Presentation at National Postgraduate Student Experience Symposium https://postgraduatestudentexperience.com/ Kift, S. (2016). The First Year Postgraduate Experience. In National Postgraduate Student Experience Symposium, Bond University, Gold Coast. 7-8 April 2016.

1. The First Year
Postgraduate Student
Experience
A Review of Staff and Student
Perceptions & Recommendations

2. • Majority of research on undergraduate student FYE
▫ “very little reported research” re JD (Larcombe & Malkin, 2011)
▫ “almost exclusive preoccupation [with UG] with minimal
reference to postgraduate” (Nelson et al, 2011)
• A high proportion of UG students are unsettled or
dissatisfied with their FYE (e.g., Brinkworth et al.,
2009; Kift & Nelson, 2005; Brown et al., 2013)
• Complex, multi-facted & individual factors: various
external pressures, institution-related factors and
personal characteristics (Harvey et al., 2006)

3. • To intentionally mediate that complexity; attend
to sense of belonging, course & teaching quality,
facilitated engagement and clarity of expectations
(Kift & Nelson, 2005).
• Integrative focus on intentional curriculum design
and embedded, contextualised support for
heterogeneous FY cohorts of learners (Kift, 2009)
• Encourages universities to adapt their policies,
processes and practices to support diverse students’
learning, success and retention (Zepke et al., 2005)

4. Is no FY Experience; rather “a multiplicity of first-
year experiences” (Harvey et al., 2006), which also vary
over time
Social, cultural and situational factors also affect a
student’s FYE
University policies, practices & processes must
be strategic, embedded and focussed on whole-of-
university coherence & whole-of-student
experience
 Comprehensive, integrated & coordinated
 Not leaving success to chance

5. Student Transition:
Phases over time
Bridges, W. (2003) Managing Transitions:
Making the Most of Change. Cambridge,
MA: De Capo Press.
Taylor, P., Millwater, J., & Nash, R. (2007) Talking about transitions: the
value of a conceptual approach, in HERDSA 2008
Bridges’ Model of Transition
http://www.strategies-for-managing-
change.com/william-bridges.html
http://www.herdsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/conference/2007/papers/p167.pdf
Conceptualising Transitions

6. Taylor, P., Millwater, J., & Nash, R. (2007) Talking about transitions: the value of a conceptual approach,
in Enhancing Higher Education, Theory and Scholarship, Proceedings of the 30th HERDSA Annual
Conference, Adelaide, 8-11 July.
Transitions over student lifecycle
(Taylor et al (2007) after Bridges (2003))

7. http://transitionpedagogy.com/

8. • Curriculum focus to engage students in learning
▫ Inclusive & intentional design of learning, teaching &
assessment for engagement, relevance & coherence
• Proactive & timely access to learning & life support
▫ Just-in-time, just-for-me contextualilsed support
• Intentional fostering of a sense of belonging
• Sustainable academic-professional partnerships

9. Kift, S., Nelson, K., & Clarke, J. (2010).
https://fyhejournal.com/article/view/13

10. Curriculum
redesign
Learning
Adviser Librarian
Academic
Developer
Educational
Designer
Career
Development
Officer
Course
Coordinator
First Year
Experience
Coordinator
Teaching
staff
Teaching
staff
Associate
Dean
Learning
and
Teaching
Academic & Profession Partnerships
Student
voice

11. Published_HERDSARHE2015v02p51.pdf-
AdobeAcrobatPro
http://transitionpedagogy.com/

12. interviewees
postgraduate students; HE personnel
Australian universities across all states and
territories
females and males
disciplines
http://postgraduatestudentexperience.com/

13. • Transition Pedagogy’s six FY curriculum design
principles and strategies to enhance FYE transition
• Overall sentiment (+ive, -ive, neutral, unclear)
• Participants not directly asked about the FYE
(other than to identify if FY) to assess relevance
& importance of these issues
▫ EG: Asked to list & describe strengths and
limitations of PG experience.
• Enhancement strategies identified

14. • Transition into PG study was observed to be highly
salient for both staff and students
• Engagement was also observed to be highly salient
for both groups
• Diversity proved to be of importance particularly
for staff participants
• Reference also to other FY Curriculum Design
Principles

15. 0
5
10
15
20
25
Transition Diversity Design Engagement Assessment Monitoring
NumberofParticipantResponses
Curriculum Design Principles
Students
Staff

16. Transition: What they said…
• Improve efficiency of application & enrolment
processes
• Provide support to students with minimal or dated
knowledge of requirements of tertiary study.
…it is a transformative experience… they tend to blossom but the first
six months they don’t even get out of the ground mostly, they are just
trying to break the surface of the soil, they are in a dark place often,
they are confused, they are cold, they are lonely, that is what I think
happens and then they start to make connections
Staff Comment on PG FYE
…overall my experience has been good but I also accept that I have
to take a lot of responsibility for my study, that is the way it should be
at a PhD level anyway Student Comment on PG FYE

17. Diversity: What they said…
• Address unique needs of international PG students
on commencement
• University supports too focused on UG cohorts
• Work-life balance faced by FY PG as issue
If I could think of one word it would be ‘struggle’. Obviously my
experience has been coloured by external, sort of, unrest, be it housing
stress, having to navigate a part-time job and full-time Uni and have a
life, spend time with my partner and my friends or my dog or whatever. I
feel it is a struggle to balance that and there is not a lot of support.
So I think the experience is hard. I think it is difficult for a lot of
students and obviously there is a lot of stress that goes on.
…it is very challenging because like a lot of us postgrads we are
...working… it is time, flexibility, learning the work life balance.
Student Comments on PG FYE

18. https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/d
efault-source/default-
document-library/2015-
student-experience-survey-
national-report.pdf?sfvrsn=0

19. Engagement: What they said…
• Both staff and students
referred to the importance of
engaging with peers and the
university as a whole
▫ Importantly, it was speculated
that doing so would foster the
development of professional
networks and alleviate feelings
of isolation often experienced
when commencing PG study
…it is about a journey of self-discovery
Student Comment on PG FYE
Photos courtesy of Dr Kate Hutson, JCU
College of Marine and Environmental Sciences
Sustainable Aquaculture Masters Students – Coral Propagation Practical

20. Engagement: What they said…
…the learning environment, the support, the sense of growth and
achievement and the enjoyment of study.
…that has been the real joy of coming to this point in my education is
that vision and feeling of actually getting to a point where I can be of
service to the greater community
Student Comments on PG FYE
…the postgraduate student experience… means huge strain,
isolation, very little interaction with other people doing the same
thing. For a lot of students it is a very lonely process, this is because
the face-to-face experience is not there for most of them.
People do not realize how frightened they are. How much lack of
confidence exists, how nervous they are and that first introduction
to study is an experience which could either make or break them.
Staff Comments on PG FYE

21. Other FYCPs: What they said…
Design:
• Research & online students praised the flexibility
of their curriculum design
• Coursework students noted high levels of subject
demand experienced in FY
• Staff: import to nurture higher levels of cognitive
ability through curriculum design & discussions
…it is all very fragmented, it is all very short bursts, what I can do here,
what I can do there which I don’t think is ideal because you don’t get to
really soak in…,you just get in the zone and it is time to stop, go and do
something else..
Student Comment on PG FYE

22. Other FYCPs: What they said…
Assessment:
• The importance of timely
feedback on assessment
early in the program
Monitor and motivate
• Feedback could be used
in an evaluative capacity
to monitor and motivate
students to engage with
their programs.
Figure courtesy of Dr Glenn
Harrison & Dan Zamykal, JCU
JCU Data Warehouse: internal & external
student survey data continuously updates
for monitoring & evaluation.
Student
Experience
JCU Cognos
Data
Warehouse
[Course & sub
performance]
SES
[Old UES]
On course
student
survey
GOS/ESS
[Old AGS]
Graduated
Students
YourJCU
subject &
teaching
surveys
[Internal]
Course
cohort maps
[Track attrition
& completion]
Subject
Success
Analytics &
Grades
[Cognos]
BB
Analytics
for Learn
[Subject & push
reports]

23. Overall
Sentiment
Staff Students (All) Students (First Year)
Positive 5 (11%) 8 (21%) 2 (18%)
Negative 22 (49%) 22 (58%) 6 (55%)
Neutral 18 (40%) 8 (21%) 3 (27%)
Note. Percentages represent the proportion of responses per staff/student group.

24. Staff Students
11%
21%49%
58%40% 21%

25. …more of being a Lone Ranger running, not always with that
knowledge that you need, not always with the support that you
need and not always knowing where to find that and how to
get.. So I suppose it is good training in that sense but it is not
always an enjoyable experience…
Student Comment on PG FYE
Photo courtesy of Dr Kate Hutson, JCU
College of Marine & Environmental Sciences
Sustainable Aquaculture Masters Students
Coral Propagation Practical

26. • A total of 58 enhancement strategies discussed;
39 (67%) suggested by staff.
• Strategies include:
▫ Provision of access to student supports (strong
across both staff & students)
▫ A focus on adequate curriculum development (staff)
▫ PG programs & supports be more flexible &
responsive to diverse needs of PG student body (both)
▫ Integration of student collaboration & networking
into curriculum (staff)

27. 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Curriculum Student Support Student
Belonging
Professional
Partnerships
NumberofParticipantResponses
Enhancement Strategies
Students
Staff

28. Enhancements: What staff said…
The ideal world looks like a really high quality experience, it is not just
about content and it is not about farming out large slabs of content in
Business or Nursing… but a really structured and supportive
experience which is something that we have not particularly done..
…one of the problems with postgraduate educational experience, even
the face-to-face one, is that it is pretty lonely and I think the more that
you can do to create communities of learning at the postgraduate
level, the better that experience will be in the better their success will be
academically.
…with that first year cohort… you have got to be quite innovative thinking.
So certainly we know what the problems are for the cohort coming in that
they feel lost. This is a group that is really squashed between Honours
and PhD because that is what happens, less attention is paid to them.

29. • FY curriculum design principles of significance
• Flexibility & responsiveness to support PG diversity
• No single, common experienced PG FYE
• Diminished student focus on social belonging; stronger
student focus on academic/professional belonging: eg
▫ to the “learned academy”
▫ acceptance as “intellectuals” and/or as academics and
professionals in their field.

30. 1. Considerable room for improvement to the
PG student experience and to the PG FYE in
particular
2. Enact Transition Pedagogy curriculum design
principles of transition, engagement &
diversity; design for coherence & success
3. Improvement strategies should focus on
intentional, inclusive curricular design and
embedded, contextualised student support

31. • Grounded in established theory
• Exploration of postgraduate FYE
• Inclusion of both staff & students
• Diverse range of students (coursework & research),
disciplines, institutions and staff from across
Australia
http://cdn.postgraduatestudentexperience.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/11/13114637/Postgraduate-Student-
Experience_v2.pdf
(Kinash, 2015)

32. • Current study sample
limited in size & by
fact participants not
selected at random or
followed-up past
original interview
• Further research
▫ Larger & broader
sample
▫ Longitudinal data
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/research/surveys/
postgraduate-taught-experience-survey-ptes

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Brooman, S., & Darwent, S. (2012). ‘Yes, as the articles suggest, I have considered dropping out’: Self-awareness literature and the first
year student. Studies in Higher Education, 37(1), 19-31. doi: 10.1080/03075079.2010.490580
Brown, M., Keppell, M., Hughes, H., Hard, N., & Smith, L. (2013). Exploring the disconnections: Student interaction with support services
upon commencement of distance education. The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 4(2), 63-74. doi:
10.5204/intjfyhe.v3i2.171
Harvey, L., Drew, S., & Smith, M. (2006). The first year experience: A literature review for the Higher Education Academy. York,
England: Higher Education Academy. Retrieved from
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/first_year_experience_exec_summary.pdf
Holley, D., & Dobson, C. (2008). Encouraging student engagement in a blended learning environment: The use of contemporary learning
spaces. Learning, Media and Technology, 33(2), 139-150. doi: 10.1080/17439880802097683
Hunter, M.S., & Murray, K.A. (2007). New frontiers for student affairs professionals: Teaching and the first-year experience. New
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35. The First Year
Postgraduate Student
Experience
A Review of Staff and Student
Perceptions & Recommedations
http://postgraduatestudentexperience.com/