DESBROCE, LIMPIEZA Y DESBOSQUE

despite decades of research and resource allocation, there remains sparse evidence of any improvements in bottom line retention. A potential contributory factor is the lack of research by practitioners and this thesis attempted to fill this gap. Two general objectives were identified, firstly to identify why so many students failed to progress to year two of the business programmes, and subsequently to investigate the possibility of improving year-one to year-two retention.

Both of these objectives have met with success. A detailed analysis of individual student non-progression has been compiled, the main finding identifying a distinct difference in students who leave early and those who stay and fail. The main solution lay in adapting the institution in the form of changing the teaching delivery environment. This improved retention by around 6-7 percentage points, but significantly had little impact on voluntary withdrawal before the end of the first year. Voluntary withdrawal was identified as more of a function of student entering attitudes and motivation and as such requires a complex combination of solutions. Before these findings are summarised in more detail there follows a brief recounting of each chapter.

The first chapter presented a picture of a fast changing HE environment typified by an increase in the general level of participation and a resultant change in the make-up of the student cohort. The increasing numbers of NT students had an unwelcome side effect in that these students were more likely to fail to complete their courses. The emergence of this phenomenon was met with strenuous efforts to define and measure retention as a basis for understanding, and the first year of college was identified as crucial. The chapter concludes with a report on the general failure of the industry on a global level to effectively address low retention. This failure is evident despite a significant volume of research on both why students failed and on potential solutions.

This research was presented in the second chapter and stretched back to the 20’s in the US but on a global scale indicated common characteristics likely to lead to student

dropout. When students were asked why they left, a similar consistent story emerged. The development of explanatory models and theories suggested a highly complex phenomenon where several circumstances and reasons could contribute to students not completing. The concept of institutional responsibility emerged proposing the notion that students were unsuccessful not because of personal characteristics or circumstances, but rather because the institutional environment was unsuitable.

The third chapter engaged with the growing literature on retention solutions and generated a model of solution types related to the student cycle from pre-application to classes starting. Two key types of solution were identified: bolt-on solutions and institutional change, but a third category was introduced. This was based around the idea of processes that support and enable retention solutions and included key activities such as data collection and early warning. This provided for an operational focus, a perspective that has been largely missing from retention research.

The fourth chapter presented a critique of existing retention research and suggested that there were reliability problems in research on why students do not complete and also that solution research was plagued by a lack of effective evaluative research. These methodological problems are exacerbated by the lack of long term, deep engagement with retention issues by researchers. The chapter summarises by arguing for more practitioner based research and more long term engagement with the retention problem.

The response to this was presented in chapter 5 where after a general overview of the quantitative-qualitative debate was presented, and the predominance of positivist research in retention was outlined, the methodology for this thesis was developed. The approach taken in this thesis was intentionally directed at filling some of the methodology gaps outlined in chapter 4 and deployed a case study strategy. This provided an enclosed system and within this strategy an action research methodology was used. A diverse set of methods was employed to collect data over the seven years of the study and the results are presented in chapter 5.

Because of the longitudinal nature of the thesis, and its action research emphasis the conclusions begin with some vital emerging activities that were instrumental in

facilitating the subsequent analysis. Subsequently findings from the investigation of why students do not progress will be presented followed by an interpretation and presentation of the findings from evaluation of a “bolt-on” solution (academic skills), and finally a discussion of the impact of changing the institution in the form of the teaching delivery system. The findings will be presented in the context of the literature identifying where there is consistency, but also drawing out where new insights and understandings have emerged. Potential for further areas of research are provided and recommendations made with practical implications for both the industry and the UoH.

7.1 The importance of data, early intervention, and interaction