The HERE Project studied student retention in higher education. It found that non-doubters about continuing their studies were more likely to persist than doubters. For doubters who did remain, reasons included support from friends made at university and future goals, rather than just the absence of doubts. The project also found programs with better retention rates than peers and that leavers generally reported poorer university experiences than those who continued.

1. The HERE! Project
“The people I live with
and the friends I have made
are so lovely
I worried I'd never see them again.”
Student doubter explaining what has helped them stay at University (March 2009)
Research Key Findings
The HERE Project has two strands:
Non-doubters more likely to persist
1. Student Doubters 98.3% of non-doubters persisted and were still in HE in the next academic year
Are Doubters more likely to leave than non-doubters? 95.7% of doubters persisted
What can we learn from doubters who remain? (based on 370 students who provided permission to track progress)
2. Programmes with Better than Peer Rates of Retention Reasons to Doubt and Reasons to Stay are NOT simply opposites
What can we learn from programmes with better rates of retention than their peers? Reasons to doubt = course related, then problems with lifestyle
Reasons to stay = support from friends & family (primarily made at university) & future
Work conducted goals
•5 surveys to first year students (1,932 student respondents)
•5 focus groups to test doubters’ experiences (13 interviewees) Quantitative differences between non-doubters, doubters & leavers
•6 leavers interviewed Before they withdrew, leavers appeared to be having a measurably poorer experience
•2 programmes surveyed For example leavers reported lower levels of enjoyment and confidence that they could cope
Contact ed.foster@ntu.ac.uk, ckeenan@bournemouth.ac.uk, r.currant@bradford.ac.uk

2. Requests
We’d be grateful if people
could trial the audit tool in
2010/11
Any research evidence
What we can offer about impact of curriculum,
Programme Retention Audit based on student engagement or
research findings learning & teaching making
Research findings about doubters, reasons an impact on retention
for doubting and the impact of doing so
Happy to attend and engage with L&T
development events