Universities are paying increased attention to informing prospective students about their study choice. Since two years the Bachelor's degree in European Studies at Maastricht University is using a system called ‘Matching’. The goal of Matching is to ensure that prospective students’ expectations match with the programme’s content, its teaching philosophy and the required skills. It also aims at identifying potential problems at an earlier stage, in order to be able to offer the necessary support as soon as possible. I.e. Matching is not just a tool to steer size and quality of incoming cohorts, but also a service to students. In this paper we will present the Matching procedure, using data gathered regarding matching and study progress.

The institutional landscape in higher education is rapidly changing in the United States. President Barack Obama’s 2009 American Graduation Initiative lit a flame for community colleges. Community colleges are now tasked with a renewed mission to create transformed and intentional learning environments that go beyond access and success to engaging sustainability and stronger accountability. With a 5% graduation rate, one of the lowest in the state of Maryland, Prince George’s Community College Academic Advisors infused theory and practice to start a collaborative revolution from the bottom up.

The model of support for secondary to higher education transition plays a critical role in the successful integration of students into university life.  University personnel working to accommodate a growing and diversifying population of international students may sense a need for unique programming to support these students. While some tailored programming is useful, the presenters’ experience reveals that many aspects of a student’s transition to university studies are universal in nature and that there is much gained from grounding international student support within an existing framework of strong transition support. The presenters will describe the existing transition support infrastructure at St. Edward’s University and explain how the university has approached international student support from within this existing framework.

Timely and proactive feedback is a key ingredient to student persistence and success. Proactive, student centered initiatives at the institutional level maximize conditions for student success (Tinto, Completing College; 2012).  This presentation will introduce an efficient and high tech early intervention system designed and implemented on our campus. Included are an analysis of pilot to implementation steps, a hands on demonstration of the system, growing pains, faculty and student feedback, and conclusive retention data, statistics, and cost analysis.  
Thoughtfully piloted and incrementally implemented, it is a state of the art, user friendly, and popular system that enhances students' opportunities to be successful, reduces our campus wide attrition rate, allows faculty and support staff to monitor and intervene in the performance of at-risk students, and augments campus wide camaraderie.

Good induction is essential to ensure that students transition successfully into higher education. However, induction can focus too often on orientation rather than on supporting students to be engaged and effective in their learning. It is likely that induction practice needs to change to take account of the increasingly diverse student body and growing aspirations for UK students to be co-creators of their learning environment rather than passive consumers of knowledge. Drawing on research undertaken by the National Union of Students in the UK and ten of its member students’ unions into the induction needs of diverse groups of students, this workshop will explore participants’ own induction practice, how that practice can be enhanced and the extent to which students can themselves be co-creators of a high-quality academic induction.

Inspiring Student Success: From At-Risk To “EXCEL” lecture and Q&A presentation will share with higher education colleagues the EXCEL Program (developed in 1997) that allows students who do not meet the standard admission criteria an opportunity to enter college and achieve academic success.  The Program has various components to support, guide, mentor, and motivate students along with institutional academic services to support student learning and the impact on retention.  This is achieved through developmental and intrusive academic advising by individuals having 40 years of higher education experience.  Although this program is at a 4-year private Catholic institution located in the Midwest and aligns with the university’s mission and core values, it can provide a template for other institutions.

In 2010-2011 academic year 81 students were issued with 14 day notices of intended withdrawal within the University of Derby, Faculty of Arts, Design and Technology.  During this academic year there was no formalised system for monitoring or supporting these students.  During 2011-12, 90 students were issued with 14 day notices, however, this academic year a simple system of mandatory “academic probation agreements” was introduced.  Covering its history, development and implementation, the session will reveal the findings of an initial review and case studies of individual students.  It will allow participants to consider whether or not simplistic “academic probation agreements” have value as a mass advising tool or as a “last chance saloon” for hard to reach individuals.

The College is a private higher education provider offering 21 undergraduate programmes in the centre of London. The College has expanded rapidly in in a five year period growing from 250 to over 1600 full-time equivalent students, with 28% being from international origin and the remainder UK/EU students.
The presentation will describe the process undertaken by the college in forming a central dedicated student support unit, acting as a one-stop shop for all student inquiries ranging from academic, pastoral, financial through to counseling and health advice.
The centre is managed by two full time members of staff and a team of 20 student ambassadors who are paid and offer 24/7 services.
The paper will demonstrate how the service has significantly improved retention, success rates and student satisfaction using case studies.

Utrecht University is the first university in the Netherlands to introduce a mandatory matching procedure for bachelor’s students. The procedure is designed to reduce the drop-out rate from students and to strengthen students’ affiliation with their study programs. Prospective students study materials, attend classes, complete an assignment and receive feedback. After enrolling the student is assigned a personal tutor, a teacher from their academic discipline. At the end of the first year students need to complete 75% of the program.

This presentation will focus on the development of the procedure of matching and the way it extends into the first year at university. The system of tutoring at Utrecht University is undergoing revision and the presentation will address challenges and next steps.

Current research on the development of student success courses focuses heavily on the retention of first year students.  With the greatest resources and effort focused on these students, what happens to the upper class student who is experiencing academic difficulty?  This session will explore the process undertaken to provide a one on one mentorship program designed for upper class, undergraduate business students.  Participants will learn of the outcomes from the first two semesters of the program and will have the opportunity to work collaboratively in small groups to: 1. identify the challenges faced by their institution’s upper class students who are on academic probation, 2. explore how a mentorship course might assist in student retention at their institution and 3. identify next steps to address their students’ needs.

Learn how one community college has developed free, easily accessible, video-lecture based online refresher courses: “Open Campus” targets high school students preparing for placement testing, “rising-potential” students enrolled in credit-bearing courses, and those who are homebound or work-restricted. Now, anyone, anywhere can access quality, online developmental instruction. “Open Campus” courses reflect pedagogy of their “for-credit” counterparts with two exceptions: all are non-credit and self-contained. “Snap-shots” from active courses, design templates, timelines and expenses will be displayed. Presenter will field questions about design plan, hardware/software requirements, expectations and pitfalls. After this session, participants will gain a working knowledge of an efficient open-source, entry-level design and a framework for timelines, technology, expenses, and challenges.

This workshop will examine effective communication strategies used throughout institutions as a way to improve retention.  The approach that will be focused on brings in a variety of individuals concerned with different elements of the student’s life.  When it comes to academic recovery, it is essential to realize the interconnectedness of these aspects and how they affect the student. If we are able to bring together student life, counseling, athletics, special needs and opportunity programs into the academic sphere, we are often able to better assess why a student may be struggling in class. Participants will be asked to look at scenarios of students in jeopardy and offer possible outcomes and obstacles as well as provide examples from their own experiences.

Students enter the higher education environment with varying levels of academic preparedness.  Additionally, the student profile grows increasingly diverse each year.  How can higher education practitioners meet the needs of these students?  How can intercultural competence enhance the quality of the student experience, and contribute to students’ success overall?

The purpose of this presentation is to use an overview of student development theory, discussion, and reflection to explore the role of intercultural competence on student success, particularly in terms of academic advising and general student support.

Student services in Germany observe a rising demand for social and psychological counseling. A research project by the German National Association for Student Affairs has analyzed the new trends and challenges for counseling, looking at needs, requested services, types of support, and the gap between services on offer and changing counseling requirements. The presentation present the most important results and data of the HISBUS research project on counseling (DSW/HIS 2013 forthcoming), and provide examples of best practices to address new counseling needs.

Five members of academic staff from the School of Human Sciences at Newman University Birmingham, United Kingdom (UK), operate within and centralise the academic sphere of student engagement and success (Thomas and May, 2011) as SAST. They facilitate a pre-entry course that promotes a sense of belonging in participants; provide on-going academic development sessions; facilitate interaction between academic and professional colleagues in academic advising as well as between students and professional services to promote student engagement. 

Presenting a case study of the Senior Academic Support Tutor (SAST) scheme, this session discusses the challenges facing such ‘Third Space activity’ (Whitchurch, 2008) configured to enhance the student’s experience of higher education, as experienced by SAST and evident in other UK institutions.

The workshop will present findings from our retention research and seek new ideas and strategies to improve retention, progression and qualification completion.  We will deliver a synopsis of our research and our recommendations. Delegates will be invited to debate and discuss successful strategies to minimise withdrawals, best practice from other institutions and to identify student support initiatives that could be successfully applied to distance learning post-graduate students. 

The target audience are academic, administrative, student support and advisory staff.

Students transferring from international universities often experience a more challenging transition period than traditional transfer students.  New teaching styles, frequent assessments, culture shock and unfamiliarity with US University and cultural norms all influence student success, yet support programs remain a rarity.  

Recognizing this gap in student support prompted us to take action!  Learn how NAU’s Center for International Education developed a one-credit student success course specifically for international transfer students.  CIE 100 includes facilitated learning, guided assessments and panel presentations provided by NAU faculty, staff and students, with an intentional focus on student and life skills. Learn how international transfer student support programs can arm your students with skills for success!