THE SURPRISING EARLY INDICATOR OF FIRST YEAR UNI SUCCESS
NOVEMBER 2022
The dropout rate among first year students at South African universities has long been a cause for concern, with little improvement in the trends annually despite attempts by universities to address the problem.
Now, new research has revealed a surprising – and surprisingly simple – early indicator of the future success of a student and has led to the development of a programme to support students during their first weeks to build those skills that will better prepare them to make the transition from school to higher education.
After observing a trend apparently correlating to successful studies down the line, two academics from The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE), SA’s leading private higher education provider, this year launched a research project to determine which factors were likely to be early indicators of first year students’ ability to get to grips with university academics.
And it turned out that whether a student handed in their first assignment completed and on time, was a high indicator of their readiness and likely success.
The research resulted after two academics of The IIE engaged with students who failed to hand in their initial assignments, with most saying the reason for non-submission was “running out of time”. It was also considered that the reason for non-submission may have been as a result of not knowing what to do (lacking the requisite academic skills) and the fallout from the lockdown era.
“After these observations, a large research project was launched, the results of which were presented at this year’s IIE symposium of Teaching and Learning, which provided an opportunity for our researchers to share their research on ways of informing best practices in terms of teaching and learning,” says Dr Gillian Mooney, Dean: Academic Support and Development at The IIE.
The research project – An investigation into the Effectiveness of a Soft Skills Support Programme for Students Entering Tertiary Education – was conducted by Dr Mooney in conjunction with IIE academics Mary Robinson and Twané Lottering.
It found that AUTONOMY was a major factor in the success of students, but that many students lacked the ability to take responsibility for their own learning.
Their findings and recommendations are likely to make a significant impact on the readiness of undergraduate students where additional support as indicated is introduced by higher education institutions.
“There is a long tradition emphasising the need to manage the transition between school and university, and this management traditionally requires the development of academic and socio-emotional skills. More recently, the need to intervene is considered to be even more important due to the relationship between technology and teaching,” notes Dr Mooney.
“What we have seen is that the use of technology as well as the lockdowns have resulted in the need to even more closely manage BOTH academic and socio- emotional integration into university life.”
Dr Mooney notes that while it is well understood that there is a substantial paradigm shift required when moving from high school – where much motivation is still extrinsic and coming from authority figures such as teachers and parents – to university, where intrinsic motivation and autonomy are required, few interventions to date have been able to measurably provide students with the so-called soft skills they need to succeed.
However, flowing from The IIE’s research, a programme was introduced that is notching up the successes. Issues addressed in the programme presented to first years during their first weeks in uni include how to work with resources, how to adjust to a student mindset, time management, understanding assessments, reading and research, presentation skills and future planning, among others.
A survey before and after indicated a mindshift on the part of students towards greater autonomy. For instance:
· Before the programme, 45% of students believed lecturers were responsible for their success compared to 22% after the programme.
· Before, 79% of first years believed it was the duty of lecturers to ensure students submit work on time, compared to 31% thereafter.
· Initially, 79% of students considered it acceptable to get other students to complete or do part of their projects or assignments for them, compared to 19% after the programme.
“As a result of our identification of objective indicators of success early on, combined with the development of the programme which assists students to make the leap from a school mindset to a higher education one, there has been a clear impact on students’ personal growth and academic readiness. We have seen this as more of them understood their responsibilities on their path to success.
“As an added bonus, the Empower Programme, as it is now called, leveraged peer learning run by senior students to help their freshmen peers settle into campus life as soon as possible, which means the programme was also of benefit to senior students.”
Dr Mooney says she believes that this latest research is helping to close the gap between the knowledge that students need additional support, and the actual support that will get them set for study success.
“Research has shown that a student’s autonomy and their ability to manage their time to do more complex work, combined with their academic research skills are essential to university success. We are delighted and confident to have founded an early-intervention programme which holds much promise for success for young students of the future across our 32 campuses nationwide.”