Retention, or ‘continuation’ to use more regulatory language, is a key measure to assess the performance of universities in England. The Office for Students (OfS) focuses on continuation rates to improve the quality of HE (Higher Education) provision. Poor performance in retaining students puts the registration status of HE institutions at risk.
Retention is a perennial challenge for many HE institutions, and improving the continuation and completion metrics is paramount, especially given their influence on the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and league tables.
Achieving a one hundred per cent retention rate is untenable for universities. For some students, it is the right decision to leave university, and we should be supporting these students where it is an informed choice. The strategic approach to this ongoing challenge of retaining students should be to maximise continuation and minimise non-continuation, setting realistic and achievable targets that firmly have in mind the numerical thresholds for condition B3.
Keeping our students on their programmes/courses is a complex and multi-faceted task. There is no one magical ingredient to improving retention. One effective intervention to help tackle the issue of retention is personal academic tutoring.
Personal tutoring models vary across the HE sector. At some HE institutions, the nature of the relationship might be to focus primarily on either academic matters or pastoral matters, or it might be a mixture of academic and pastoral support. A common theme is the goal of supporting, advising and guiding students during their academic journey.
Personal academic tutoring at Winchester
At The University of Winchester, we operate a personal academic tutoring (PAT) framework. The focus of this collaborative and supportive bi-directional relationship is on academic matters. Personal academic tutors, or PATs as they are more commonly known, provide support, advice, and guidance to assist students to achieve their full academic potential, as well as improve their future employment and ongoing personal development.
Our approach to personal academic tutoring is proactive rather than reactive, with a clear demarcation between academic and pastoral support. We have Student Support and Success Advisors (SSSAs) assigned to each faculty who focus their attention more on the pastoral side rather than academic matters, working in tandem with PATs to support our students.
At Winchester, we place importance on the interaction between academic staff and students. We strive to create a personalised learning environment, with PATs providing engagement opportunities for students. The University sets out the expectations and responsibilities of both staff and students through its Personal Academic Tutoring: Code of Practice. This openly and transparently sets out the parameters of this supportive collaborative relationship.
Meetings with students are set at timely points in the academic year, although students can contact their PATs at any time. Normally, we encourage the first meeting of the new academic year to be a group meeting. This approach provides the opportunity for new students to connect with each other or to re-connect existing students back together, allowing the development or maintenance of valuable social support networks and enhancing their sense of belonging on the programme/course and at the University. Other PAT meetings take place later in the academic year and tend to take the format of one-to-one meetings. This is to develop and nurture a more personal touch to the PAT experience.
The University’s commitment to providing effective personal academic tutoring is highlighted through the prominence of personal academic tutoring within our Education and Student Experience Strategy, along with the importance that it places on supporting and enhancing the development of staff through training events and teaching and learning opportunities. On the latter, the University has devised and offers a module on ‘Compassionate Academic Support and Tutoring’ within the MA Learning and Teaching in Higher Education programme. Such has been the success of this module, which is taught by Dr Elizabeth Munro, that we have opened up this module as a CPD opportunity for staff. This module provides academic staff with a theoretical and practical understanding of the key themes and debates in personal academic tutoring, along with the professional competencies that make an effective personal academic tutor.
Next steps and sharing good practice
Dr Munro and I are in the initial stages of taking this teaching and learning opportunity a step further. Our plans are to create a short online course on personal academic tutoring which will be available to anyone across the sector. The aim is to bring greater attention to, and understanding of, the benefits of personal academic tutoring, especially in helping to keep students on track to finish their studies and achieve their full potential.
Below are three pieces of advice for anyone responsible for setting up a personal academic tutoring system:
Set clear boundaries and parameters, ensuring that both students and staff know the expectations and responsibilities of the PAT relationship.
Offer developmental training opportunities for PATs which span the academic year.
Make the most of the different features of your learner analytics tool to help you to monitor the digital engagement and progress of your students.
About the author
Dr Gary Jones is the Director of Academic Engagement and Retention at The University of Winchester. After completing his PHD, he went into social research working on Aston Science Park. In 2003, he entered the HE sector. Gary has held numerous roles and positions across HE, including personal tutor, Programme Leader, Head of Department, and Acting Dean.
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