The document discusses strategies for improving student retention and success through a student-centric approach. It argues that universities should orient resources, people and processes around the potential impact on students. This means nurturing a sense of belonging, making it easy for students to connect with support systems, and identifying disengaged students through analytics. Specific tactics proposed include personalized alerts and success networks, integrated appointment booking, and custom reporting to flag at-risk students. Case studies show improvements in retention rates, faculty participation in early alerts, and graduation rates at institutions that adopted these student-centric strategies.

1. S o l v i n g t h e T E F T h ro u g h
S t u d e n t C e n t r i c i t y
Benjamin Stein
Director, Student Success - Hobsons
London, UK | February 2017

2. Harder than ever to get the
right student to the
university
Retaining students becomes
critical
Connecting students with their future

3. The critical change over the last few years is that the vast majority of
universities are no longer in a process of selecting; they are in a process of
recruiting. Very few institutions have been able to both increase their
average tariff and increase student numbers. The price of expansion for
most institutions is a lowering of the entry threshold.
The HE market for hopes and dreams: UCAS on results day
Wonkhe

4. Harder than ever to get the
right student to the university
Retaining students
becomes critical
Connecting students with their future

5. Such variability is not simply a statistic, nor even simply a squandering of
taxpayers’ money. It is worse: it represents thousands of life opportunities
wasted, of young dreams unfulfilled, all because of teaching that was not
as good as it should have been, or because students were recruited who
were not capable of benefitting from higher education.
Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and
Student Choice
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

6. “Every student who does not continue in higher
education means a loss of potential, a bad
experience for that student and poor value for
the taxpayer, as the investment in tuition costs
is likely to have a low return.”
Staying the Course
Several institutions are making
progress on both WP and retention
at the same time
Investments in the student
experience overall do pay off, as
shown by the correlation between
student satisfaction and retention
Overall variation in retention rates
is worryingly large

7. Staying the Course
The largest group of institutions
are making progress on both
widening participation and
improving continuation rates
No correlation between
improving widening participation
and worsening continuation rates
We should be able to do both.

8. Staying the Course
Higher student satisfaction in
general is correlated to lower
non-continuation rates
But what strategies work best?

9. T E F

10. How to respond: defining student-centricity
Awash in jargon
Orienting university resources,
people and process around their
potential impact on the student
A mindset that encompasses and
supports retention, engagement,
satisfaction and other critical
concepts

11. Retention
&
student success
Nurturing
belonging
Engagement with people
Make it
easier to
connect
Make it
personal
Identify
disconnected
students
Research shows what works
A model of
student-centricity

12. Retention &
student success
Individual student opportunity
Giving every student the best
opportunity to meet his or her goals
Top-level metrics
TEF: HESA non-continuation rates; NSS
questions, employability
Two sides of retention and satisfaction
but also…

13. Those who consider withdrawal

14. Nurturing belonging
We already know what works
“At the heart of successful retention and success is
a strong sense of belonging in HE for all
students…The academic sphere is the most
important site for nurturing participation of the
type which engenders a sense of belonging.”
Academic sphere Professional services
“Where students reported that they
would be able to turn to a variety of
support services…students are less
likely to have considered dropping out
of university.”

15. People make the difference
Engagement with people
I. Make it easier to connect II. Make it personal III. Find disengaged students
Harness existing data
Capture qualitative
professional input(

16. Student Success and Engagement
Professional
services
Early alert Personal
tutoring
Data &
analytics

17. Putting concepts into action: Make it personal
Student
interface
Personalised
alerts, to-dos,
plans and positive
feedback
Monitor
performance
Request help

18. Putting concepts into action: Make it easy to connect
Personalised success
network
Automatically build a support
network for every student
Offer multiple ways for
students to reach staff
Promote student-staff and
staff-staff collaboration

19. Putting concepts into action: Make it personal
Starfish student folder
Capture and store information
from across the institution
Student characteristics,
behaviours and real-time
interactions
Qualitative judgement
alongside hard data

20. Putting concepts into action: Make it easy to connect
Online appointment system
Online integrated appointment booking
Record outcomes and categorise every meeting
Students easily find available tutors and support specialists

21. Putting concepts into action: Reach disengaged students
Instant custom reporting and cohort-building
Cross-filter student characteristics and behaviours to create risk profiles
Take mass action across like students – flag, resolve, assign workflows

22. In the real world

23. Connecting data to action around the student

24. Correctly balancing analysis and intervention
Go beyond the dashboard
“Just assuming that all students will be their own change agents is
unrealistic. It’s vital to focus on what happens next…We would
suggest that the successful implementation of learning analytics
will still require messy, complicated interactions in the real world
in order to succeed."

25. A community of practice

26. A community of practice

27. Making it easy for
students to connect
Academic departments opting in by
year
2014: 3
2015: 5
2016: 9
“I think the system is a great idea, it’s
pretty intuitive to use. I think Starfish
would make it more likely that people
would approach staff to discuss their
academic problems.”
-Student,
Imperial College London
Success Stories

28. “Over the 2013 academic
year, more than 68% of our
undergraduate students were ultimately
successful in a course where a flag was
raised. We are very encouraged by this.”
-Barbara Gayle, Vice President
for Academic Affairs,
Viterbo University
Increased faculty participation in
early alert process from 13% to 91%
Identify disengaged
students
Success Stories

29. UNL’s four-year
graduation rate
increased 3.8% in four
years
Move the needle on key metrics
KPI 2011 2012 2013 2014
% of UG
students
contacted
through Starfish
50 56 75
Total # of
Starfish
appointments
5,377 11,434 19,498
4-yr grad rate 32.3 33.1 33.0 36.1
Success Stories

30. Consider the initial approach1
2
3
Three things you can do today
Academic/personal tutoring
Talk to us. Have us come see you. Visit our partner clients.
Get started. Technology catalyses important conversations.
Professional services
Institution-wide

31. Questions?
benjamin.stein@hobsons.com