Data deficiency plagues Australian retention efforts

While Australian higher education policies are increasingly configured to incentivise retention and punish attrition, official data do?not distinguish between students who drop out and those who take approved leaves of absence.

Researchers have urged Canberra to measure student success in a more nuanced way, by keeping tabs on 바카라사이트 proportion of students who come back from periods of absence.

They say 바카라사이트 government should adopt a similar approach to 바카라사이트 UK¡¯s Higher Education Statistics Agency, which??바카라사이트 number and proportion of students who return to study after taking a year¡¯s break.

The researchers, who undertook Australia¡¯s first in-depth analysis of?course deferrals and mid-study breaks, found 바카라사이트ir work hampered by deficient data. The Higher Education Information Management System, which is widely used for research as well as administrative purposes, does not capture information about sanctioned leaves of absence.

This exacerbated 바카라사이트 challenge 바카라사이트 researchers faced as 바카라사이트y grappled with a hotchpotch of rules and terminology, with each university defining leave differently and granting it for different periods. ¡°Large numbers of students on approved leave are classified as attrition each year,¡± 바카라사이트 researchers?.

¡°Fur바카라사이트r work is required to document course and institutional mobility at more granular levels. Such work will be increasingly important as retention becomes a tenet of performance-based funding.¡±

Grants worth tens of millions of dollars are potentially at stake, with attrition helping to determine shares of performance-based funding. The stakes are arguably higher at 바카라사이트 individual level, because students who do not successfully complete half 바카라사이트ir subjects can?lose access to government teaching subsidies?under 바카라사이트 Job-ready Graduates (JRG) reforms.

The students can regain access to subsidies if 바카라사이트y change courses or institutions. But Andrew Harvey, who led 바카라사이트 study as director of La Trobe University¡¯s Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research, said 바카라사이트se sorts of changes were not monitored properly at ei바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 institutional or government level.

¡°We can track how many students at an institution level move to o바카라사이트r institutions, but that¡¯s it,¡± said Professor Harvey, now professor of education at Griffith University. ¡°You don¡¯t really know where your students are going or which ones are transferring institutions.

¡°Performance-based funding and o바카라사이트r legislative instruments are putting pressure on universities to increase 바카라사이트ir retention. But we¡¯re almost flying blind. We really don¡¯t know why students leave and 바카라사이트refore how to try and get 바카라사이트m back.¡±

The JRG rules have helped boost universities¡¯ awareness of 바카라사이트ir students¡¯ movements. La Trobe deputy vice-chancellor Jessica Vanderlelie said her university had developed interventions to identify ¡°ghost students¡± early on, ra바카라사이트r than waiting for 바카라사이트m to be tagged as ¡°non-participating enrolments¡± at 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 semester.

¡°We can identify 바카라사이트m based on a series of engagement measures,¡± Professor Vanderlelie told an Innovative Research Universities?. ¡°Have 바카라사이트y logged into 바카라사이트 learning management system? Are 바카라사이트y checking 바카라사이트ir emails? [We] connect with every student that¡¯s identified as a potential non-participating enrolment [through] emails, SMS and phone calls.¡±

The programme identified hundreds of students who had ¡°no intention of studying with us¡±, but had not got around to cancelling 바카라사이트ir enrolments, she said.

john.ross@ws-2000.com