Bowland Project:  how can college tutors offer support to students struggling with academic problems?

Participants:  Kath Bird (Student Services), Emma Lyon (Bowland JCR Education and Welfare rep),Trudy McMahon (LUSU), Moira Peelo (Student Learning Development Centre, CELT), Joe Thornberry (Bowland Senior Tutor), and Bowland tutors and staff.

The Problem

In the academic year 2005/6, Joe Thornberry (Bowland Senior Tutor), became aware of how often undergraduates - especially male students - appearing in front of Standing Academic Committee and Part 1 Review Committee had not spoken to their college tutors, and raised the question:  is there anything more the colleges could be doing to help?  At the same time, discussions were being held in other parts of campus about the apparent reluctance of male students in particular to seek help.

The project was based on a belief that colleges can provide a human face to the institution; yet experience shows that some students find it hard to access help for academic problems early enough.  How, if at all, can College tutors help students overcome an apparent reluctance to seek help early enough to be of use?

Action 2006- 2007

Meeting 1

Kath Bird, Moira Peelo, Trudy McMahon & Joe Thornberry held a preliminary meeting about the issues.  Some agreement emerged:

(i)      that there is a myth that no-one fails Part 1;

(ii)     that the College tutor system has great potential for supporting students through academic crises;

(iii)    that many students in trouble find it hard to articulate this, especially to a member of staff;

(iv)    and that our communications with students are often flawed, in form and in content.

Meeting 2

An extra meeting with Bowland College tutors was held and included presentation and discussion of:  Registry statistics about exam failure and resits; the experience of failing academically (Moira Peelo) and discussions about ways in which tutors have and could manage communication differently with students reluctant to engage with the tutorial system. 

Discussion brought to the fore tutors' major concern that tutees who prefer not to engage and who get into academic difficulties are likely to ignore letters from their tutors - however much tutors may wish to help.  These issues were picked up again at tutor meetings held later in the year.

Advertising

As a result of these various discussions, we decided to draft some desktop advertising to put a message directly into common areas in Bowland College - the bar, College offices, the Games Room.  Moira produced draft advertisements and wording, which were then personalised for Bowland College with the help of Dan Leach of the Staff Learning Centre.  Link to Posters  The intentions were (a) to put out a clear message to Bowland students and (b) to take the pressure away from individual tutors and individual tutees.

Outcomes

2006/07 saw Bowland's biggest first year group ever, with more tough letters to students from their departments. It also saw a major increase in the number of staff volunteering to become tutors. Tutors embraced the practice of early intervention and only 1 first year student from Bowland appeared in front of Standing Academic Committee this year (compared with 3 the previous year).  Support meant being in contact with students who faced resits in the Summer of 2007, including those who withdrew.  Offering a human and supportive face to the institution extended to support through an appeal process and in directing students to relevant information.  At this level, the tutors are working to support individual students, yet nonetheless a comparison of 2007 figures with the 2 previous years makes for interesting reading (see Fig. 1 below).

The most striking figure is the 3.6% reduction in the numbers leaving before Part 1. While there could be many reasons for this (students leave for many reasons) but academic demoralisation usually figures as a key factor.  While we do not wholly attribute this reduction to this small project, nonetheless it gives us grounds for believing that at least we might be heading in the right direction.

Fig. 1: Bowland College students' Year 1 progression

*With thanks to the Registry for providing these figures

The future

The success of this project depended on the work of tutors:  in this case we drew on the group's experience to agree ways of communicating with students and to allow for a college role in encouraging access to help.  College tutors hold regular meetings throughout the year and the project was taken forward at different times by different people - but now that there is a ‘template' in place, we hope to repeat some of the process in 2007-8. We will also be looking at how we can get second and third year Bowland students involved in supporting first years through a mentoring scheme.

Diagram 1:  Key ingredients in the model of College support for 1^st year students in academic difficulties

Moira Peelo & Joe Thornberry

November 2007