What enables students to succeed? An investigation of socio-demographic, health and student experience variables

Abstract

Despite uncertainty about the impact of changes in funding for higher education, there continues to be government support for widening participation and an emphasis on student retention. A number of studies have identified the first year of university as an important transition period but there is little in the way of evidence which identifies the factors which are important to student success. At the University of Westminster, the Widening Participation Survey Group developed an online survey of all first year students in order to gain an understanding of the student experience which would have implications for university policy and practice and enable the development of evidence-based interventions. The survey provided information about the students' perception of their University experience and included a number of standardised psychometric scales which allowed the investigation of health and mental health, coping, social and academic integration. Three cohorts of first year students have completed the survey and this paper details the findings from 429 first year students who are the first cohort to complete their degrees. As well as descriptive statistics, correlation and ANOVA were used to explore the relationships between variables. Among a number of findings, results indicate that students who were considering dropping out of University were characterised by poorer estimations of physical health, a poorer sense of well being, lower estimations of social support, a lower sense of integration and a lower level of satisfaction with their course. Higher award marks were related to measures of commitment to the institution and positive student evaluations about staff concern for students. Those students gaining a First Class Degree were characterised by high scores on measures of academic and intellectual development and their appraisal of staff concern for student development and teaching. The implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Keywords:

• higher education
• students
• retention
• widening participation

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution to this research of a number of their colleagues across the University. In particular, they would like to thank Dr David Williams, who had major responsibility for the development of the online questionnaire and the analysis of the data. Professor John Golding, Ahmed Moustafa and Romano Endrighi also made major contributions to data analysis and evaluation of the results. Other colleagues on the Widening Participation Research Group made substantial contributions to the project. These include; Tina Cartwright, Anita Jackson, Dalene McShane, Sanjay Jobanputra, Alan Porter and Peter Urwin.

Notes

1. All reported statistical differences are at least at p < 0.05 level. Details of mean scale scores and standard deviations as well as statistical test values and significance levels can be provided by contacting the authors.