many additions to its current initiatives. “The original idea was quite a big idea,” says Van Schalkwyk. “The year 2007 was about getting everything in place. I like to think this year is about picking the fruits of the trees we planted.”
A search for solutions
A conference to look at ways to improve the performance of first-year university students will be held at Stellenbosch University from September 8 to 10.
Locally and internationally many first-year students struggle to cope with the transition from school to university as they may not have been adequately prepared for this new level of study. According to research, both academic and non-academic factors contribute to academic performance.
The First Southern African Conference on the First-Year Experience will look at topics such as thinking skills development; assessment strategies for first years; using information and communication technology to track, profile and individually help students; and what is academic literacy when it’s in my classroom?
In the thinking skills development workshop, for example, delegates will be guided to discover the relevance of optimising the cognitive development of first-year students. Participants will be introduced to a wide range of thinking skills development strategies and programmes that can be used in a higher education context to achieve this.
The keynote speaker is Dr Pieter Dietsche of the University of Toronto, while presenters include Dr Hanelie Adendorff of Stellenbosch University and Dr Sioux McKenna of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.