Early intervention is key

Recent reports have established high dropout rates in some of UAE’s institutions of learning.

By Mathew Boice (Opinion)

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Published: Tue 22 Jun 2010, 9:32 PM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 3:08 AM

This trend is mostly prevalent in other GCC countries as is the case in many parts of Europe and America.

Colleges and universities have an obligation to help at-risk students succeed both academically and socially; hence the student success remains one of the most visible markers of any institution’s ability to meet the growing demands for improved quality of academic outcomes and better accountability.

Classification

‘High-risk’ or ‘at-risk’ students are those whose probability of withdrawal from college is above average; for such students to succeed, they often need to be supported academically and sometimes socially.

Therefore, helping under-performing or ‘high-risk’ students get back on track and graduate successfully has become a key metric for institutional reputation and growth.

This has inspired a variety of support structures within the campus to identify at-risk students and provide appropriate intervention.

Academic support systems on campuses can range from freshman seminars, writing centres, remedial curricula, and academic support centres, to peer tutoring among others.

Students are also being supported to engage fully in the social life of their campus as this strengthens their overall academic performance and success.

Intervention

For an early intervention and student support programme to be effective, institutions need to establish the right model for detecting and assisting under-performing students.

A survey conducted by SunGard Higher Education indicated a perception by academic administrators that most at-risk students don’t take advantage of available support services even when they are aware of such support.

In addition, we know that when institutions are able to identify at-risk students, resources for delivering early interventions are often limited.

For those institutions that have no systematic way of identifying at-risk students early enough to make a real impact on their success, retention problems are further compounded.

By anticipating the needs of students, institutions can reach out with appropriate resources – perhaps a study group, or a peer support programme, or even a half hour of technical support – rather than expecting students, who may not know that such support even exists, to stumble into it on their own.

Technology

Today, information technology plays a key role in facilitating effective intervention and student success programmes. Information technology is used for processing data from student information and course management systems (CMS) to build highly predictive models.

These predictive models address the unique character of students in a way that highlights at-risk indicators like absenteeism, poor grades, and changes in behavior etc. For instance, using available data about factors that contribute to a student’s success or failure, software programmes like Course Signals from SunGard Higher Education can warn students at-risk of under-performing and also prompt timely faculty intervention.

Strategy

Developing a viable student retention and success strategy requires a substantial amount of planning, and very often institutions are faced with challenges in terms of how, they can design, develop, and deploy retention strategies that recognise and foster the potential of all students. It is important to note that helping students to remain in study and succeed is not the exclusive reserve of a select few within the university community.

Thus, each institutional stakeholder — from the president, dean and faculty members, to non academic staff — must understand and support the institution’s vision for student persistence to degree completion.

Also, the intervention strategy for high-risk students must be clearly defined at various levels; by course, by department, by majors, etc. In addition, institutions must make optimal use of technology to facilitate relevant reports and records that can help in understanding student persistence, learning, and success.

Innovation

The GCC region recognises that building human capital to drive innovation is critical to steering further economic progress in the right direction. For policy makers, ensuring graduation and student success should be as important as creating access to higher education.

Evidently, students who complete their university programmes can expect to earn higher salaries than those who don’t progress beyond high school certificates; and more importantly, they can contribute more to knowledge-based activities. The process of building a knowledge economy in the region is enhanced with adequate access to quality higher education. With increased access comes the challenge to ensure successful outcomes for all students.

Mathew Boice is vice-president - Europe, Middle East and Africa and India, SunGard Higher Education


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