Fresher’s Squad
Fresher’s Satisfaction towards Transition into Higher Education within the University of Chichester Student Numbers: 1404843, 1401421, 1400890, 1403077
When analysing this model, step five titled 're-orientation and re-introduction', and step six titled 'outduction' have not been used as these elements focus on factors that do not align with the research aim and objectives. Henceforth, only steps one to four provide the focus needed, on elements including accommodation, induction to study and social elements; as used for a basis of survey questions. 'A typology of student transition in higher education' also allowed for a strong basis and further understanding of the factors included in Morgan's model (Brook et al, 2014, p. 16 - 18).
Whitaker (2008) highlights that confidence is derived from how students are managed pre-arrival through different mediums such as websites, information, and expectations. Therefore, this section analyses the retained research results of confidence levels in relation to induction week. Also acknowledged by Whitaker (2008, p. 89), ‘learning and teaching strategies’ can ‘encourage student confidence’, acknowledging why this section relates to induction workshops and meeting lecturers. It can also be valuable to note that this section relates to the first three steps of the Student Practitioner Model (Morgan, 2011).
This section aims to summarise the main headline results relating to induction week activities and responses. When designing the survey, an important element included gaining a representation of the student voice in relation to the success and usefulness of induction week workshops, an ‘essential’ element of transition and induction (University of Bedfordshire, 2013, p. 5). This section also mentions the measure of success for satisfaction levels within the University of Chichester and more specifically the Business School, linking to step four of Morgan’s (2011) Student Practitioner Model.
Which means transition into Higher Education is a critical element of the student experience. Research (Kandiko et al, 2013) suggests that good application of transitional factors, correlate with student satisfaction of initial induction and future educational careers. Moreover, (Gale et al, 2011) highlights how transition into higher education can ‘be an issue’; challenges can arise.
Overall, 87% of University of Chichester (UOC) students ‘were satisfied with induction (UOC Induction Survey, 2015, p.3). Per department, other research shows that the overall satisfaction of induction week within the Business School was at 83% as shown in Figure 1 (UOC Induction Survey, 2015).
Figure 5 represents that overall the students voiced both a significant level of confidence (35.7%) and anxiousness (32.8%) relating to induction workshops before arrival.
More of the student cohort were anxious, however, this was expected (Christie et al, 2007). But the votes of confidence may have been influenced by other factors.
Influential factors upon this response includes those moving into accommodation and those commuting from home and the type of student; international or domestic.
This statistic however, is one of the lower satisfaction rates within the UOC. Figure 1 - Satisfaction levels of students per department (UOC Induction Survey, 2015, p. 3)
Figure 5 - The level of confidence of the student voice in relation to the induction sessions, pre-arrival.
Business School Focused Induction Week Results:
60.3% of students rated the overall welcome of induction week as ‘useful’.
78% of students rated the welcome as ‘useful’ or ‘very useful’.
In contrast, 13.7% of students rated the welcome as ‘slightly useful’ or ‘not useful at all’.
Mean: 19.3 Median: 19 Range: 18 - 36 years
Research Aims and Objectives: Furthermore, the aim of this research is to:
USEFULLNESS OF EACH INDUCTION WORKSHOP (%)
1) To assess student satisfaction with induction week at the University of Chichester, and in particular the induction activities run by the Business School. 2) To identify specific areas of enhancement within the induction process and to make recommendations to the Business School induction coordinator.
3) To examine the success of transition strategies used by the university using the student experience practitioner model as a reference point.
Figure 3 highlights that the two workshops that were best received in relation to usefulness of transition included ‘Making a Successful Transition’ and ‘Introduction to Moodle’.
Derived from these results, it could be concluded that due to domestic students having more opportunities of interaction with the Business School pre-arrival, this makes them more confident.
Commuters found the referencing workshop more useful with only 11.5% stating that the workshop was ‘slightly useful’; compared to 17% of residential students.
No international students rated ‘confident’ or ‘very confident’ in relation to pre-arrival feelings regarding meeting lecturers and had high levels of ‘anxiousness’ at 66.7%.
This shows a link between the relevance of induction workshops and the significance of the environment, with more emphasis on the Library from those that call the campus home (WHO, 1986 as cited in Healthy Universities, n.d).
PERCENTAGE (%)
Figure 7 - Levels of students’ confidence pre-arrival segmented into domestic and international students.
Pearson Chi-Square Likelihood Ratio
df 4
.812
1.572
4
.814
.439
1
.508
tion N of Valid Cases
pected count is 1.44.
There is no significant difference between meeting lecturers and the type of accommodation in relation to pre- arrival confidence levels for meeting lecturers. PERCENTAGE (%)
Figure 8 - Levels of students’ confidence pre-arrival segmented into commuters and residential students.
10
7
9
2
30
No
2
17
6
15
2
42
Efficiency of the admissions process:
4
27
13
24
4
72
Figure 9 shows that pre-registration was rated the most ‘efficient’ in relation to the admissions process.
Following pre-registration at 90.2% efficiency, degree registration followed at 82.2% of students rating this as ‘efficient’.
SCALE OF CONFIDENCE
Working vs Non working students:
PERCENTAGE (%)
45.3% of students that work part time rated feelings of ‘anxious’ or ‘very anxious’ in relation to confidence of meeting lecturers.
Significance of this is that an emphasis on working students pre-arrival and during induction should be evident through a suggested use of information on how to manage university and working life.
“Needed help with transport, I was
Figure 14 shows the majority of students that answered the questionnaire lived told to get the no.50 bus from Stockbridge to Bognor; however it in Barbara Smith Halls (28.7%) or Longbrook (15%). does not go to Bognor, so I got lost on However many students based on the Bognor campus lived in halls in Chichester the first day . such as Stockbridge (13.7%) or Bishop Otter Campus (7%). This shows that a large percentage of students have to commute from (Student’ comment) Chichester to get to lectures/events on the Bognor Regis Campus meaning many will have missed out on vital time getting to know course mates and new Figure 14 acquaintances
Figure 13 - Fresher’s confidence levels relating to accommodation.
Figure 15 shows the majority of students that answered the questionnaire found Facebook useful (31.9%) whilst some found it unhelpful when transitioning to the university (25.5%).
USEFULLNESS OF FACEBOOK Figure 15
Results show that due to the admissions process being efficient, as this was not anticipated, students had too much time to spend between the induction sessions on the programme; with an emphasis on having ‘no time wasting’ in future (Student’s
PERCENTAGE (%)
In relation to the survey question ‘what three words best describe your experience of induction week within the Business School’ (question 17), Cloud 1 and Cloud 2 represent the negative and positive connotations answering this question.
n = 165 words representative of 55 students
Cloud 1 - Collation of words with negative connotations describing induction week at the University of Chichester’s Business School; from Fresher’s students.
Cloud 2 - Positive - Collation of positive words that best describe induction week in the Business School at the University of Chichester from Fresher’s students.
Reference List:
Figure 9 - Efficiency of the administration processes during induction week.
“Make it shorter”.
“Make everything of use”. (Students’ reflective comment on induction’s administration)
Throughout the research, students often said that the pre- arrival information, such as the ‘timetables needed to be realised earlier’ in order to book time off, and make preparations so that they can fully participate in induction week. Also students who live at home felt more anxious compared to students living in university provided accommodation, therefore more activities could be designed to include these students and make them feel more welcome; as ‘home based students face greater difficulty establishing friendships’ (Lowe and Cook, 2003 cited in Whittaker). Social media could also be improved as students often said that ‘social media needed organisation.’ A need for more consistency across different media accounts is recommended for the University of Chichester and the Business School including improvements to the Facebook page. This also links to comments made about accommodation and the need for more information about the process, such as photos of rooms, tips on what to bring and what is already available in the rooms. Making these recommendations is encouraged in order to gain more student satisfaction in relation to induction week, and so that an easier transition for different types of students can be achieved.
Next steps - 2016:
Moving forward it will also be important to increase the use of Facebook to introduce students that are living together, as this will help to decrease the feelings of anxiety towards moving into university accommodation. As Facebook provides some students with a sense of belonging (Adams et al,. citied in Woodley and Meredith, P.1) PERCENTAGE (%)
IT induction showed high levels of ‘inefficiency, at 21.5%.
n = 33words representative of 11 students
The medical registration process had the lowest ratings of ‘efficiency’ with only 56.7% of students rating it as efficient.
Qualitative confidence scale:
EFFICIENCY OF ADMINISTRATION PROCESSES DURING INDUCTION WEEK (%)
From the research conducted it is clear to see where improvements can be made to improve future fresher’s experience of their induction week.
Therefore there should be ‘social events taking into consideration people who drive’ or travel to increase the feelings of confidence towards socialising and making friends at university. Also there should also be more consideration for students who have part time jobs or other responsibility’s to make sure that students participate in social activities to aid their transition.
There is a significant difference between meeting lectures and the type of accommodation in relation to pre- arrival confidence levels for meeting lecturers.
Recommendations for 2016 and beyond:
”
From the research it is clear to see that 20.7% students are travelling from Chichester, which some found problematic during induction week as Percentage of students who used they needed ‘more assistants with travel’ between Chichester and Bognor. Facebook during the transition: ATTITUDES TOWARDS ACCOMMODATION (%) Many students used social media in order to meet potential housemates as well as organise themselves for social events put on by the Student Union, however the research turned up that most individuals only relied on one social media platform to do these tasks, Facebook.
The alternative hypothesis
PERCENTAGE (%)
This links to both sections 1 and 2 (Morgan, 2011, steps 2 and 4).
USEFULLNESS OF FACEBOOK
Most students that answered the questionnaire were either anxious about moving into accommodation (38.9%) or confident (38.9%) (Christie et al, 2007, p. 7) However a large amount of students were not sure about how they felt before moving in (16.7%). This information shows that all round most potential students had mixed feelings on the whole experience beforehand with most siding with confident or anxious.
SCALE OF CONFIDENCE
40.5% of students without a part time job rated their confidence levels as ‘confident’ and ‘very confident’.
LOCATION OF STUDENTS IN HALLS
How students felt about moving into accommodation:
X= 1.582 p= .812 n>0.05
2
CONFIDENCE LEVELS OF MEETING LECTURERS WITH TYPE OF WORKER
In this section the research shown will be about how fresher’s felt about moving into their halls of residence and the various factors that made them feel more welcome such as what information they received from the university beforehand, their experience of moving in and the affects social media had on their transition.
Total
Yes
Total
Researching how fresher’s felt about moving into accommodation was essential to compiling an all-round view of how they felt being implemented into the university’s system.
Very Confident
Figure 12 shows that 69.2% of students who do not live in university halls were very anxious in relation to socialising and making friends. Compared to 48.9% of students who live in university provided accommodation. This shows that students living on campus felt more confident as they can socialise with those living around them. Students who live at home can experience greater difficulty establishing friendships as they are more likely to be less involved in university based social activities (Lowe and Cook, 2003 cited in Whittaker). Therefore students living at home felt “less welcome” and felt that there should be “more events for off campus students”.
a. 5 cells (50.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum ex-
Therefore we accept the null hypothesis because there is an association between meeting lectures and the type of accommodation lived in.
Confident
72
ADMINISTRATION PROCESSES
Not Sure
sided)
1.582a
Linear-by-Linear Associa-
11.7. Meeting lecturers Anxious
Figure 12 - Levels of students’ confidence in relation to pre-arrival feelings about socialising and making friends with comparisons between commuters and residential students.
Chi-Square Test Value
Count
Very Anxious
As demonstrated by Figure 8, levels of confidence were higher in relation to meeting lecturers for residential students (37%) in comparison to more commuting students rating as feeling ‘anxious’ (42.3%); (see Chi Squared test).
Asymp. Sig. (2-
5. Do you have a part-time job? * 11.7. Meeting lecturers Cross-tabulation
Percentage of students in Halls of Residence:
CONFIDENCE LEVELS FOR MEETING LECTURERS - TYPE OF STUDENT (%)
CONFIDENCE LEVELS FOR MEETING LECTURERS - TYPE OF ACCOMMODATION (%)
Cross-tabulation: Meeting Lecturers
Section 4, Accommodation:
Figure 11 - The level of attendance to Fresher’s events overall, comparing students who work, and those that don’t.
CONFIDENCE OF SOCIALISING AND MAKING FRIENDS WITH ACCOMMODATION TYPES (%)
The null hypothesis
This infographic illustrates the percentage of student living either in Chichester or Bognor halls or surrounding areas. This information shows that a large amount of business students based in Bognor have to commute from Chichester or other surrounding areas in order to make it to lectures/social events. Research by Sedghi and Arnett for the Guardian (2014) found that ‘each additional minute of commuting time made you feel slightly worse up to a certain point’.
TYPE OF STUDENT
SCALE OF CONFIDENCE
Residential students found the introduction to Moodle and Library resources more useful with 53.2% of students rating this workshop as useful to their transition compared to 50% of commuters rating this as useful.
5. Do you have a part-time job?
Pre-arrival interaction with international students could be valuable in helping aid their transition.
Type of accommodation comparisons:
Figure 3 - Attitudes relating to the usefulness of each induction workshops and transition.
Percentage of students living either at halls in Bognor, Chichester or living elsewhere
Type of student comparisons:
PERCENTAGE (%)
However, a difference in feelings of ‘very confident’ can be seen (4.2% increase), showing that domestic students rated a higher confidence level in comparison to international students (see Figure 7).
(Student’s reflective comment on induction week)
Induction Workshops Results:
Figure 11 shows that there is a relationship between events attended during induction week and students who have a part time job. This could affect student’s satisfaction towards induction week as they feel they had missed out on the social element of induction week. Moving forward it would be important to release the timetable earlier for induction week, allowing for individuals to book time off if need be. This is also supported by the comments supplied by commuting students who said that the “timetables needed to be released earlier”.
SCALE OF CONFIDENCE
The pre-survey research noted that 'induction should take into account different students' backgrounds and expectations, and be inclusive of international and mature students' (NUS Connect, 2015). Therefore the survey questions aimed to include an array of different student demographics; allowing for a more precise analysis of how different students respond to induction methods.
The following objectives were derived to allow fulfilment of the research aim:
In comparison to Figure 5, Figure 6 shows similar levels of confidence (34.3%) and anxiousness (37.1%).
Figure 6 - Levels of students’ confidence relating to meeting lecturers, feelings pre-arrival.
“More information was needed on Fresher’s for those who don’t live on campus”.
Crabtree et al, (n.d, p. 345) highlights the role of university lecturers as ‘providing motivation to develop an enthusiasm’ for a subject. This is why measuring confidence in relation to meeting lecturers is essential to transition.
PERCENTAGE (%)
SCALE OF CONFIDENCE
To obtain accurate results that represented the student voice of Fresher's, distribution was implemented through a compulsory first year module. This allowed for a 83.3% response rate from the expected pool of candidates, with detailed input for the survey.
Figure 2 - Attitudes of the induction welcome relating to usefulness regarding transition.
CONFIDENCE LEVELS FOR MEETING LECTURERS (%)
Figure 2 shows these ratings of ‘usefulness’ in relation to how the welcome was received to aid the students’ transition, highlighting that the overall welcome was implemented well, with good cause (Morgan, 2011).
LEVELS OF ATTENDENCE TO FRESHERS EVENTS (%)
SCALE OF CONFIDENCE
ATTITUDES TO INDUCTION WELCOME (%)
Age of Students:
Candidate Demographic:
PERCENTAGE (%)
Response Rate: 83.3%
‘Analyse student satisfaction towards induction week at university and to identify potential areas of enchancement within the University of Chichester’.
Figure 10 - The level of confidence of the student cohort relating to how they felt pre-arrival in relation to socialising.
n = 73 students
Figure 10 illustrates that 56.1% of students felt anxious about socialising and making friends before arriving at university. Compared to 34.2% that overall felt confident about socialising and making friends. This highlights the need for students to participate in social activities to decrease the feelings of anxiety and aid the transition into university. (Hillman et al., 2005 as citied in Bowles 2011).
CONFIDENCE LEVELS FOR INDUCTION SESSIONS (%)
Confidence of Induction Sessions:
Satisfaction levels of UOC students:
Against this context, the aims of this research project were to be developed as a result of the University of Chichester Business School commissioning this project with the desire to achieve higher levels of student satisfaction in future, for first year students during induction week. This therefore means that the commissioner also aims to enhance the student induction experience through the results of this project.
CONFIDENCE LEVELS FOR SOCIALISING AND MAKING FRIENDS
SATISFACTION LEVELS PER DEPARTMENT (%)
This section aims to evaluate student’s satisfaction towards the social elements of their induction week and how these events made them feel in relation to their transition into university, as ‘social transitions underpin a successful academic transition to university’ (Kantanis, 2000). Also the student Experience Practitioner Model suggests that during arrival and orientation making friends is critical in order to help students settle into their studies (Morgan, 2011).
NUMBER OF ATTENDEES
Emphasis has been placed on the student journey model (Brook et al, 2014; NUS Connect, 2015) typified by the Student Experience Practitioner Model (Morgan, 2011). As shown in Figure 1 – the model outlines a series of transition elements relating to 'managing student aspirations and expectations and academic and social integration' regarding induction (Morgan, 2011).
Section 2, Pre-arrival and the Admissions Process:
Section 1, Induction to study at University:
Use of the Student Experience Practitioner Model:
Section 3, Social Elements:
SCALE OF CONFIDENCE
Introduction and Research Background:
From these recommendations the next steps would be to refer back to the student experience practitioner model (Morgan, 2011) that was used as a basis to this research. To then further this research the last two elements of the cycle; re- orientation and re- induction and outduction, would need to be implemented to complete the cycle and gain a greater understanding of the relation between student satisfaction and the induction process.
Brook, H., Fergie, D., Maeorg, M. and Michell, D. (2014) Universities in Transition: Foregraounding Social Contexts of Knowledge in the First Year Experience. Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press, p.p 16 - 18.
Morgan, M. (2011) Supporting Student Learning into, through and out of study – Student Experience Practitioner Model, Kingston University, Slide 8, Available at: http://goo.gl/Ut7EfT (Accessed on: 11/12/2015).
Christie, H., Tett, L., Cree, V. E., Hounsell, J. and McCune, V. (2007) ‘A Real Rollercoaster of Confidence and Emotions’: Learning to be a University Student, University of Edinburgh, p. 7.
NUS Connect (2015) Transition into Higher Education Available at: http://goo.gl/g5ZiWb
Crabtree, H., Roberts, C. and Tyler, C. (n.d)Understanding the Problems of Transition into Higher Education, University of Salford, Education Consultant, p. 345.
Sedghi, A and Arnett, G for the Guardian (2014) How does commuting affect wellbeing? Available at: http://goo.gl/9HHsNO
Gale, T. and Parker, S. Good Practice Report: Student Transition into Higher Education, California: Australian Learning and Teaching Council.
University of Bedfordshire. (2013) Guide to Effective Academic Induction, Available at: https://goo.gl/RDMS2O (Accessed on: 11/12/2015)
Hillman et al., 2005 as citied Bowles, Angela et al. Research and Development in Higher Education: Higher Education On The Edge. 1st ed. Australia: Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia, Inc, 2011. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.
University of Chichester. (2015) University of Chichester Induction Survey 2015, p. 3
Kandiko, C. B. and Mawer, M. (2013). Student Expectations and Perceptions of Higher Education. London: King’s Learning Institute, p.p 13, 14. Kantanis, T. (2000) ‘The role of social transition in students’ adjustment to the first-year of university’, The role of social transition in students’: adjustment to the first-year of university. http://
Whittaker, R. (2008) Quality Enhancement Themes: The First Year Experience, Mansfield: QAA, p. 28, 89). WHO (World Health Organisation). (1986) Leading and Implementing a Healthy UniversitiesApproach to Enhance Student Experience and Performance, Healthy Universities, Available at:http:// goo.gl/R3LpZQ (Accessed on: 11/12/2015).
What would be different if the research was repeated: Survey design: Question 21a was repeated accidentally and some confusion appeared when students answered the question. This meant that many students repeated their answers again later in the questionnaire, this then placed more results into SPSS, resulting in more statistics to de-code. A single multiple choice question instead of ranking could have been used and recoding would not have been necessary. Recoding the information was very time consuming, and detracted from the collation of results. Distribution: Distribution could have occurred earlier allowing for a more detailed analysis of the collated results and more respondents could have been apparent. With the length of the survey being a total of 23 questions this took the students between 15-20 minutes to answer, this resulted in a loss of interest from students. This area could have been improved by shortening the survey down to the most important questions. Predicting the challenge of answering the questions for international students could have meant that a different method of distribution was used for this student type. International students (4.38% of total responses) feelings were not truly represented within the questionnaire, in relation to accommodation and social aspects; resulting in a slight lack of detailed analysis.