HIGHER EDUCATION IN VARANASI & ATTITUDE OF STUDENTS FOR

CHOOSING THE COLLEGE

CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION
This project attempted to investigate aspects of the lifestyles, expectations and
attitudes of students for choosing college. These emerged as under-researched areas
during the earlier survey of literature on student retention which was carried out for
the Student Affairs Committee. In addition, they were not currently the subject of
extensive investigation elsewhere within the institute.

Education plays an important role in the development of a nation. Education is a very
important part of economy. It is said to an investment in human being. Perhaps this is
the reason that every nation tries his best to develop the strategy of education.

Education Primary Right:

Education is the primary right of every child in a democratic society. We have made a
law to provide free and compulsory education up to the age of fourteen i.e. up to
middle standard level. An uneducated man can neither be a good citizen nor good
parents. He is ignorant and superstitious. Deprived of knowledge, he falls in the
darkness of ignorance and becomes a victim of evil social practices. The problem of
drop-outs at primary level is quite serious poor parents force their children to stay at
home and look after younger kids. Some are compelled to work as child laborers in
homes, shops restaurants and factories. More community centers and adult education
centers have to be opened to educate man and woman who were deprived of the fruits
of education during their formative years. Our aim should bet to provide education to
all the people of India.

It is a very important question in the field of education what type of education should
be given? This is a reality that ours means of education are limited but our needs are
unlimited. So it should be decide that which type of education should be given. So
national policy of education 1986 has announced the system of education. There have
been many proposals for the introduction of education in school. Some of them have
been tried success and are going on well.

The objectives of the project were to present a realistic and up-to-date of student
characteristics, to identify aspects of these which might make students vulnerable to
withdrawal or failure, and to identify the sort of student best practice which fosters
success and which could form the basis of efforts to support students who are at risk
of dropping out.
A questionnaire was sent to students, requesting information about their family
background, accommodation, part-time work, study habits, attitudes, expectations of
institute and experiences during their course of study. A small number of students
were also interviewed in greater depth on these topics. In order to compare staff
perceptions of students with the picture that emerged from the students themselves, a
questionnaire was circulated to staff and several staff were interviewed about their
view of students.

CHAPTER 2
Literature review: central topics

A literature review was undertaken to provide context for the experimental findings.
This indicated that it is important to consider the whole student experience when
investigating student satisfaction and retention. Studies of student retention rarely
identify one single factor as explaining withdrawal, and where such simplistic
answers are proposed, they are rarely reliable. A recent development in the retention
literature is a focus on what goes right for successful students, and on ways of
building this information into retention activities.

Two conflicting strands of argument emerge over the discussion of student rather
than institutional factors in explaining student withdrawal. One states that students
with similar personal circumstances and academic experiences can show radically
different levels of satisfaction and retention, and that therefore it is wise to look at
individual factors such as preparation and motivation. The other condemns this sort
of approach as victim blaming, convenient only for the institutions which can then
evade their responsibilities. Instead, institutions should examine themselves in order
to explain retention rates. Most realistic studies of retention, not surprisingly, combine
these approaches.

One individual factors which has been identified is academic preparedness for
institutes. Well-prepared students have realistic expectations about course content,
required study skills, teaching methods and aspects of non-academic life, such as
social contacts and finance. In particular, an appreciation of the need for independent
learning skills and good personal time management seem to be important. Where
students are badly prepared, it is possible to overcome this through induction
activities and study support. However, these efforts require individual contact and a
willingness on the part of the student to engage with the process. Both of this require
institutional resources and a basic level of student motivation.

Feedback and student centred learning approaches are also valuable in supporting
student satisfaction and retention. For these to work well it is essential that students
and staff agree on academic values and on the definition and purpose of activities and
assignments. Dialogue and mutual respect between students and staff are needed. This
academic integration is essential, but also resource-intensive, especially with current
staff:student ratios.
A number of practical factors in the student experience are identified as crucial to
retention. One of these is accommodation, with several studies noting that students
who live in institute accommodation show better levels of achievement, satisfaction
and persistence than those who live at home or in privately rented housing. This is
presumably because Halls of Residence offer an opportunity to build an academic and
social community where the institute experience is central to most members.
The literature on student characteristics and attitudes is small. One important point
which emerges from this is the enormous diversity of the student population, and the
unreality of talking about students as if they were a uniform group. Many authors
suggest that the range of beliefs about institute among students has increased in recent
years, with some showing a high level of academic orientation and motivation, and
others feeling disengaged and alienated, or attempting to get as many marks as
possible for as little effort.
Student self-perceptions have been investigated in a number of studies. Again, these
are very diverse. In general, students tend to lack a discourse around skills and
education in general; it can be difficult for them to reflect effectively on their
educational experience. Often student perceptions of their institute experience are
influenced as much by their expectations and beliefs as by what they actually do or
encounter. This is particularly true of workload.
Some work on the experience of non-traditional students has been undertaken in
relation to widening participation efforts. Again, an enormous diversity emerges here.
Some studies find that non-traditional students are more likely to thrive in universities
where elements of their social integration have been effectively addressed, inside and
outside the classroom. Others proposed that teaching methods and even course
content may need to be modified to make universities truly inclusive. First-generation
students are identified as being especially vulnerable because they lack the informal
support and information networks offered by graduate parents, siblings and friends.
Student motivation is mentioned in several studies as a key factor in retention. It has
been investigated by several researchers, who have examined both long term
motivations for institute entry (e.g. career aspirations) and short term motivations
which will determine the effort put in to day to day tasks on a course. Both carer
prospects and subject interest are important in motivating students to go to institute in
the first place, although the former seems to be named by more students. Overall,
motivations which might be paraphrased as learning for learnings sake are rarer,
although many student state these.
Motivation, on a day to day basis, will be determined by the meaning which students
attach to individual tasks and to the academic enterprise as a whole. It will also be
influenced by their levels of satisfaction with all aspects of the course, from inherent
interest in the subject through relations with lecturers to satisfaction with teaching
methods and facilities. Types and timing of assessment can also have an effect on
motivation. In general, students who have confidence in their own abilities will show
higher levels of motivation.
One of the biggest challenges to student retention is the emergence of the strategic
student, who sets out to minimize effort and maximize results. This attitude, and the
need to cater for this group of students in an age of quality management and
performance evaluation, may contribute to reportedly rising levels of academic staff
dissatisfaction.
Interaction with students, and the resultant student integration, is made even more
difficult where there are gaps in culture between staff and students, or where staff
and students have different underlying but unspoken assumptions about HE.

CHAPTER 3

EDUCATION IN VARANASI

India Education has the wide varieties of Education System and divides into 3 big
sections like primary education, secondary education and higher education.

Classification of Indian Education System:
1. Primary Education:

In the policy 1986, a law is made to provide free, compulsory education up to the age
of fourteen i.e. up to middle standard for example : reading, writing, simple
mathematics and some knowledge about our country and society, these are some basic
concept of education. Also all these are some basic needs to become a good citizen
and to get higher education. This is a fact that the investment in the primary education
proves very beneficial in future. So our government gives very importance to primary
education.

2. Secondary Education:

After giving the knowledge about the basic concept of education, secondary education
should also be given. There is no need that this type of education should be given to
all. This type of education includes vocational education. Our government has
established some training centers to give this type of education.

3. Higher Education:

Higher education is a very important part of a development nation. This type of
education is given in colleges, universities and in training centers. It also includes
technical education. But it should be given to a few people.

Thus we want to give the primary education to all, secondary education to some
people. Means of education should be divided according to primary, secondary and
higher education. Thus secondary and primary education should be quantitative and
higher education should be quantitative.

Higher education in India starts after the higher Secondary or 12th standard. While it
takes 3 years for completing a B.A., B.Sc or B.Com pass or honors degree from a
college in India, pursuing an engineering course would take four years and five years
(with six months of additional compulsory internship)for completing a bachelor of
medicine or bachelor of law degree. Postgraduate courses generally are of two years
duration. But there are some courses like Master of Computer Application (MCA)
that are of three years duration. For those who cannot afford to attend regular classes
for various preoccupations can pursue correspondence courses from various Open
Universities and distance learning institutes in India.

BENEFITS OF DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION
The benefit of development of education is not reachable to the common peoples. It is
reachable only to some special persons or rich people. All this is because only of
commercial legation of education. A class of some selfish categorical teachers has
been introducing in the field of education. But it is very necessary the teacher and
educated person should be more responsible and liable to spread their educational
knowledge to the poor students and masses. They should not pay their special
attention to some special class students and rich persons. They should try their best to
educate the poor students, children and adults. The benefits of education should be
reachable to the each and every education willing person.
In the last, we can say that an uneducated person can neither be a good citizen nor
a good parent. He is ignorant and superstitions. Deprived of knowledge he falls in the
darkness of ignorance. Thus education is a very necessary part of our life. Education
is right for every child so education should be provided to all.

EDUCATION SYSTEM IN VARANASI:

As far as Varanasi is concerned, it is one of the oldest cities of the world holding a
high place in virtue of education. Education is primary of every child in a democratic
society.

Education is the future of our country. It is distressing to find that during all these
years of our independence we have been merely dabbling in schemes and projects, in
new-fangled ideas mostly borrowed from the west, merely setting up commission
after commission at the cost of lacs or rupees and let matters rest at that. The drive,
the initiative, the dynamic vision necessary for radical reforms in the sphere of
education is lamentably conspicuous by their absence. We have allowed matters to
drift aimlessly, instead of setting down to grapple with momentous issues. The result
has been disastrous. A life less, mechanical system of teaching in overcrowded
schools and colleges imposed by far from competent teachers on students whose only
interest is to get through examination, has been the bane of our education. We have
completely forgotten the simple yet vital truth that the aim of education is first to
build up character in the widest sense and then to impart knowledge.

Here, an educated man is called upon to master more than one language. An educated
Indian requires the mastery of an international language. The educated Indian should
be able to read and write in many languages.





CHAPTER 4




VARIOUS INSTITUTES IN VARANASI



SMS VARANASI







SHEPA, Varanasi

















BHU, Varanasi














KIT, Varanasi



















MAHATMA GANDHI KASHI VIDYAPEETH, Varanasi























SANSKRIT VIDYALAYA, Varanasi












CHAPTER 5

CONCEPT OF THE STUDY

The plan for this Survey of Student Attitudes, arose out of the Survey of Background
Literature on Student Retention which was presented to the SAC in March 2004, and
out of my work with students in the School of Informatics between 2001 and 2003.
From this work, three crucial issues for student retention emerged. These are as
follows:

Student expectations of institute. Several studies argue that students may
leave institute if their expectations are unmet, or turn out to have been
unrealistic. This was a common theme in the exit interviews carried out in
the School of Informatics, and researchers at a wide range of institutions
report similar findings. It is also proposed that students reported experiences
of institute may relate at least as closely to how it compares to their
expectations as to what they actually encounter.
Student motivation. The word motivation arises in many discussions of
student retention and student life, but there is surprisingly little research on
how motivation can be supported. There is even some confusion over
precisely what is meant by the term. However, it is almost certainly true that
this is an important factor in determining student experiences and decisions
about whether or not to continue with a course. In the first place, low
motivation is frequently cited by students who are opting out of coursework or
attendance, or considering withdrawal. In addition, a repeated finding in the
literature is that withdrawing students include many reactive entrants to
higher education, who can be assumed to have relatively low levels of certain
kinds of motivation. A key task may be the differentiation of different types of
motivation, and of the ways in which these can be fostered among students.
Student lifestyles and student experiences. Both of the above issues can be
seen as closely related to Tintos well-established thesis that students who
achieve a good degree of academic and social integration (or an exceptionally
high degree of one or the other of these) are the least likely to withdraw from
higher education unless they are affected by a serious external crisis.

I have explored these in relation to the notion of culture around higher education,
both within the institution and in the wider society in which individual universities
and the higher education system exist. This can be seen to underlie the three central
concerns of this project. Student expectations will be shaped by the complex and
conflicting cultural status of universities in modern British society. Their experience
when confronted with the reality of a particular institution will form their decisions
about how to proceed with their higher education, and the same is probably true of
their levels and types of motivation. And if we are to examine their involvement and
integration with an institution, it is essential that the culture of that institution is
understood. It is inevitable, even desirable, that staff and students in a changing and
diverse institution such will have different ideas about what a institute is and what it
should offer to, and expect from, its students and staff. However, underlying cultural
beliefs are rarely articulated, and differences which are not recognised, acknowledged
and managed can lead to problems of communication and practice. This report
attempts to provide some framework for discussion of this matter.
I did not investigate any of the following matters in detail, because they are the
subject of extensive work by other groups within the institute: guidance tutoring,
orientation and induction, recruitment and pre-entry activities, student finance, part-
time employment, diversity issues. Inevitably, however, many of them have arisen in
passing.
LITERATURE REVIEW

A substantial quantity of literature on the topics considered in this study was surveyed
in the first report submitted to the SAC, and this has not, for reasons of space, been re-
examined here. However, I have included references where parts of that report are
particularly relevant.

There is a large literature on student retention, but writings student expectations of HE
are surprisingly few. This is noted by some of the authors cited in the first report, e.g.
Ozga and Sukhnandan 1998, Martinez 2001, Roddan 2002. Many students who
withdraw state that the course isnt what I expected or draw attention aspects of their
academic or social lives which come as a surprise. However, it is difficult to find
much work on precisely what students do expect. Where this exists, it may relate only
to particular sections of the student community (e.g. mature-age students, students
from low-participation neighbourhoods), or even to young people who have decided
not to enter higher education (e.g. Payne 2003), sometimes on the basis of very
mistaken beliefs.
Student attitudes and experiences, however, are reasonably well documented by the
many surveys of student satisfaction which are now established. Students are asked to
report on [their perceptions of] teaching quality, their workload, levels of difficulty,
availability of academic and non-academic support, their interest in the subject, the
teaching methods and materials they encounter, and their experience of assessment.
Their views on accommodation, student union facilities, ICT and library provision
and of their financial welfare are also sought. All of these are now examined in a
national student survey, but they have long been a key part of departmental and
institutional reviews in many institutions.
It is, therefore, relatively easy to find percentage scores indicating the proportion of
students in an institution who are very satisfied, satisfied, neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied etc. with the elements of institute life considered salient within the
standard survey design, and this information is, of course, invaluable in setting policy
within an HEI or the HE system. However, it is far harder to find information about
precisely what a student means when s/he evaluates aspects of their institute
experience. Is a good seminar session one which students will be unable to
appreciate fully without some preliminary reading, and in which they are required to
take part in activities where they engage with the tutor and their peers? Or is it one
where they can exercise their personal choice to turn up entirely unprepared and write
down an occasional sentence without having to think too hard? Is a good lecture one
in which the student learns only things which s/he believes are directly relevant to a
future career, or one in which potentially interesting concepts or skills of which s/he
has never even heard are introduced? The growing literature on excellence and
professionalism in HE teaching defines these qualities, but students may not always
share their criteria
1
.

There is a small but growing literature, however, which takes a more discursive
approach to student lifestyles and the student experience
2
, and to student attitudes
towards their role and their universities. The relative rarity of such studies may arise
partly because, if they are to include sufficiently exploratory interviews, they risk
either being prohibitively expensive to undertake, or of using too small a sample to
qualify their conclusions as truly representative. However, I have examined some of
the work which does exist.

1
I was brought up forcibly against this sort of question during my last years as a lecturer, when one student
graded my lectures as unsatisfactory and explained that this was because the lecturer was too enthusiastic. A
colleague at another institution, who regularly received an aggregate assessment from her students indicating
that she was an outstanding teacher, received poor assessments from two students who said she didnt tell us
enough and expected us to do too much for ourselves in seminars.

2
Andrew Shiptons work, at the Institute of Northumbria, is an outstanding example.
One fact which emerges clearly from this work is that it is almost completely
meaningless to talk about students as a uniform group. The student body is now so
large and diverse that even among the apparently homogenous young post-A-level
group there is an enormous variety of aspiration, interest and attitude to almost every
aspect of student life. Diversity exists not only between groups such as UK and
overseas, able-bodied students and students with disabilities, students from different
ethnic groups, young and mature-age students or even advantaged students and
those from low participation neighbourhoods and/or poor homes. A rich complexity
of factors determines what an individual brings to institute and what she or he will get
out of it. Two dimensions of diversity which I decided to examine in the questionnaire
are student generation and choice of academic subject; one which emerged as more
important than I had anticipated was gender.

The exception to my complaint about the paucity of materials is in the area of finance,
where a number of extensive studies on students financial attitudes as well as their
circumstances have been carried out in recent years. This is reported in a separate
report presented today.

Another area where it proved difficult to find a great deal of secondary reading was
student motivation. This is partly because the literature on human motivation in
general is fairly small. Where it does exist it relates largely to compelled activities
such as paid work (there is a large literature on employee motivation), which does not
translate particularly easily to the case of students whose work is largely unsupervised
and essentially elective. The work on student motivation is also problematic because
of the special complexity in this area with regard to motivations which may be distant
(e.g. future employment prospects) and/or vague (e.g. a good job or a well-paid
job). However, what is essential for student retention and satisfaction is a way of
motivating students immediately to take a full part in their course of study. In
addition, the motivation of students to work hard is perhaps uniquely subject to
factors which are outside the control of their tutors.

Many theorists, from Aquinas on, have written about what the culture of a institute
is, and what it should be. A full survey of this literature would be far beyond my remit
or ability, but I have addressed three of the issues which are particularly important for
student retention.

The first is the potential for mismatches, largely tacit, in the beliefs of [some] students
and [some] HEIs, or sections within these, about what a institute is and/or should be.
Where these arise, it is unlikely that students will engage in behaviours which foster
their success within the institution, and it may be difficult for the institution to offer
appropriate support to the student. The literature on this topic includes a discussion of
ways in which there may be a particular danger of such mismatches in the era of
widening participation.
A second concern is the status of fee-paying students as customers of the institutes.
This is a highly controversial piece of terminology, which Sir Howard Newby
described as extreme in 2001 but which by 2003 was used with little qualification in
the White Paper The Future of Higher Education. In Varanasi, a strident debate
continues over whether students should be called, and treated as, customers, and there
are signs that a similar situation may arise in the UK. My concern was to examine
some of the implications of this language and the expectations which its use may
engender in students, administrators and academics.
The third issue, related to both of the above, is the way in which the wider society
regards higher education and helps to shape the expectations which students bring to
institute. Like the previous ones, this is potentially controversial. It is also difficult to
find hard evidence, because the problem is rather precisely that uninformed opinions
rather than hard evidence are what is under discussion. Nevertheless this is an
important matter because it is at the root of many student attitudes, and also attitudes
among the general public to HE policy.




CHAPTER 6
APPROACHES OF STUDENTS

2:1 Student perceptions and the student experience

2:1:1 Holistic approaches to the student experience

Elements of the student experience teaching quality, social relationships, satisfaction
with the physical environment, practical details of organisation etc. are often
discussed as if they are quite distinct from one another. Such a separation is a
practical necessity in the management of a institute or department, but it does not
reflect the reality of student life. A common perception among researchers who work
with the narratives of individual students is that apparently discrete aspects of their
experience actually bleed into one another. Where the student is considering
withdrawal, this may mean that the reasons for leaving are unclear to the researcher
and possibly also to the student him/herself. Different sometimes radically different
rationalisations can emerge on different occasions, or in conversations with different
people, and the outcome of a tick box questionnaire can contradict entirely the
account offered in an interview. For example, one student who had gone into great
detail about his dislike of course content and of his privately rented accommodation
concluded the discussion by saying of course, it would all have been fine if I hadnt
been so worried about money all the time. Another realised that her unhappiness with
the physical environment of the institute diminished her enjoyment of lectures whose
content she in fact considered fascinating, while a third identified his reason for not
making friends as being rooted in an unwillingness to commit to a subject about
which he felt highly ambivalent.

In addition to this, students have been shown to evaluate their overall experience, and
to make their decision about whether to stay or to leave, on the basis of a complex
cost-benefit analysis (LS1, 20). Some of the factors involved will be extremely
practical ones, such as quality of organisation on a particular course, ease of
commuting to campus, and using institute facilities such as IT and libraries. Others
will be harder to define, such as teaching quality, coherence of curriculum, and
social integration. Most importantly, both of these groups will be mediated by the
attitudes and expectations brought to institute by the individual student, as well as
their personal interests, tastes, and stage of development. For students who decide to
leave, something arguably goes wrong in the balance between these disparate
elements, while it can be assumed that those who stay find a path through the
complexity that in some way works for them. It may work exceedingly well, as it
did at the end of the first year for the students interviewed in this project, or it may
just about come out alright, as seemed to be the case at some earlier stage of their
careers.

One solution to this complexity which emerges in recent work on student retention is
to research students who do not withdraw alongside those who depart. In other words,
researchers have increasingly chosen to look at the range of factors which make up
the student experience for all students, in an attempt to see what goes right. For a
long time, the potential of a strong retention strategy to improve the experience and
achievement of all students has been noted by organisations such as Noel-Levitz.
Rather less positively, many student advisers who work in this field have noted that
the extent of their success is very difficult to measure, because it is impossible to
know whether a particular individual actually would have dropped out.

Where stayers are investigated alongside leavers, their characteristics turn out to
be remarkably similar. This approach is remarkably new in the field of student
retention, as Christie et al (2004) note in their article comparing students at two very
different Scottish institutions, Heriot Watt and Glasgow Caledonian Universities.
They suggest that the reasons for withdrawal should be sought as much in the way
students experience their circumstances as in the circumstances themselves, because
similar circumstances [may] become unbearable for one student but not for another
(2004, 618).

In this report, I have borrowed extensively from the methodology used in this study.

Christie et al (2004) found that among their subjects, no single reason emerged as
being particularly important in tipping the scales towards a decision to leave. The
most common factor named was the rather vague problems with course, although
this was cited by less than a quarter of students who withdrew. The physical
environment of the institute ranked surprisingly high, although this may relate to the
rather unusual situation at the two institutions surveyed: one is situated on a small and
isolated campus, while the other occupies several large, somewhat anonymous
buildings in one of the shabbier parts of a busy city centre. After this came lack of
motivation (see below), financial pressures and family problems. Fewer than 10% of
students mentioned health or housing issues, and the offer of a job proved crucial for a
only a very small number
3
(Christie et al 2004, 622). Christie et al (2004) note that
students will usually under-represent their own academic difficulties (623), which can
also be assumed to play a part.

In an earlier work, Thomas (2002, 423) describes many of her subjects as having
external circumstances (financial hardship and long part-time working hours) appear
to make them extremely vulnerable to withdrawal. However, their interviews show
them to be satisfied and committed students who are unlikely to leave institute. A
similar group are described by Winn (2:5:11, below).

There appear to be two crucial (and related) ingredients which operate as an antidote
to a potentially poisonous mixture of external forces. Neither of these is entirely
within the control of the institute, but neither is entirely outside it. One the more

3
Christie et al noted some interesting differences between advantaged and disadvantaged students
who left, with the former group citing course or motivational problems more frequently than the latter
(25% as opposed to 18% for course problems, and 17% rather than 15% for motivation). This
contradicts some standard approaches to the characteristics of widening participation students (LS1,
34-6), although it is similar to the findings of both the questionnaire and the staff interviews used in
this project.
difficult of the two to describe and to foster is undoubtedly student motivation,
which is discussed in 2:5 below. The other is the oldest chestnut of all in student
retention literature, the extent to which the student feels that s/he belongs within their
institute, their course, and higher education itself. If a student feels comfortable,
welcome and happy in these places, then s/he is unlikely to elect to leave them. If
external circumstances threaten that sense of belonging, then the students first
response will probably be to protect it rather than to hasten its loss. Additionally, s/he
is likely to engage in a set of behaviours which match and support their identity as a
student, such as effective study and regular attendance.

Christie et al (2004) highlight the importance of this latter type of factor:

the extent to which the decision to continue in the face of financial (and
other) difficulties is intrinsically related to the quality of relationships with
other students, tutors and support staff, and the extent to which students
feel they belong to the institute.
Christie et al 2004, 633

They suggest that if relationships are good and the students feeling of belonging is
strong, practically any bad circumstance can be ameliorated. Christie et al also point
out that their work reinforces Tintos view that curriculum and social life are
inextricably linked in the experience of students. Breen (1999, 3), identifies four
dimensions of quality in teaching and learning (curricula coherence and sequencing,
development of critical perspective in students, connecting learning material to other
disciplines and levels of inclusiveness of student minorities), but also points out that
the attitudes, beliefs and values of students are essential. These will themselves be
among the elements of the student which undergo transformation at institute ( in
addition to pure knowledge, social norms and values are an important part of the
conceptual framework of academic disciplines, Breen 199, 3). In other words, for
student identification to be truly achieved, they need to engage with these internal
aspects of higher education as well as the more obvious externals.

Grayson (2003) suggests that a similarly holistic approach underlies effective
induction, describing the assumptions underlying successful American first year
curricula as follows:

with student pre-college traits (e.g. high-school grades) held constant,
coursework and curricular patterns, positive classroom experiences, and
positive out-of-class experiences (that collectively can be viewed as
institutional experiences) contribute to various learning outcomes such as
the development of analytic, communication, personal, organising, math
and computer skills; and the acquisition of subject matter expertise
Grayson 2003, 411-412

Many writers link this strand in the retention literature to Tintos work. Braxton et al
(2000, p.570) quote his view that social integration must occur in the classroom,
which operates as the gateway to the college. Similarly, Jansen (2004, p. 413) points
out that curriculum organisation is given relatively little attention in discussions of
retention, despite Tintos insistence on its importance. This strand of argument
strengthens the case made in LS1 that it is important to integrate social and academic
experiences for students, a position which is also supported by the student interviews
reported below.
In this project, I have used the experiences of retained students to investigate factors
relating to student retention. I have also examined correlations between aspects of the
academic and non-academic experiences of students.

2:1:2 Academic preparedness and study skills

Many writers stress that this is one area in which the expectations which students
bring to institute are absolutely key. Breen suggests that the problem is widespread,
and that it relates both to general study skills and to the students relationship with the
culture of the particular academic discipline which s/he enters:

It is plausible that many students enter Higher Education with ill-
conceived ideas of what it really means to study their discipline in their
chosen institute. If this is taken to be true, then a discrepancy exists
between expectations (and motivations) and experiences, this will
undoubtedly lead to withdrawal, failure or the development of
inappropriate approaches to learning.
Breen 1999, 13

This is a useful restatement of the importance of a good level of student preparedness
for institute (LS1, 17, 56-8, 93). Perhaps this factor explains the high levels of
retention among Thomas subjects, despite the relatively high levels of disadvantage
experienced by some of them. Thomas found that among her interviewees, the
majority felt academically either quite well or very well prepared to study in
HE (2002, 434).

Thomas suggests that this is an area in which the institute can address uncertainties:

Even students who were not well prepared for HE in a traditional sense
(i.e. with high A level scores) seemed to feel supported by inclusive
teaching and learning approaches, which is responsive to the varying
levels of academic preparedness.
Thomas 2002, 434

The key terms here are inclusive and varying. Several authors, including Andrew
Shipton in his work at the Institute of note that when lectures are perceived as being
too easy or as repeating material or techniques which students had encountered at A-
level, there is a danger that the more knowledgeable, confident or able individuals
may get bored.

A related trend was noted in the School of Informatics. Here, students took a first year
course which was intended to allow them to learn computer science even if they had
no former experience whatsoever in this field. In practice, while some undergraduates
were in this position, a number had previously studied in the field at levels from
GCSE to A-level or even HND. A few of these students elected to miss lectures
during the first semester because they felt that they had already done the work
covered in these. This sounds reasonable, but during the second semester they began
to miss lectures in subjects which were new to them, and several of these apparently
well-qualified students later withdrew or failed units. Students who feel that the
course is going too slowly for them may cease to attend and thus develop poor study
habits, or fail to integrate.
Thomas equation of preparedness with A-level score is not unquestionable. A
student who does well at A-level may have acquired excellent study skills.
Alternatively, s/he may have been very effectively prepared by a highly supportive
secondary school, without having acquired a strong ability to learn independently.
The willingness to take responsibility for ones own learning is an essential part of
institute study, and helping students to acquire the skills and confidence to do this is
key to both satisfaction and retention.

In this project, I examined student expectations and beliefs about independent
learning.

Approaches to teaching which encourage students to undertake active learning are
often recommended as increasing student satisfaction, and also promoting a good
understanding of subject material. Braxton et al (2000, 571) quote evidence that
active learning enhances student knowledge and understanding of course content.
Their caution against identifying academic integration with active learning is wise;
it is easy to imagine a student who feels academically integrated but whose
approaches to learning are actually quite passive (consider the analogy of an avid
viewer of Match of the Day who has not kicked a football for a decade). However, the
reverse is probably a much safer position to adopt. A student who is encouraged to
participate in classes which use active learning techniques will almost per force
encounter a degree of academic integration.
The problem with trying to get students to be proactive about their studies, inside and
outside the classroom, is that both students and staff need to buy into this approach.
Chan discusses ways of fostering autonomous learning approaches in language
students, and suggests that for these to be adopted, students need to understand what
needs to be learnt and why (Chan 2001, 286). In other words, they need not just to
know that they need to do loads of study. They need to have a sense of what it
would be like to be able to do something, or have a strong knowledge of a subject.
They also need to grasp the components of learning this.

Chan (2001) suggests that is only achieved via an explicit, and ongoing, dialogue
about what actually constitutes learning, so that students understand what they are
supposed to be doing, in a very precise and subject-specific way, as well as how they
are to do it. On their own:

autonomous learning experiences do not automatically turn dependent
learners into autonomous ones. Frequent consultations with the students
over the approach to their autonomous study are thus necessary [and]
regular student-teacher dialogue
Chan 2001, 294

One difficulty here is the lack of a register in which to discuss ways of learning
4
.
Stephenson 2003 (LS1, 89-90) found that the school pupils with whom she worked
were more or less unaware that study itself requires techniques. When asked how do
you learn?, they either offered very concrete responses (I go to school, my teacher
tells me things,), or they repeated the content of lessons which they had attended.
Nevertheless, they found the subsequent exploration of actual learning techniques and
processes fascinating.

The common element in both Chans and Stephensons approaches is small-scale
contact and discussion between students and teachers. The individual element in
Chans description, below, indicates that this may well be something that can only be
developed if there is at least some element of one-to-one contact while the discourse
itself is being developed. As with many other measures which have the potential to
increase student satisfaction and retention, this could prove quite unrealistic to
implement given current levels of resource.

Nevertheless, there are ways in which this discourse can be initiated within the
existing imperatives for higher education. Chans account of learner autonomy is as
follows:

Learner autonomy is essentially concerned with decision making on the
learners part the locus of control and responsibility lies in the hands of
the individual learner the autonomous learner accepts responsibility for
his/her own learning, is able to take charge of the learning, determine
objectives, select methods and techniques and evaluate what has been
acquired. He/she is expected to be able to make significant decisions about
what is to be learnt, how and when assuming greater responsibility for
his/her learning the autonomous learner establishes a personal agenda
for learning He/she (with or without the teachers help) is expected to
be actively involved in the setting of goals, defining content and working
out evaluation mechanisms for assessing achievement and progress
Chan 2001, 285

This is a specific and individual account of a specific and individual process, but the
skills described are actually very similar to some of those whose importance is
stressed in works on the development of employability among undergraduates, and in

4
Writers on students in ICT disciplines have observed a similar absence of a discourse around skills
among sixth-formers, who tend to confuse skills with knowledge.
related discussions of lifelong learning. The PDP is a particular case where such
reflection is required.

This might be a site where students could be encouraged to reflect on their own
learning behaviours, and also to value these for their potential contribution to future
employment and promotion prospects.


2:1:3 Student attitudes to feedback

One area of students academic experience where there is a potential for dialogue with
academic staff is in the feedback which they receive on their assignments. The
questionnaire results demonstrated the enormous importance of feedback to students,
but it is also a highly problematic issue.

In the first place, the actual reference of the term is rather ambiguous. Feedback might
be little more than a mark, an indication of the level of performance attained by a
student at one particular point in their course. Students certainly use do grades as
feedback, or an indication of how Im doing, and as such the grade constitutes a
powerful means of communication between the student and the institute. Treating
grades in this way is one way in which a student can use an assessment as a tool in
their learning. There is a stronger, and more satisfactory, element of feedback where
the student is offered some discussion of grades with a personal tutor or the lecturer
who marked their work.

Feedback becomes a more practical part of the learning experience when it involves
some discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of assessed work, perhaps with
advice about how the student can improve their performance, and hence their grade,
in subsequent assignments. Finally, there is formative feedback, where a piece of
work is undertaken primarily in order to obtain the tutors comments and a grade is
either purely indicative, or entirely absent. Less formal formative feedback might
include a discussion of how well the student demonstrates his or her skills and
knowledge in tutorials, seminars or practicals.

There is also the problem of precisely what feedback is meant to do. In a study at my
previous institution, a high number of students agreed with tutors that the comments
written on essays (including formative ones) were intended to help students to
develop skills in analysis, expression and argumentation. A small number, however,
voiced the opinion that writing an essay which would not be allocated a mark was a
waste of time when you could be doing something you get a mark for. One of these
students described her understanding of the purpose of comments on an essay as
follows:

you do what the tutor tells you, and then if you can hand in a second
draft you get more comments, and then you can use those to perfect that
essay even further, and then youre sure youll get the best mark you can.

The students focus in her course was simply on gaining marks, rather than on gaining
the skills which would allow her to achieve better marks. This is not an unusual
confusion (see 2:5:8 below), but it makes it extremely difficult to encourage students
and by extension, staff to buy into the process of formative feedback.

Higgins et al (2002) note that tutors may disagree on what constitutes feedback, and
may also be cynical about whether students actually use it (2002, 56). Offering full
and useful feedback to all the students in a seminar group is time-consuming, and it
would be unreasonable to expect lecturers to put a lot of time into this if students
seem unlikely to use the feedback well or at all. The depressing experience of
handing carefully marked essays back to a group of undergraduates who glance at the
grade and then stuff the papers into a folder is all too common among academics.

It will surprise few lecturers to read that the students interviewed by Higgins et al had
a reasonable concept of what constituted good feedback. Most of them wanted tutors
to offer comments as well as grades, and they were aware that these comments should
refer to the strengths and weaknesses demonstrated in their work (2002, 58).
However, they were less clear about how they could use this feedback. The attitudes
and behaviours reported in the study show a marked contradiction; while 97% read
their tutors comments, and 82% maintained that they paid close attention to the
feedback they receive, the majority said they spent less than fifteen minutes on it. This
might arise because students believe that the marks for these particular assignments
are already fixed. If so, then what is missing is once again a discourse around the
usefulness of feedback in gaining generic subject or learning skills, and in building up
a sound knowledge of ones subject area as well as performing well in one particular
task.

Formative feedback is recognised as an extremely valuable learning tool, and there is
an exciting strand of research, led by Mantz Yorke (LS1, 114-5), which argues that it
can contribute very effectively to student retention. Higgins et al note various
practical difficulties; it is difficult to deliver where tutors have heavy workloads, in
order to be effective it requires a fast turnaround of student assignments, and where
comments are too vague or too negative it may be of little use or even counter-
productive (2002, 55). In addition, the methods which are most quickly delivered (e.g.
number grids or tick-box pro formas) are often the ones to which students respond
least readily, or find hardest to interpret.

Ridley (2004, 99) also interviewed tutors who found that their students did not
respond well to these methods. One of the difficulties is that by their very nature, such
documents use rather vague wording; Ridleys example is an item which assesses
students ability to access, interpret and evaluate information from electronic
sources (2004, 101). Students may find it difficult to relate such general points to the
particular piece of work which they have submitted, or to their own assessment of
their abilities.

Here too, dialogue seems to be essential. Specifically, students who have progressed
through the school system in an atmosphere where getting marks is a priority may
need some time and support to adjust to a setting in which submitted work is regarded
as a tool to be used in a learning process, rather than an end in itself (informal
discussion with several tutors suggests that mature-age students who have experience
of Access courses are often more receptive to the idea of formative feedback than
students who enter directly from school).

Formative feedback will work best were students feel that they are developing their
own learning in partnership with the institute, a situation which is similar to the one
which will support independence in learning. Its benefits are least likely to be felt
where students adopt an essentially transactional approach, in which they provide the
right answers and in return are given the right marks.

Again, students should be engaged in an explicit discourse about the purpose of
feedback within their development as subject specialists and skilled graduates.
Formative feedback should be used where possible.


2:1:4 Student attitudes to teaching and learning

Teaching and learning, more than any other part of the student experience, is an area
where the institute can control the input to the student experience. A great deal of
discussion in the student retention literature suggests that if students are offered
student centred approaches in the classroom and other aspects of their academic
course, they will enjoy it more and prove less likely to withdraw. However, once
again the attitudes of students to the experience offered to them is crucial. Johnson
(LS1, 17) discusses the problem that student centred teaching can be unpopular with
certain students who lack motivation or confidence, because students who are placed
at the centre of their learning experience need to work hard and consistently. Even
very willing students can have difficulties with the transition from school teaching
methods and assumptions to the ones they encounter at institute.

It would be a mistake to assume that student centred approaches have only become
widespread in higher education since the introduction of teacher training for institute
lecturers and a discourse around teaching methods in the tertiary sector. Despite the
tone of some discussions of this subject, in many departments the lecture has formed
only a part of the teaching strategy. Seminars and tutorials, where students are
encouraged to discuss, analyse and engage with concepts, have always been at least as
important if not more so (in other words, in their day-to-day jobs lecturers might
more appropriately have been termed tutors). Often such teaching methods
incorporated oral and written formative feedback on student work.

These sessions provided the type of individual, concept-driven instruction which is
essential to higher education (and which many employers of graduates expect their
recruits to have experienced). They were a practical reality while student numbers
were relatively small, but as staff:student ratios become similar to those found in
secondary schools it may be difficult to maintain characteristic institute teaching
methods, and ways of reproducing these for larger number will need to be found.

Prosser et al examined a substantial body of research on the relation between student
perceptions of the learning context, approaches to study in that context and the quality
of the learning outcomes (2003, 35). Unsurprisingly, they found a consensus that
exposure to a particular type of teaching methods can, over a period of time, shape
student approaches to learning:

Student-focussed conceptual change approaches to teaching are associated
with deeper approaches to learning and teacher-focussed information
transfer approaches to teaching are associated with surface approaches to
learning consonant and coherent patterns of relationships (surface
approaches with perceptions supporting surface approaches, and deep
approaches with perceptions supporting deep approaches) were related to
lower and higher quality learning outcomes respectively.
Prosser et al 2003, 38

This is good news for lecturers who adopt student focussed conceptual change
approaches in their classes and lectures. However, students do not arrive at institute
as blank slates; they may have surface approaches to learning which are strongly
engrained because of, or despite, the learning environments they have previously
experienced. Changing these in the twelve weeks of the first semester is a
considerable challenge for the institute, especially in the absence of a well-defined
discourse around how teaching and learning happen.

A further problem is indicated by Prosser et als research; students who report surface
approaches are likely to have a whole cluster of negative experiences around their
institute studies. In the same classes:

students who reported adopting surface approaches perceive the
teaching to be poorer, the goals and standards to be less clear, the
workload to be too high and the assessment to be testing reproduction
[they] were shown to have poorer quality understanding of key concepts
and to be performing less well on tests of achievement. On the other hand,
students who reported adopting deeper approaches and who perceive the
teaching to be better, the goals and standards to be clearer, the workload to
be not too high and the assessment to be testing understanding were shown
to have higher quality understanding of key concepts and to be performing
better on tests of achievement.
Prosser et al 2003, 38

Such students are therefore likely to be relatively unwilling to engage with the
institutes attempts to support their transition to more useful learning patterns. The
research carried out by Dooley backs up the view that prior learning experiences are
salient for student behaviours once in higher education (2004, 232). He found that
students were capable of learning to learn in ways that are considered conducive to
quality outcomes but that they will often prefer low quality approaches if they have
learnt that these bring rewards.

Once again, the establishing a discourse around learning and demonstrating the
value of this to students emerges as a priority.

Some of the characteristics of low quality approaches include a strong focus on the
acquisition of information rather than of concepts, a nervousness about learning to
read or reproduce academic language, and a dislike of handling ambiguity. Ridley
(2004, 98 102) addresses some of these issues, which can be regarded as additional
aspects of student integration. A student who feels that they do not belong in a
institute or a particular subject may well feel uncomfortable like a foreigner who has
not yet acquired fluency in a second language interpreting or adopting the register of
the institution or the discipline. Providing an environment in which such learning is
supported, and where students realise that these are things which can be learnt, is an
important part of integration. (This issue returns in the discussion of widening
participation below, 2:4).

2:1:5 Tutor-student relations and the student experience

There is ample evidence that regular contact between staff and students is absolutely
fundamental to student retention: one-to-one interactions in teaching situations,
organised social contact and guidance tutoring are all elements of this. LS1 contains
detailed discussion of the literature on this point, which is reiterated throughout the
work on the student experience; for example, Thomas points out that student
motivation rises when tutors appear to care about students and their learning (2002,
432), while Taylor and Bedford list student-teaching staff interaction factors (2004,
384). Thomas gives several examples of the sort of interaction which is valuable
outside the classroom:

Students seem to be more likely to feel that they are accepted and valued
by staff if lecturers and tutors know their names and exhibit other signs of
friendship, are interested in their work and treat students as equals
[they appreciate] the fact that you can call staff by their first name is a
major thing we can get hold of lecturers at any time.
Thomas 2002, 432

Students who are accepted on first name terms by their lecturers, and who have easy
and informal access to staff, are likely to be well integrated into their department, and
it is unquestionable that this sort of atmosphere will be conducive to both satisfaction
and retention among students. The difficulty in achieving it, however, is less likely to
come from the attitude of some academic staff members and more likely to arise from
the reality of modern staff-student ratios. This point is rarely made in the literature,
and where it appears it is often dismissed because we cannot change the economic
reality of modern staff-student ratios. And yet, it is difficult to remember the names
of all the students in several first year seminars of twenty or more as well as those in
senior years, to be in a position where any of the many students one teaches can get
hold of [one] at any time, or indeed to treat a group of a hundred or more students
collectively as equals.
This commentary is not intended to add to the hand-wringing over the state of higher
education, but it is important that the immovable reality of current student numbers is
factored into the search for ways to provide satisfactory personal contacts and support
for students.
2:1:6 Accommodation and retention

The correlations between type of accommodation and student retention which were
observed in this project (9:5) are by no means unusual. Practically every study which
has examined this variable has come to a similar conclusion. Some Institutes had
experienced particular problems with integrating students living at home, and that at
the Institute of Sunderland, retention rates for students living at home are lower than
those for students living in Halls of Residence (2001, 42). Thomas (2002) also regards
student space as crucial to both satisfaction and retention.

By contrast, retention is highest in the collegiate system of Durham Institute, and a
great deal of this may be attributable to the high levels of integration and belonging
offered by this. It is certainly true that Durham found little or no variation in retention
rates between students from different social classes or with different A-level scores
who lived in the colleges in the city.
To some extent, it is possible that factors which mean a student chooses to live in
institute.




CHAPTER 7


RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Primary Data
Student interviews

12:1 General characteristics of student interviewees

The response to the request for student interviewees was disappointing. Relatively
few students agreed to be interviewed, and of those who did a number gave invalid
telephone numbers or did not respond to requests. In the end, six interviews were
carried out, three in person and three by telephone. Students who requested a
telephone interview all asked for this to be made to a mobile phone rather than a land-
line.

Three of these students lived at home (in two cases the parental home, in one
independent of family), and three lived in Institutes halls of residence. Four were
studying in the other and two inXX, and all but one were male. Although very few
mature-age students returned the questionnaire, two of the students who were
interviewed were over 24, and categorised themselves as mature-age students. Three
had part-time jobs. Two of the students with part-time work lived at home, the other
in a Institutes hall of residence, and all were working an average of 15 hours per
week.
In the interviews, students were not asked to identify their generation or to discuss
social class. However, in four cases they self-identified voluntarily as both first-
generation and working-class (in each case they did so while discussing student
finance).
Any request to students to take part in this sort of exercise will inevitably risk some
risk of self-selection. Just as those students who return questionnaires often tend to be
the least satisfied, those who will happily give up half an hour of their time to talk to a
member of institute staff tend to be those who feel more positive towards the
institution. While the dissatisfaction effect does not seem to have been strong in
relation to the questionnaire, all six of the students interviewed appeared to be highly
satisfied students who had enjoyed their courses. They also were all academically
successful, having passed into their second year with no referrals. They were not
asked to disclose their actual marks, but in the course of the interviews several
mentioned these; all fell into the upper second or first-class bands.

This group of students provide a very valuable opportunity to see what went right
for individuals who are highly satisfied with their first year and have achieved
academic success. This is the sort of experience which a successful retention
programme should attempt to extend to all students. In fact, the good experience
which these students had had was remarkably similar in each case, and related closely
to their study behaviours and attitudes to their courses. Therefore, it can be regarded
as offering a helpful template for a successful student lifestyle.

One of the very positive outcomes from the interviews was the real enthusiasm with
which all of the students talked about their experience of institute in general and their
course in particular. At several points their positive tone became emotional, even
joyful, when they reflected on their first year. The topics which most frequently
elicited this sort of response can be regarded loosely as relating to types of student
transformation. One was the opportunity to learn new things and become good at
things which the student had previously not encountered, or had thought s/he was bad
at, and the other was the opportunity to immerse oneself in the new social milieu of
institute. These students at least are revelling in the ways institute can change them;
none felt that s/he was being asked to become a different person.

12:2 Preparation and transition

12:2:1 Course choice

All of the students interviewed had taken a great deal of trouble over choosing their
course, and preparing for institute in general. This almost certainly accounts for at
least some of their high levels of satisfaction. None had been content to take the
advice of their teachers, college tutors or careers advisers without doing some further
research on their own initiative.

All but one of the students had attended an institute open day, either general or related
to their specific programme. The feedback on open days was very positive, with
students stressing the importance of getting a feel for the place. The student who had
not been to an open day stated that some things would have been much easier if s/he
had been able to do so, and noted that s/he felt lost in the physical environment of
the institute and the city in the first few weeks. As well as obvious aspects of the
usefulness of open days, the students drew attention to the helpfulness of having the
chance to see what lecture theatres, computer rooms and tutors offices actually look
like. One pointed out that the teaching spaces are often the things which are most
different from anywhere they have been before, and that having an idea of the scale,
dcor etc. of these made the first few days less intimidating.

The two mature-age students had used the Access Guidance Centre to take taster
courses in order to test out whether their initial decisions about which subject to study
had been right for them. Both were enthusiastic about the provision offered. One
student found that his/her instincts had been correct, and applied for the course which
s/he had first considered. The other realised that the course for which s/he had
intended to apply did not fit his/her interests and career aims as closely as s/he had
thought. S/he was able to select a different course instead. In both cases these students
found that as well as a clear idea of course content, the Access Guidance Centre
courses had helped them to adjust to institute teaching methods and study skills.

Two of the young students had friends who had previously taken the courses on
which they themselves were now enrolled, and who had provided invaluable help,
telling them precisely what they would study, and pointing them towards aspects of
the school-institute transition which might be challenging. Hearing about these
matters from a friend had helped a lot; one student stated that you got the straight
story. S/he had found the combination of honesty and reassurance from someone
who had done it and survived very helpful.

One student had received exceptionally good preparation and guidance at sixth-form
college, where pupils who planned to go on to higher education had been offered
special classes at the end of the academic year in which they were set institute style
assignments which were marked by teachers as if they were being assessed as part of
an HE course. The teachers also explained in detail some of the differences between
institute and school teaching methods and study skills. This student found that these
classes helped enormously with the first few weeks at college, and reported that
his/her transition had been very comfortable. S/he was aware that some of his/her
peers had been shocked by the difference between institute and their previous
education.

All of the young students had read prospectuses very carefully indeed. One described
reading in detail the materials offered by different institutions, comparing the range of
modules on different programmes, and thinking about what they would really
include. Another explained that s/he had thought very hard about what the brief
module descriptions actually mean, and a third stated that s/he had been put off
certain other institutions because course descriptions were too vague and did not
include module lists or short accounts of module content.
12:2:2 What came as a surprise? Academic factors

The short answer to this question is not very much. The previous section explains
why course content did not surprise any of the students to a great extent. In a few
cases the depth of technical content surprised students, who had not realised from the
module descriptions just how much mathematical, technical or statistical material they
would have to cope with.

Where this was mentioned, students described a range of initial responses. Two of
them stated that they had initially felt demotivated because they felt that they would
not do particularly well in units where they were required to show a high level of
technical or mathematical proficiency; another stated that a unit of this sort was a
shock, but not a bad one, because it offered the opportunity to learn something new
and develop problem-solving skills.

The other students came to a similar conclusion, but in each of their cases the factor
which made the difference was a particularly helpful tutor who had encouraged them
to overcome their initial worry. In one case this had been in response to the students
poor attendance; when the tutor spoke to him/her, this conversation was used as an
opportunity for reassurance. In all cases the students reported working rather harder
on units which surprised them in this way, and in all cases they stated that they had
eventually enjoyed these units as much as or more than the ones they had expected to
find easy or interesting. In one case a student had chosen second year options in the
area which had initially appeared most surprising and challenging.

These students were asked whether they objected to having to learn things which they
had not expected to encounter, or whose relevance to their careers they did not
immediately recognise. In all cases, their attitude was that they had come to institute
to find out new things, and that even where they could not see the immediate use of a
module, in the words of one student they just got on with it. One student recalled
being unsure of the practical use of a module at first, but realising its purpose after
looking at all my course together and finding out more about careers in his/her field.

Two students said that the first year had proved less difficult than they had expected
overall. One of them stated that well, its institute, isnt it you expect it to be really
difficult when you come here. The other student in this situation attributed the
apparent easiness of this course to his/her own assiduous efforts to prepare. Neither
had found themselves bored. They had either chosen to concentrate hard on those
modules which did seem more difficult, or to find out more about topics which
interested them particularly strongly. One attributed the unexpected easiness of the
first year course to the quality of the teaching which s/he encountered, stating that I
had really good tutors who explained things clearly and didnt use jargon.

All of these students said that the academic induction they had received had been very
useful in making the transition to institute. One student described the induction
programme and first few weeks lectures as a good way of starting and adapting to
how to learn at institute. Another felt that the teaching at the beginning of the course
had been good because with the subject you havent got any choice but to be thrown
in at the deep end.

One student mentioned in particular some classes/sessions in which students had been
encouraged to reflect on your own experience of learning and on what had been
learnt so far. Two students said that they valued the formation of friendships with
other students on their courses, because this offered a sounding board for course
discussion, solving problems and for exploring ideas.


12:2:3 What came as a surprise? Non-academic factors

While students felt well-prepared for the academic side of their institute lives, some of
the non-academic aspects proved more problematic. Two (both living away from
home) drew attention to the sheer size of the campus and of Newcastle: its a massive
place and it can be intimidating, in the word of one. The other said that s/he needed a
better map than the one provided. However, another student said that something
which s/he really liked about institute was the size. The diversity of institute and of
students was mentioned by two students as something which had surprised them and
which they liked very much because it was interesting and prepares you for living in
a very diverse society.

The lack of a strong clubs and societies culture was mentioned by two students.
While all the young students and one mature-age student (the other did not mention
the Union at all) felt the Student Union was very good as a social centre, these two
students had expected to find more societies, and more active ones. They were both
friendly with students from Newcastle Institute, and compared their experience of this
aspect of student life with theirs.

Two students were surprised that their Schools did not offer formalised opportunities
to socialise with other students from their courses. One stated that students from
his/her year had begun to organise course-based social events themselves (with
encouragement and support from staff), and said that this would have been very useful
indeed when they were freshers. The experience of students at other universities was
noted as a model here. Another student said that a coffee party for students on his/her
course had been a very good event because it was informal, quiet enough to hold
conversations, and academic staff and turned up and chatted.

Two students (one living at home and one in halls) said that the freedom they
encountered at institute came as a surprise. The student who lived in halls said that it
was odd being on your own and having your own space at institute, but that once
you got used to this it was enjoyable. The student who lived at home had been used to
having a more rigid schedule outside the house, and also, of course, to having more
regimentation in how to organise study time. In neither case was freedom considered
by the student as essentially problematic; overcoming the problematic aspects was
regarded as quite enjoyable. Another student spoke of the independence offered by
institute as an entirely positive characteristic.

One of the mature-age students said that the immaturity of some of the young students
was rather a shock after several years in the workforce.


12:2:4 Transition

All of the students interviewed had been thoroughly looking forward to both the
academic and the social life at institute. One said that s/he viewed the academic
opportunity as a chance to really get into something. Another said that after being
at school and sixth form with the same people for seven years [s/he] wanted the
diversity I was really looking forward to it its great that you have to get to know
people from all over the place.

The single most helpful factor in the transition to institute study was support from
tutors. All of the students interviewed stated that for the most part they had received
highly satisfactory teaching and in addition had felt able to approach individual
members of staff for help. Only two students had used Student Services in relation to
specific difficulties: in both cases they had found this provision extremely accessible
and very helpful.
12:2:5 Financial reality

Discussion of finance was the only area in which the generally positive tone of these
interviews was lost. I had not planned to raise this issue, because it is dealt with in the
accompanying report, but in fact four of the six students talked about it at length, and
one of the others mentioned it.

It was raised, in each case, in response to the question about which aspects of institute
came as an unpleasant surprise. As the discussion above suggests, very little in the
academic and social lives of these students was both unexpected and unwelcome, but
their experiences around money were almost all negative.

One student drew attention to the differences between living at home with your
parents when a jobs for pocket money and his/her situation at institute, where the
job essentially paid for hall fees and essentials. Another stated that s/he had been
alright for money because s/he had been sensible, but stated that s/he had friends
who had struggled financially, some of whom had decided to leave institute. Two
others attributed their lack of a financial crisis to their own organisation and
planning ahead; again, it had been difficult at times and had been a source of stress.
Just one student in this group stated that budgeting for him/herself had been a major
problem. S/he did not have a part-time job, and had found living on the loan to be
more difficult than expected. In the end, things had appeared critical and the student
had approached his/her father for small loan as well as being helped out by his/her
mates (one other student mentioned that s/he had lent money to a friend).

Two difficulties with finance emerged. The first is a simple lack of information before
arrival. While most of these students had a general idea that they would be hard up,
the phrase the reality of it recurred in several interviews. This reality involves
seeing ones bank balance dwindle, having to make hard choices between items, being
faced with an occasional unforeseen bill and/or cutting back on inessentials. None of
these, in itself, is necessarily a hardship, but they are not necessarily part of the
experience of a teenager coming from a home where financial crisis had been
avoided, even if life was not luxurious. Students may also have experienced what one
interviewee in the School of Informatics described as the rabbit in the headlamps
experience. He had been well aware of what a student budget would look like, and
how it would relate to his loans and grants, but explained with considerable
embarrassment that there is all the emotional difference in the world between a
theoretical knowledge of this and when its real money.

In particular, the lack of clear advice and specific advice on budgeting seems to cause
difficulties. The transition from living with parents to having to pay ones own way
and organise ones own money is mentioned by students either as a hurdle which they
personally have over come or as something which for them (or their less organised
friends) precipitated a major crisis. A student who managed this well described very
specific help from his/her [non-graduate] mother on how to organise a budget which
includes termly, monthly and weekly items. The student who had had to borrow
informally stated that it was the problem of organising finance on different scales
which made things very hard. His/her strategy in future would be to set a target of
how much I need and work everything out from there.

All of the students with part-time jobs said that these were essential for them to pay
their way in basics such as rent, bills and food supplies. None of them regarded their
part-time job as a source of money primarily for a social life or extras. As noted
above, four of these students self-identified as working class, and all of them were
aware that there were many better-of students whose parents paid for a great deal, and
who could sustain a much higher standard of lifestyle. Students whose parents were
paying for a few items expressed guilt over this.

All four of the students who self-identified as coming from working-class homes
stated that they would not have come to institute if they had anticipated the levels of
debt which will become normal under the 2006 funding arrangements. None of them
was willing to consider these as a form of graduate tax. What concerned them was
not the relatively high earnings threshold for repayment, or the size of the repayments
themselves; it was the fact that youd have that much debt in the first place.

Four students stated that their decision to go to institute might or would have been
different had the 2006 arrangements been in place. One stated that even as things
stood, s/he nearly didnt come because of the levels of debt involved; this student
stated that s/he was managing his/her lifestyle very carefully so as to minimize debt.
Another stated that if Id known what the money would have been like Id definitely
have thought again, and another said that the hardest part of the decision to come to
institute had been over the money. In this students case, the decision to go when s/he
did was made partly on the basis of the introduction of higher tuition fees to be
payable by students.

The student who probably demonstrated the highest level of academic orientation in
his/her interview was adamant about his/her views on the impact which 2006 funding
arrangement would have had on his/her entry decision:

I wouldnt have gone if Id had to pay those fees. That amount of debt is
impossible. You know youre going to be in debt after institute, but I
just couldnt put myself in that kind of debt.


Secondary Data
The secondary data, I collected from the books and internet. These helped me a lot in
the analysis of my project.



CHAPTER 8


RESEARCH OBJECTIVE


To know about the education system in Varanasi.

To suggest improvement in the present education system of Varanasi.





CHAPTER 9

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
This section is the comparison analysis of Varanasis position in the field of
Education on Uttar Pradesh.

1. Education Inputs
The education inputs depend on the public expenditure on education. The Table 1
shows the public expenditure of the seven countries. Public expenditure in the year
2001, maximum Public expenditure per student with the percentage of GDP per capita
is spending by India. In the year 2008 also Varanasi spend maximum. But maximum
public expenditure on education that is percentage of GDP spend is by Noida and
minimum by Mirzapur.
Table 1- Education Inputs
Country Public Expenditure per
student
Public Expenditure on
education
% of GDP per capita % of GDP % of total
government
expenditure
Tertiary
2001 2008 2001 2008
Allahabad 25.7 22.5 4.6 -
Lucknow 57.0 32.6 4.0 -
Ghaziabad 90.1 - - -
Noida 90.8 61.0 3.8 -
Varanasi 60.7 50.1 5.4 17.6
Mirzapur 26.2 27.6 5.4 11.7
Azamgarh 27.0 23.5 5.6 14.4
















0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
90.8 61 3.8 -
90.1 - - -
57 32.6 4 -
25.7 22.5 4.6 -
2001 2008 2001 2008
Tertiary expenditure
% of GDP per capita % of GDP % of total
government
Public Expenditure per student Public Expenditure on education
Varanasi
Mirzapur
Azamgarh

2. Public Expenditure on Education
Table 2 shows that public expenditure on education. It also shows the percentage of
GDP and % of total Government Expenditure on education. According to the table,
among all the countries, India spends the lowest on education in the year 2005. In the
year 2000, Ghaziabad had spent the lowest and Varanasi had a better position in
spending on education. In the year 2005, 2000 and 1990, India had spent very less
percentage of GDP on education, lower than other countries except China. China had
spent the lowest in these years.
Table 2- Public Expenditure on Education
Countr
y
2010 2005 2000 1990
% of
GDP
% of total
Governme
nt
Expenditu
re
%
of
GD
P
% of
total
Govern
ment
Expendit
ure
%
of
GD
P
% of total
Governm
ent
Expenditu
re
%

o
f
G
D
P
%
of
tot
al
Go
ver
nm
ent
Ex
pen
dit
ure
Allahab
ad
4.5 - 4.7 13.3 4.5 12.7 5
.
1
15.
0

Luckno
w
4.0 - 4.0 12.0 4.4 - 3
.
5
-
Ghaziab
ad
- - 1.9 13.0 2.3 12.8 2
.
5
9.3
Noida 3.9 10.7 2.8 12.7 3.9 11.2 2
.
9
10.
4
Varanas
i
5.3 17.9 5.6 18.1 5.1 - - -
Mirzapu
r
5.6 12.5 4.6 11.4 4.7 - 5
.
3
13.
6
Azamga
rh
5.3 13.7 5.7 17.1 5.6 12.3 6
.
5
20.
1







3. Participation in Education
Participation in tertiary education can be checked by Gross Enrolment Ratio. GER
The gross enrollment ratio (GER) or gross enrollment index (GEI) is a statistical
measure used in the education sector and by the UN in its Education Index. The GER
gives a rough indication of the level of education from kindergarten to postgraduate
education . Table 3 shows gross enrolment ratio in tertiary education. According to
the table, GER of U.P. is increasing at a very slow rate. Ghaziabads GER is
increasing every year tremendously. Allahabad is always in the top in GER. So steps
must be taken by the government to increase GER. As GER is the lowest among all
six cities.

Table 3- Participation in Education
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Series1
Series2
Series3
Series4
Series5
Series6
Series7
Series8
Series9
Country Tertiary - Gross Enrolment Ratio
1990 2000 2010
Allahabad 25 63 73
Lucknow 11 17 24
Ghaziabad 2 7 22
Noida 5 10 11
Varanasi - 15 15
Mirzapur 19 60 59
Azamgarh 56 73 82




4. Rankings in Global Competitiveness Report Related with Higher Education
System

The World Economic Forum has, for the past 30 years, played a facilitating role in
this process by providing detailed assessments of the productive potential of nations
worldwide. The Report is a contribution to enhancing the understanding of the key
factors determining economic growth and to explaining why some countries are more
successful than others in raising income levels and opportunities for their respective
populations; hence it offers policymakers and business leaders an important tool in the
formulation of improved economic policies and institutional reforms. The Report
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Series1
Series2
Series3
contains a detailed profile for each of the economies featured in the study as well as
an extensive section of data tables with global rankings covering over 100 indicators.

The Global Competiveness Index (GCI) captures this open-ended dimension by
providing a weighted average of many different components, each of which reflects
one aspect of the complex concept that is competitiveness. Global Economic Forum
group all these components into 12 pillars of competitiveness: The 12 pillars of
competitiveness are as follows: Pillar-1: Institutions, Pillar-2: Infrastructure, Pillar-3:
Health and primary education Pillar-4: Macroeconomic stability Pillar-5: Higher
education and training Pillar-6: Goods market efficiency, Pillar-7: Labor market
efficiency, Pillar-8: Financial market sophistication, Pillar-9: Technological readiness,
Pillar-10: Market size, Pillar-11: Business sophistication, and Pillar- 12: Innovation.

Table 4 shows the overall rank based on the above mentioned pillars. Accordingly,
India is comparatively at a very low position. The score in the table lies in between 0-
7. So score of Varanasi is continuously decreasing since last 3 years. Noida &
Azamgarh have shown improvement in the scores and hence improvements in ranks.

Table 4- Rankings in Global Competitiveness
Region 2009-2010
Rank and Score
(out of 133
countries)
2008-2009
Rank and
Score (out of
134)
2007-2008
Rank and
Score (out of
131)
2006-2007
Rank and
Score (out of
131)
Allahabad 2(5.59) 1(5.74) 1(5.7) 1(5.8)
Lucknow 13(5.19) 12(5.30) 9(5.4) 2(5.6)
Ghaziabad 15(5.15) 18(5.20) 19(5.2) 16(5.2)
Noida 29(4.74) 30(4.70) 34(4.6) 34(4.6)
Varanasi 45(4.34) 45(4.41) 44(4.4) 35(4.5)
Mirzapur 49(4.30) 50(4.33) 48(4.3) 42(4.5)
Azamgarh 56(4.33) 64(4.13) 72(4.0) 66(4.1)




5. Human Development Index
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) introduced a new way of
measuring development by combining indicators of life expectancy, educational
attainment and income into a composite human development index, the HDI. The
breakthrough for the HDI was the creation of a single statistic which was to serve as a
frame of reference for both social and economic development. The HDI sets a
minimum and a maximum for each dimension, called goalposts, and then shows
where each country stands in relation to these goalposts, expressed as a value between
0 and 1.
The educational component of the HDI is comprised of adult literacy rates and the
combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schooling,
weighted to give adult literacy more significance in the statistic. Since the minimum
adult literacy rate is 0% and the maximum is 100%, the literacy component of
knowledge for a country where the literacy rate is 75% would be 0.75; the statistic for
combined gross enrolment is calculated in a analogous manner. Table 10 shows the
ranks of all seven cities of U.P


0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Azamgarh 56(4.33) 64(4.13) 72(4.0)
Azamgarh 56(4.33)
64(4.13) 72(4.0)




Table 5- Human Development Index
Rank Country/Region 1995 2000 2005 2010
3 Allahabad 0.894 0.934 0.949 0.962
12 Lucknow 0.919 0.931 0.942 0.951
16 Ghaziabad 0.89 0.929 0.931 0.946
70 Noida 0.723 0.753 0.789 0.800
81 Varanasi 0.634 0.691 0.732 0.777
121 Mirzapur 0.731 0.745 0.707 0.674
128 Azamgarh 0.521 0.551 0.578 0.619






0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
C
o
u
n
t
r
y
/
R
e
g
i
o
n
A
l
l
a
h
a
b
a
d
L
u
c
k
n
o
w
G
h
a
z
i
a
b
a
d
N
o
i
d
a
V
a
r
a
n
a
s
i
M
i
r
z
a
p
u
r
A
z
a
m
g
a
r
h
Rank 3 12 16 70 81 121 128
Series1
Series2
Series3
Series4

CHAP 10

BASIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE

Primary research

The primary research for this project took place in three phases.
Student questionnaire
During the summer of 2004, a questionnaire was posted to 306 UK students who had
enrolled as first years in September 2003 on selected courses in Newcastle Business
School and the School of Informatics. Both continuing and withdrawn students
received the questionnaire and were invited to complete and return it. It was
accompanied by a pre-paid envelope and a letter explaining the project and the
conditions of anonymity for students who chose to participate. A total of 65 returns
were received, all of which were usable. This represents a response rate of just over
21%. While hardly overwhelming, this is similar to the rate received in a number of
DfES studies and published articles which have used survey instruments of a similar
size to the one employed here. A shorter questionnaire might have yielded more
responses, but it would not have been possible to obtain the range of information and
correlations which were available. Therefore, the decision to use a relatively long
questionnaire seems to be justified.

The questionnaire, of which a copy is included in Appendix One of this report, was
six pages long. It was designed to elicit four sets of information: basic demographics,
a picture of day-to-day student lifestyle (e.g. attendance and study habits, part-time
employment patterns), reasons for entering the Institute and a profile of the students
experience, expectations and attitudes regarding higher education. The questions used
a multiple choice format, with the option of one-word or very brief answers in a few
cases. Subjects were invited to make additional comments on a final page, but very
few in fact decided to do this.
The demographic questions sought the following information:
Subject of study
Transfer status: did the student initially enter Institute on the course which
they were studying at the end of the first year?
Age
Sex
Type of entry qualification (e.g. A-levels, VCE, HEF ect)
Accommodation during the first year
Student generation: did the students father, mother, sibling[s] or other close
relatives and/or close friends from school/college attend institute
Occupation of both parents

The questions on student lifestyle sought the following information:
Number of hours in different study activities
Did tutors suggest a sensible number of hours for students to spend in private
study, and if so, how long was this?
How much private study did the student undertake in a typical term-time
week?
Reasons why the student either did or did not follow tutors advice on private
study.
Attendance levels in each semester
Reasons for non-attendance if attendance fell below 75% at any point
Part-time work status
Hours spent in part-time work in a typical term-time week
Type of part-time work undertaken
Average number of days on which student attended at their campus in term-
time
Length of typical commute to campus

The questions on reasons for entry sought the following information:
motivations for choosing to enter higher education
motivations for choosing to attend Institute
motivations for choosing the particular course on which student was studying
did student consider withdrawing or transferring at any point?
if student did not withdraw or transfer after considering doing so, why was
this?

In all cases where students were asked to nominate reasons for their choices or habits,
they were invited to tick all which apply, although in the case of reasons for entering
HE/ their course they were asked to nominate one of these reasons as the most
important.

The next section measured student adjustment and satisfaction with the first year of
their course. Students were invited to indicate their adjustment to the academic
demands of their course in general, and then to indicate their adjustment to specific
aspects of this such as managing ones own time and working independently,
understanding course rationale, and working consistently. They were also asked to
indicate their level of social adjustment, their feelings about the physical environment
of the institute, and the level of pressure which they felt over financial matters. In
addition, the questionnaire measured their satisfaction with the rate at which they
were expected to become independent learners and institute timetables. Four final
questions asked about how well they felt lecturers explained topics on their courses,
how approachable they felt lecturers to be, and required students to judge whether
academic demands and workloads on their courses were too hard, too easy or about
right. The aim here was to compare student judgements with the behaviours and
expectations reported elsewhere on the questionnaire.

The section on expectations examined the extent to which students felt that school or
college had prepared them for institute, and asked specifically about the extent to
which their expectations had been accurate or otherwise in the following areas:
workload
academic demands
making friends
interest in the course
academic and non-academic support
contact with individual staff
study habits required at institute, including independent learning
course content
academic staff and teaching methods

The final section attempted to measure more general student beliefs and attitudes,
e.g.:
interest in the subject and academic orientation
motivation and willingness to study
student identity
instrumentality of approach
enjoyment of the course and the institute experience

The results of the questionnaire were analysed using SPSS software.
1:3:3 Interviews

Students were invited to take part in interviews over the telephone or face-to-face.
These were semi-structured interviews which addressed the main themes of the
questionnaires. Interviews were tape recorded and subjected to a discourse analysis.
No attempt was made to re-code the interviews for analysis with SPSS, as the aim
here was to gather more subtle impressions and narratives.
The student response to the request for interviewees was poor, and in the end only six
interviews were possible. By coincidence, the students involved were all academically
successful and reported a high level of satisfaction with their academic and personal
experience at institute. The interviews proved exceedingly helpful to the project,
because it was in each case possible to identify the approaches to institute entry and
first year study contributed to this satisfaction, and possibly also to excellent
academic performance. In other words, these are students from whom we can learn
what went right especially because all of them stated that at some point in their
first year they had seriously considered withdrawing from institute.
Seven interviews were carried out with members of academic staff. These also
provided some helpful materials, in particular with regard to the issues of widening
participation and the extent to which students undergo transformation while at
institute.

No. of Interviewees-100 (Sample size)
Q1. Is Varanasi good for Higher education?
Yes No Average
57 8 33


INTERPRETATION:- 57 % say that Varanasi is good for higher education.

57
8
33
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Yes No Average
Series1

Q2. Fee structure for higher education matters?
Matter Doesnt matter Average
63 29 8



INTERPRETATION:- Fee structure does matter in higher education.
Q3. Why do you take higher education in Varanasi?
Fee Distance Availability
39 44 17


0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Matter Doesnt matter
Cant say
Average
63
29
8
Series1
39
44
17
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Fee Distance Availability
Series1
INTERPRETATION:- 44% believe that distance is more important than fee for
choosing a college/institute.
Q4. Are you aware about samaj Kalyan?
Yes No
81 19



INTERPRETATION: 81 % are aeware of SAMAJ KALYAN.


Q5.After completing education what will you prefer to do?
Job Ph.D. Teaching Business
72 13 7 13

81
19
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Yes No
Series1

INTERPRETATION:- 72 % of the students want to do job after education, few want
to pursue higher studies i.e. Ph.D. and some want to go in businesas.
Q6. Which Institute will you opt for HE?
Kashi IT BHU SMS RSMT Others
10 71 12 0 7


INTERPRETATION: 71 % of the students believe that thay will want to take
admission in BHU due to various factors.



69%
12%
7%
12%
Job
Ph.D.
Teaching
Business
10%
71%
12%
0%
7%
Kashi IT
BHU
SMS
RSMT
Others
Q7. Which of the following is a more job oriented course?
MBA MCA M-Tech M.Pharm Others
18 0 6 68 8


INTERPRETATION:- In the present scenario majority of the students think that the
most job oriented course is M-Pharma.
Q8. Most of the time students know about the institutes by?
Newspaper Radio Its students other
18 0 6 76


INTERPRETATION: Majority of the students say that thay come to know about an
institute through other sources like the internet.
MBA
MCA
M-Tech
M.Pharm
Others
Newspaper
Radio
Its students
other
Q9.How much placement important for you?
Agree Highly Agree Disagree Highly
disagree
Cant say
41 39 9 5 6


INTERPRETATION:-About 80% believe that placement facility of a particular
institute can decide about the number of admission in the institute.
Q10. How much is fee structure important for you?
Agree Highly Agree Disagree Highly
disagree
Cant say
30 33 19 11 7


41%
39%
9%
5%
6%
Agree
Highly Agree
Disagree
Highly disagree
Cant say
30%
33%
19%
11%
7%
Agree
Highly Agree
Disagree
Highly disagree
Cant say
INTERPRETATION: 33% highly agree to the fact that fee structure plays a major
factor for choosing the college.
Q11. How much is infrastructure of any institution important for you.?

Agree Highly Agree Disagree Highly
disagree
Cant say
40 33 09 11 7


INTERPRETATION:- 40 % believe that infrastructure of the institute is a limiting
factor for seeking admission to it.
Q12. Is distance important for you?
Agree Highly Agree Disagree Highly
disagree
Cant say
42 34 09 11 4

40%
33%
9%
11%
7%
Agree
Highly Agree
Disagree
Highly disagree
Cant say

INTERPRETATION:- For majority of the students distance plays an important factor
while choosing the college.
Q13. Is qualification of faculty important for you?
Agree Highly Agree Disagree Highly
disagree
Cant say
58 28 08 2 4



INTERPRETATION:- 58 % i.e. majority of the students think that qualification of the
faculty is a must while checking the college for the purpose of admission, while a few
percentage also think that faculty qualification cannot be a deciding factor.
Q. 14 Is background of college important for you?
42%
34%
9%
11%
4%
Agree
Highly Agree
Disagree
Highly disagree
Cant say
58%
28%
8%
2%
4%
Agree
Highly Agree
Disagree
Highly disagree
Cant say
Agree Highly Agree Disagree Highly
disagree
Cant say
38 47 7 3 5


47% of the students believe that background of the college plays an important factor
while choosing the particular college.

Q 15. Do you think medium of education should be in English?
Agree Highly Agree Disagree Highly
disagree
Cant say
40 38 15 3 4



38%
47%
7%
3%
5%
Agree
Highly Agree
Disagree
Highly disagree
Cant say
40%
38%
15%
3%
4%
Agree
Highly Agree
Disagree
Highly disagree
Cant say
INTERPRETATION:- For majority of students English medium of education is a
must, bur for some it is not necessary. 38% highly agree to it that medium of
education should be English.
CHAPTER 11
Experimental findings

Demographics

Respondents were all e students on large-intake courses; around half came from each
school. The vast majority were young rather than mature-age, and slightly more men
than women returned the questionnaire. Almost all of the students who responded
held A-levels as their primary entry qualification. Just over 40% lived at home, and
around the same number owned Halls of Residence or shared flats.

The majority (almost two thirds) were first-generation students, i.e. neither parent had
attended institute. Around 35% came from family backgrounds which were
professional or managerial, 13.8% from skilled non-manual backgrounds, and 30%
from skilled manual, semi-skilled or unskilled backgrounds (the latter group was very
small). Second-generation students with older siblings were far more likely than first-
generation students with older siblings to state that these siblings had participated in
higher education.
Women tend to report lower levels of social and, to a lesser extent, academic
confidence than men, despite their slightly higher levels of academic adjustment and
satisfaction.
First generation students report slightly higher levels of academic orientation and
subject interest than second generation. There is some evidence that they are less
likely than first generation students to enter reactively. However, first generation
students feel considerably less well-prepared for institute by their schools/colleges
than second generation students.
Students who live in Halls of Residence are better attenders than students who live at
home, and show considerably stronger academic adjustment.

Study behaviours

Although students on all of these courses had been given advice on a sensible
number of hours to spend in private study, over 25% stated that they had received no
such advice. Among students who stated that they had received advice, the vast
majority (over 4/5) stated that they had not followed it. The average number of private
study hours reported was just over 8 hours a week, although individual reports varied
enormously. More than 50% of students claim to spend less than 10 hours a week in
private study, but 8% claim to spend over 20 hours a week working independently.

Women spend slightly longer in private study than men, averaging 8.45 hours as
opposed to 7.32. All of the students who report no study at all in a normal week were
male, and far more men than women do less than 5 hours in a normal week. However,
all of the students who do 20 or more hours a week are male. 72.2% of students who
do ten hours a week are female.

The most common reason for not studying was believing that one was doing enough,
followed by lack of motivation (both named by over 50% of students who did not do
the recommended number of hours). Part-time work was named by around 20% of
students.

Attendance among these students was generally good, but falls off through the
academic year. At the beginning of the academic year 91.9% claim to attend over
75% of timetabled sessions. This falls gradually to 53.2% of students at the end of the
second semester. The main reason for non-attendance was long gaps between
classes (named by more than 2/3 of students).

Responses cluster in this section. Students who disagree with the item in general, I
only did the minimum amount of work that was required of me were likely to report
higher private study hours and attendance; the reverse was also the case. Overall study
behaviours and measures of adjustment tend to be related, with students who report
more effective study behaviours also showing higher levels of academic and social
adjustment. They also tend to have had more accurate expectations of institute and
stronger academic orientation.

Part-time work
Just under half of the students (49.2%) stated that they had had a part-time job during
term-time. The average working week during term-time was 14.4 hours, and most
jobs occupied between 10 and 20 hours each week. 60% of women worked, compared
with 45% of men, but women with jobs worked slightly shorter hours, with an
average working week of just over 12 hours as opposed to 16.5. Students living at
home, first-generation students and student from lower social classes (based on
occupation) were significantly more likely to have a part-time job. Students with part-
time jobs tended to be either very good or very poor attenders.

Entry and progression
Students were asked to separate the reasons why they decided to go to institute,
reasons for choosing the Institute, and reasons for applying to their particular course.
Reasons for going to institute
General job prospects were the most frequently named reason (85.9%), closely
followed by the self esteem reason of simply wanting to achieve a degree. Subject
interest was named by 53.8%, and general enjoyment of studying by 37.5%. Just over
25% named family influence. Around 20% said that no one reason had been most
important; for those who named a particular reason as paramount, the most common
was job prospects.

First-generation students were significantly more likely than second generation
students to name subject interest, and second-generation students were significantly
more likely than second-generation to name family influence. Students who agree that
the wishes of their family were important in their decision are less likely to agree that
subject interest played a part, suggesting that they may be reactive entrants.

Reasons for choosing the Institute
The fact that the institute offered a particular course was the main reason (65.6%).
This was followed by a cluster of reasons named by between 30% and 45% of
students, including the reputation of a particular School or course, the reputation of
the city, the reputation of the institute, and a desire either to leave home or to live at
home.

More women name school or course reputation; more students from
professional/managerial and semi-skilled or unskilled backgrounds state that they
chose partly because they wanted to leave home. All of the students from lower social
class backgrounds who state that they chose the particular institute in order to live
away from home are in part-time work.
Reasons for choice of degree programme
Subject interest is named by 83.3% of students, followed by the desire for a well-paid
job (68.3%) and/or a particular kind of job (50.8%). Almost 50% of students stated
that no one reason was most important; where a primary reason was mentioned,
subject interest was most frequently cited (23.8%), followed by the prospect of high
earnings (14.3%).
Persistence

All of these students have progressed to their second year, but 25% state that at some
point in the first year they seriously considered dropping out, and 31.3% considered
transferring to a different course. Poor attenders, those from backgrounds other than
professional/managerial, and students living at home are all more likely to have
considered leaving.

Adjustment
Students generally feel that they have adjusted well to the academic demands of
institute, although only 25% strongly agree. 70.8% feel that the level of academic
demand on their course is about right, and just under 20% believe it was too hard.
Judgement of academic demand levels associates significantly with feelings of
adjustment to the academic demands of institute. Students who feel that they have
adjusted well to the academic demands are more likely to feel that they can
understand the rationale for the content of their course. Social adjustment is very high,
and there is a significant association between social integration and academic
integration. Strong social integration was significantly related to good time
management. Feelings of belonging and overall enjoyment were high among these
students.

High satisfaction with teaching quality also emerges, and the majority feel that
lecturers are approachable. Students who are satisfied with one of these factors are
significantly more likely to be satisfied with the other. Judgement of academic
demands is also significantly related to judgement of approachability. Students
feelings about their lecturers relate closely to their feelings about their studies.

Students generally believe they have acquired good time-management skills, but are
less likely to express confidence about their consistency of work throughout the first
year, although a large minority state that they did work consistently. Most feel that
they have become good at working independently, and that their workload is about
right. Assessment of the level of academic demands is significantly related only to
independent working skills, and not to either consistent work habits or time
management. Estimates of the appropriateness of workload correlated significantly
with perceptions of workload and academic demands. Students who found it difficult
to see a clear rationale for course content were also more likely to perceive their
workload as being too heavy.

Over half agree that they sometimes felt pressurised by financial worries. Students
who feel well adjusted to their social life are significantly less likely to agree, and
students who feel that they are under financial pressure are significantly less likely to
agree strongly that their lecturers are approachable and to show other signs of poor
academic integration.
Expectations
Institute workloads were a surprise to the majority of students surveyed. Expectations
about academic demands were slightly more accurate, and expectations of course
content were generally good. Students had a fairly realistic picture of academic staff,
and a reasonable picture of the teaching methods they would encounter. In general,
only very small numbers had had very accurate or very mistaken expectations.

Students had reasonably accurate expectations of the amount of academic support
they would encounter at institute, but expectations of non-academic support were
more accurate. Students had, however, rather over-estimated the amount of contact
with individual academic staff. Most felt fairly well-prepared for the need to be
independent learners at institute. Almost a third of students find that their course is
more interesting than they had anticipated.
Ease of making friends was the area in which their previous perceptions had been
least accurate. Just 36.9% found that making friends was about as easy as they had
expected before they arrived. 18.5% found it a bit harder, and 9.2% found it much
harder. By contrast, 24.6% found that it was easier, and 10.8% found that it was much
easier. The levels of social anxiety among incoming students appear to be quite high.
A large minority of students are very satisfied with school or college as a preparation
for institute. 12.3% feel their previous institution was a very good preparation for
HE, and 32.3% feel it was good. A less satisfied 32.3% feel it was about adequate,
and 20% state that it was poor. Just 3.1% feel they had very poor preparation from
their previous studies.
Overall, accurate expectations are consistently associated with good adjustment and
satisfaction. Expectations and satisfaction with experience show correlations in
specific areas, such as workload, time management, social adjustment and teaching
methods. However, students expectations of academic interactions with staff, rather
than of the personal qualities of staff, seem to determine their perceptions of staff
approachability. Students generally feel quite well prepared for institute, although the
majority feel that their preparation was acceptable or adequate rather than very good.

Attitudes
Students express very high levels of interest in their courses; few are bored.
Responses to items designed to measure intellectual orientation and satisfaction are
high, but a high number also agree that they would prefer to study only topics which
they believe to be relevant to their future careers, suggesting preference for just in
time rather than just in case learning.
Around 45% agree that their usual working pattern involves doing the minimum
amount of work which is required of me, but almost 40% reject this strategic
position.
Motivation
The majority report some problems with motivation. Over 50% agreed/strongly
agreed with the item I often found it difficult to get motivated to work on my course.
20% disagreed/ strongly disagreed. Gaining high marks, as opposed to just passing,
emerged as extremely important, and under 10% disagreed or felt non-committal
about the statement I need to know how well Im doing in order to feel motivated to
work. Surprisingly, in the light of the high levels of subject interest expressed
elsewhere in the responses, the item I often find my course boring but will stick with
it because I want a good job elicited agreement from almost 50%. Around 35%
disagreed. More students agreed than disagreed that inherent ability is the biggest
factor in academic success at institute, but the majority preferred not to express an
opinion on this item.
Motivation appears to have different sources for different students. The main source
of strong motivation to engage in day-to-day academic tasks is subject interest. Many
students state that they are motivated to stick with their course, even if they find it
dull, in order to get a good job. However, this does not seem to translate to hard
work on a day-to-day basis for many students. The vast majority state that they need
to know how they are doing in order to feel motivated to work. Students who
achieve high day-to-day motivation seem to have higher levels of subject interest,
academic orientation and confidence. They also show better adjustment and more
realistic expectations of institute.
There is no association between agreement that getting high marks, rather than just
passing, is important (nearly all students agreed with this item) and doing more than
the minimum amount of work required. Many students seem to want high marks on
the minimum of effort.

Student characteristics and entry choices
Students who state that they make the decision to go to college/institute because they
are interested in studying a particular subject show overall more effective study
behaviours, levels of academic orientation and adjustment, and higher motivation and
satisfaction. All of these relate to subject interest at the point of the decision to enter
HE rather than just at the point of choosing a course. Students who mention academic
reasons (e.g. an enjoyment of studying and learning) at the point of HE entry have
higher academic orientation and motivation.
Instrumental reasons for course/institute entry do not correlate with poor study
behaviours, motivation or adjustment unless this is the most important reason.
Students who enter the institute or course because of its reputation seem to work
harder and to feel more strongly committed to the institution.
Students who are influenced by their teachers to enter HE or to enter a particular
course are not particularly likely to show the problematic characteristics of reactive
entrants. However, students who state that family influence was important in their
decision may exhibit some of these, especially if their older siblings have entered
institute as well.

Students who consider leaving
Students with the following characteristics were more likely to have considered leaving
institute:
living at home
parental occupation in a lower socioeconomic category (possibly relating to
financial hardship, see below)
gender (women were more likely to consider leaving, although this correlation
was not significant)
generation (first generation students were more likely to consider leaving,
although this correlation was not significant)
absence of subject interest at the point of entering HE
absence of subject interest at the point of course choice
unclear career aims
course choice on the basis of attraction to the course title
desire for a well-paid job as the most important reason for course choice
poor attendance, low private study time
low motivation
poor academic adjustment/integration
poor social adjustment/integration
low academic orientation


Student interview feedback
Interviews were carried out with a small number of highly motivated and satisfied
students. It was possible to glean from these interviews some of the characteristics
which had helped them gain a very positive experience of institute:
thorough research before choosing their course
research and preparation for the experience of institute, building realistic
expectations
willingness to reflect on their own academic and social experience at institute.
excellent academic and pastoral support from tutors, including use of electronic
resources
excellent teaching; enjoyment of both traditional lectures and interactive sessions
strong and consistent independent study habits and excellent time management
proactive and outgoing approach to building their social lives at institute

Sources of dissatisfaction for these students included:
lack of course-based social activities (some students only)
presence of strategic students
financial hardship, especially unexpected financial hardship

These students were all highly motivated to work. Some of the sources of their motivation
were:
high levels of subject interest
career aspirations
growing confidence in their academic ability (worry was an initial problem for
some)
personal satisfaction and bettering ones own performance
intellectual growth and learning new things
excellent teaching and good relations with lecturers

These students expressed very similar ideas about the purpose of a institute. This was
regarded as a combination of vocational preparation for work, intellectual stimulation
and growth, and personal development and the chance of a institute experience.
Time pressures caused by balancing very diverse elements, in particular the need to
earn money, social life and academic workloads, was noted by many. For some
students academic work appears to be the lowest priority and for others it is
paramount.
Tutors felt that most students do not gain a useful set of study skills for HE from their
previous educational experience. Problems were noted with areas such as:
time management and identification of priorities
independent working
problem-solving skills
logical and conceptual work, structuring arguments
communication skills, in particular sustained writing and report writing
reading, note-taking and listening
some aspects of social and interpersonal skills

While students can improve their generic skills, most staff found that the single most
important factor in this area was the placement year, after which students learnt to
treat their institute course in a professional way.

Overall, students who took a transactional approach to their studies were identified
as a particular source of frustration. These are students whose approach to higher
education might be summed up as you give us the information, we give it back to
you and you give us the marks. They do not wish to engage with the subject or
undergo any kind of intellectual transformation.

Some staff were aware of the presence of strategic students, and also of a small
number of students who feel that if they are paying they have a right to pass.
Staff felt that levels of motivation vary enormously. Most had observed an
improvement in motivation as the course continues. Sources of motivation were
identified as subject interest, career goals (which were seen as motivation to pass
rather than to work hard for most students), fear of failure and desire to perform well,
and good relations with tutors. Lack of confidence was mentioned as a demotivator
by a few staff, but was generally underestimated. Feedback was not mentioned as a
motivator.
Overall, staff felt that it was difficult to encourage students to engage in the personal
development aspect of their institute experience, although this is probably the most
valuable element both for students and for employers of graduates.

Reflections
most students are very satisfied and have enjoyed their institute experience
staff like their students and are strongly committed to providing excellent
teaching and learning
students feel fairly well adjusted to their academic and social lives at institute
students do relatively little private study, and attendance falls through the academic
year
poor attendance relates to low motivation, lack of integration and risk of
withdrawal
staff have a fairly accurate awareness of student lifestyles but would like more
information and more accurate information about these
a relatively high number of students state that they sometimes lack motivation
demotivators include: lack of interest, a failure to connect employment goals
with current tasks (especially where future goals themselves lack clarity),
worry, lack of confidence in ones abilities, time pressures, unclear or
undefined priorities and poor study habits.
low motivation is in a vicious cycle with poor study habits, lack of enjoyment
and integration, and a failure to engage with personal development aspects of
the course
a number of students are reactive entrants to institute; they are vulnerable to
failure and/or withdrawal
a number of students take a strategic approach to their course; this puts them
at risk of failure/withdrawal and disrupts the learning of other students, in
particular making it difficult to use student centred teaching methods
reasons for entry shape student behaviour; students who decide to go to
institute because of interest in a particular subject are more likely to persist
and be satisfied
realistic expectations lead to a more satisfying experience and better
adjustment
perceptions of institute are shaped by the relationship of expectations to
experience
many non-traditional students are highly motivated and have strong study
habits
staff feel positive towards non-traditional students
female students are in general less confident (academically and socially) than
males
students who live in halls of residence have better adjustment, attendance and
persistence than students who live at home
student perceptions of staff approachability relate at least partly to the
academic support available
the financial reality of student life surprises many students
staff and at least some students share a view that the mission of the institute is
to offer both vocational training and intellectual growth through personal
development
staff worry that some students do not engage with personal development
activities and favour a transactional approach to learning
staff are aware of enormous diversity in the attitudes and lifestyles of students
self-management, prioritisation, note-taking, listening and directed reading,
written and verbal communication, problem-solving, conceptual work, and
reflection and report on their own learning. Staff also worry about the
development of transactional approaches to learning
staff note that generic skills improve throughout the course and especially
during or after work placements.
student confidence is often low and students would benefit from more
feedback on their progress and interaction with staff
staff and students may bring different unspoken assumptions to the institute;
a lack of communication may be responsible for some difficulties\


CHAPTER 12
Recommendations
strong support for more small-group and/or one-to-one staff/student contact,
including tracking of individual student progress
formal routes to individual academic support
address issues of poor motivation
consider introducing activities similar to those of work placements early in the
course
consider ways of discouraging transactional approaches to learning and
engaging students with generic skills and personal development activities
examine good practice among students and look at ways to extend this
through the student population
attempt to engage all students in subject interest early on, including those for
whom this is not a high priority at entry
encourage students to develop clear personal goals throughout the course
actively relate future employment to current studies, again early on in the
course
help staff gain clear picture of student lives
integrate realistic information about student lives into planning of
administrative procedures such as timetabling
build in ongoing feedback early in the course
make staff aware of underlying demographic factors, e.g. gender differences
and class differences in part-time work take-up.
attempt to reproduce some of the hall of residence experience for students
living at home (e.g. facilitating and accommodating study groups, offering
out of class spaces, etc)
manage student expectations before entry and during the course
recognise and manage the specific difficulties of reactive and strategic
students, including their impact on the learning experience of other students
note that these latter groups are defined by attitude/approach, not
demographics
facilitate dialogue between staff and students as a central activity of the
course; ensure that all students participate in this




CHAPTER 13 Conclusion

This report offers a snapshot of some of the lives, attitudes and experiences of some
students looking out for Higher education. What emerges is encouraging and positive;
the majority have thoroughly enjoyed their institute experience and the academic
component of this in particular. They are generally well adjusted to their lives at
institute, although relatively few claim very high levels of adjustment. In general,
staff like their students, and are impressed by their efforts at institute and by the
maturity which they achieve as they progress through their courses. Staff are aware of
the difficulties which students face and sympathetic to these. Lecturers are concerned
to provide an excellent learning experience for their students, and help them get the
most out of their course, in terms of enjoyment, academic development and
preparation for work.
However, there are some genuine problems. One is a genuine gap in motivation
among at least some students. Specific groups are especially vulnerable to this, but it
appears to affect a broad range of students at some time or other. Various factors
cause this: a lack of interest, a failure to connect employment goals with current tasks
(perhaps because these future goals themselves lack clarity), worry and lack of
confidence in ones own abilities, time pressures, unclear or undefined priorities and
poor study habits. Low motivation operates in a vicious cycle with poor study habits,
lack of enjoyment and integration, and a failure to engage with the personal
development aspects of the course which are fundamental to a higher education
experience.

One group of students who are unmotivated are those whose entry to institute has in
some way been reactive, i.e. they have chosen to enter HE because of pressure from
family, teachers or peers or because it seems to be a natural progression after school.
Getting these students to engage with the institution and develop good study habits is
a challenge; they are especially vulnerable to drifting away from behaviours which
support their learning and ultimately from institute itself.
Another problem is the presence of strategic students, who set out to do as little
work as possible in order to get through their course. If they manage the inherent risks
of their strategy well, they may persist and pass, but there is a danger that they may
fail or withdraw. Even where they achieve a measure of success, strategic students are
unlikely to have a good experience in HE, and their presence is annoying, even
demotivating, to students who are interested in their course and work hard. This is
partly because the success of strategic students implies a devaluing of the institute
places which hardworking students make sacrifices to keep, and partly because they
make it difficult for all students to get the most out of student-centred teaching
methods which many favour.
In general, the reasons which inform students entry decisions will influence their
behaviours once they are in HE. Students who decide to go to institute because of
interest in their subject, whether or not this is accompanied by instrumental aims, are
likely to show a cluster of characteristics which predict academic satisfaction and
retention. Where students do not have clear subject interests and/or career goals, they
are more likely to encounter difficulties.
Successful students are also likely to have realistic expectations of their course and
their institute experience as a whole. Students with realistic expectations report higher
levels of adjustment and satisfaction once at institute, while those whose expectations
turn out to have been mistaken in a particular area will find adjustment in that field
more difficult, and are less likely to be satisfied. In addition, perceptions of aspects of
the institute experience appear to have more to do with how the reality measures up to
student expectations than with that reality itself. For the most part, reports of
satisfaction and experience relate to expectations and not with programme (students
on the same programme will have had broadly the same actual experience).
It appears that successful, academically oriented students are just as likely if not
more likely to be non-traditional students and/or those who might be considered as
successes of the widening participation initiative. Contrary to the situation described
in some national reports, academic staff on the courses examined at any institute have
extremely positive attitudes towards the quality of these students. This may contribute
to the success of the institution in meeting both its retention and widening
participation targets.
There are some correlations between adjustment, attitude, study behaviours and
persistence decisions and various demographic factors. Women seem to have lower
levels of academic and social confidence than men, although their academic
adjustment may be slightly better. Students who enter with qualifications other than
A-levels show slightly worse academic adjustment and orientation. Mature-age
students seem less likely to consider leaving, and first-generation students seem to
have slightly higher academic orientation and subject interest, although they are
slightly more likely to consider leaving.
The most important demographic factor appears to be accommodation. Students who
live in Institute of Institute Halls of Residence are better attenders and show overall
stronger academic orientation, enjoyment and satisfaction. This is probably because it
is considerably easier for them to integrate into the institution, and also practically
simpler for them to attend lectures and use academic and social facilities.
Relations between students and staff seem to be reasonably good. Students generally
feel that staff are good teachers and are approachable; however, student perceptions of
staff approachability appear to relate closely to their expectations about the
availability of academic support. The personalities of academic staff seem to be a
secondary issue.
For many students, the financial realities of institute life are harsh, and the students
interviewed, despite excellent overall levels of preparation, found that this came as a
surprise. The impact of debt on recruitment is outside the remit of this project, but it is
worth noting that several of the interviewees stated that the prospect of owing the
sums of money which will become the norm after 2006 would have been a serious
deterrent or an outright bar to their entering HE.
Staff and students appear to have a similar set of priorities for the mission of the
institute; vocational preparation, general intellectual development, and personal
development in generic skills, institute experience and individual transformation.
However, it is possible that the views of the student interviewees represent those of
only a minority of the students population. Staff felt that for many students the
personal development aspect of institute is squeezed out under current constraints of
time and finance. They also suggested that for many students this is a very low
priority, at least until the final year once they have developed a more mature and
professional attitude during a placement year.
Staff generally have a fairly accurate picture of student characteristics and lifestyles.
However, some said that they would like more information about these, and there
were areas where many staff did not know a great deal about students. In general they
slightly over-estimate student motivation, but under-estimate the importance of
gaining high marks and also of knowing how one is doing to students. Staff are
aware that there is an enormous range of different attitudes and lifestyles among their
students.

Staff are concerned about certain student attitudes and abilities. In particular, they feel
that incoming students are weak in self-management and prioritisation, and various
basic generic skills, e.g. note-taking, listening and directed reading, written and verbal
communication, problem-solving and conceptual work, and reflection and report on
their own learning. Staff also worry about the development of transactional
approaches to learning, which make it difficult to engage in student centred
techniques, deep learning or problem solving.
Some staff and students are also concerned about the development of a customer
approach from a minority of students as they begin to perceive that they are paying
more for their education, and about the detrimental effect on teaching and learning
which this may have.
Students often lack confidence in their own abilities, and may not relate working hard
to gaining the high marks which they crave. This may relate to poor study skills, or to
the lack of opportunities for individual encouragement and feedback from academic
staff. It may also arise because students are often inclined to believe that success at
institute is determined by inherent ability, or by performance before they enter
institute. A disturbing number prefer to believe that they just can or just cant do
certain things, and find it surprising (and encouraging) when they realise that they can
actually learn things. Again, this relates to a belief in transactional learning rather than
transformation through learning.
Many students lack a discourse or dialogue to discuss elements of their institute
experience. Often, the institution and its staff may work on the basis of different
fundamental but unspoken assumptions about the purpose of the institute, and some of
its core activities, from those employed by the students. The need for a dialogue
around various aspects such as skills, employability, personal development and the
purpose of HE emerges from this study.
What sorts of activity are suggested by these findings? In the first place, it provides
yet another argument for building in more opportunities for staff: student contact in
small groups or one-to-one interactions. Both staff and students were clear about the
value of this; it was seen as encouraging and motivating, and staff were clearly
committed to this element of their work. It is valued even where the contact is offered
through the creative and prompt use of electronic resources. And it is facilitated by an
important message from the data which should not be lost among the various less
cheerful ones; staff and students do want to cooperate in the work of the institute, and
hold fundamentally positive attitudes towards each other.

Importantly, offering students academic contact on a personal basis seems to be what
determines their view of staff as approachable or otherwise. This is extremely
encouraging because it offers a much more concrete and reasonable way of
improving staff-student relations than the rather vague exhortation to lecturers to be
nice to students. Of course, it would be absurd to argue against any initiative of this
latter sort. However, it is often frustrating for academics to be told that they must
really care about their students, or to imply that certain kinds of personality have a
better chance of offering excellence in education. Advising staff on frequency and
type of professional interaction is considerably simpler than offering advice on what
constitute appropriate emotions.

Poor motivation among students needs to be addressed. It is not simply the fault of
staff who fail to enthuse their students. Some students arrive at institute with
relatively little interest in their subject, and even where they bring a level of subject
interest this is does not always translate into a willingness to put the work in. Student
centred teaching can encourage some students to participate more in their own
education, but it is impossible to centre ones teaching very effectively on students
whose inclination is to place themselves at the margins. Specific problems with
motivation were identified by staff. The transactional approach to education is one
symptom of this, and another is an unwillingness to develop generic skills and to
engage in the personal development involved in education.

Many staff felt that the placement year was key to improving both generic skills and
motivation. This may occur partly because going on placement helps students to
clarity their career goals, and to see the link between all aspects of their course and
future employment. If they perceive that report writing, prioritisation of their time and
problem solving are essential in the workplace, they have a greater incentive to work
on these than if they have simply been told to do so by a teacher. In addition,
students who develop these abilities in the workplace can find that a job is more
interesting when it is done in a professional way.

The workplace incorporates some of the elements which students themselves say they
find motivating. Jobs have an inherent element of constant and ongoing feedback on
how youre doing; if one is underperforming, this will often be picked up very
quickly while good performance will be noted and sometimes rewarded. In addition,
students whose placement work means that they work in a team will experience
subject-based integration of the sort for which universities strive.

Building some of these elements into the early stages of a course would be a very
useful strategy. However, the workplace has several distinct advantages over the
institute for doing so, and for engaging students with these activities. In the first place,
attendance at work is compulsory, and instead of the situation where nothing happens
to you if you dont do the work, something does happen to employees who do not
show up or who fail to do their job. In addition, students spend more time, and more
consistent time in their workplace, rather than perhaps 16 or 18 contact hours spread
out over the week. A placement offers all students some of the advantages of the Halls
of Residence. And students in the workplace are almost forced to undertake the
activity of meeting and dealing with new and diverse people which some staff stated
was a low priority for unmotivated students. Communication and interpersonal skills
are fundamental to day-to-day survival.

Perhaps both staff and students can learn from student good practice of the sort
described by the interviewees. Staff were careful to point out that, although they spent
more time in their interviews talking about the worse students, they were aware that
many were hard-working, motivated and had good study skills. It is entirely
understandable that these students who are getting things right did not occupy a
great deal of the discussion, as they are in one sense unremarkable; the course is set
up to work for students like them. However, it is interesting that we know relatively
little about the habits, interests and priorities of excellent students in the modern
institute. Identifying and sharing good practice is a standard technique in staff
development; could this be extended to our students as well?

Trapping or encouraging subject interest at an early stage is important here. There is
a discourse of institute entrance which focuses on career goals to the exclusion of this,
and it appears that students who enter without at least some attachment to the subject
are vulnerable to poor study habits and adjustment, and also to withdrawal. Building
subject interest from scratch for these students rather than simply assuming that
everyone on a course has an attachment to their field is important. This may be
achieved partly through regular and precise careers activities from the very beginning
of the course, because it makes the link between classroom activity and the desired
job.

Another aspect of student good practice which can be fostered by the institution is
clarity of personal goals and their relation to study. This appears to be one of the
motivating factors for students on the highly specialised vocational courses which
have been mentioned above.

To encourage better motivation, and facilitate student work in general, staff need to
have a clear picture of day-to-day student lives. Overall staff do not seem to hold
highly inaccurate beliefs, but there are some misconceptions and a real staff hunger
for clear information about what life is like for all of their students. Staff and students
also feel that this sort of realistic picture might be helpful in some administrative
areas, e.g. timetabling.
Some of the student priorities identified, most importantly ongoing feedback, could be
used in boosting motivating and possibly also effective study behaviours such as good
time management and attendance. Where students fail to take up opportunities for
formative feedback, this might be supported by the sort of dialogue discussed below.
It would also be useful for students to know about some of the less obvious aspects
of student opinion and lifestyle. One finding from this project which would probably
come as a surprise to many staff is the lack of confidence among many female
students; the knock-on effects of this in student representation and possibly also
achievement are not known.
One area in which it might be possible to extend student good practice is in helping
students who live at home to enjoy some of the advantages conferred by
accommodation in Halls of Residence. In particular, this would involve providing
spaces where it is pleasant and easy to spend academic or social down time on
campus. The informal study groups used by students might be facilitated by provision
of small spaces which are reasonably quiet but do not require library like silence,
and where it is possible to spread out ones work and have a cup of coffee. Gaps
between lectures might be spent on campus if students could go somewhere warm,
comfortable and ideally smoke-free where they can sit down for an hour or so
without having to spend money. And providing more social events around courses
would help provide a institute community for students living at home. All of these
require large resources of time and money, but would probably be appreciated by
many students.
Managing student expectations from before entry and during the first year (at least) is
extremely important in helping students to enjoy their course and to adjust well. The
strong relationship between expectations and adjustment/satisfaction is also important
when the new emphasis on surveys of student satisfaction is considered.
All of the above activities will have some impact on the specific problems caused by
two groups of students who are vulnerable to withdrawal or failure, the strategic and
the reactive groups. An awareness and acknowledgement that a minority of students
do fall into these categories is important, as is the development of some measures to
support their learning and to help them get more out of their institute experience than
might have been the case (or, indeed, their intention).

It is not really practical just to leave them. Strategic students clearly damage the
quality of classroom experience for all students (especially where tutors try to use
interactive and student-centred techniques); their decision to follow their institute
career in this way is not something which harms only them. In addition, the
behaviours of these groups may have worked at a time when staff: student ratios were
low and staff had the time to put in the effort with individual students which would
ensure that they engaged sufficiently with their course to pass. As students are
required to be more proactive in owning and managing their own learning, reactive
and strategic students are going to find it harder to survive at institute.

Very importantly, these are groups of students defined not by any demographic factor,
but by their attitudes and approaches to study. There is some evidence that these may
relate weakly to some demographic factors. For example, mature-age students rarely
fall into either category (for obvious practical reasons); both Kneales study and this
one suggest that more men than women are strategic, and there is evidence that first-
generation students are less likely than second to be reactive entrants. However,
there are plenty of highly motivated young, male and/or second generation students
who come to institute with a love of their subject and a determination to work hard,
and a number of strategists and reactive entrants will be female and/or first
generation.

All of these issues are related to the theme of unspoken assumptions about the
institute on the part of both staff and students, and to the need to open a dialogue in
which both sides can voice these. This is not easy. Dialogue, and the formation of a
shared discourse, needs time and space, and is best achieved in small groups rather
than in the larger classes and impersonal fora which are becoming more common in
higher education. Students who have grown used to a transactional approach to
learning in school may be unwilling to put in the additional time and thought needed
for this process; such a resistance has been mentioned by several staff. However,
active participation in a dialogue is an effective way for staff and students to learn
more about each other and reinforce the academic community.

Several priorities for staff-student dialogue have been noted in this project. The nature
of learning, skills, feedback and motivation are all areas of interest for both students
and staff. As students reflect on their experiences and enhance their own learning,
staff can find out more about the individuals whom they teach and can shape teaching
methods and organisation towards this group. Once again, discussion and active
exploration is a more effective way to help students understand the mission of the
institution in areas such as feedback and generic skills acquisition; there is something
of a contradiction in expecting them to believe things in these areas because they have
just been told that it is true.

If institute is a place where students are encouraged to take part in a dialogue, this will
crucially establish the fact that it is different from school. However good secondary
schools are at their job, it is different from that of a higher education institution.
Whether dialogue is regarded as an old-fashioned function of intellectual development
or a modern generic skill for the adaptable, creative, problem-solving professional (or,
as most of the staff and students interviewed would probably argue, as a bit of both),
it is something that definitely belongs in a institute, and which students will not only
enjoy, but need.

Some of the tensions around institute teaching, such as the difference between
transactional and transformational learning, can be explored here. The nature and
ethics of transformation can be discussed, where these are a source of anxiety or
simply unknowns for students. It is also a place where students can reflect on the
variety of sometimes bewildering experiences. Students can learn more about the
purpose of the subject skills and knowledge which they are acquiring, in relation to
their relevance in the outside world and to individual career goals. They can also gain
generic skills of reflection, report, analysis and communication. A dialogue would
encourage students, to paraphrase one of the student interviewees, to think about this
sort of thing. It might also help them, to paraphrase one of the staff, to dream.

CHAPTER 14
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