Seven years ago, Curtin University administrators were unhappy to discover that their institution had middle-of-the pack student-retention numbers among Australia’s 39 universities. They set out to change that. Now, with the addition of student-led mentoring and other programs, the university calculates that it prevents about 300 students a year from dropping out and thus saves at least $3.2-million (U.S.) annually in tuition and fees that would have been lost.
The mentoring program also helps students “make connections and friends sooner than if they were left on their own,” says Amanda Smith, the mentor-program coordinator.
Curtin’s retention story is set in a distinctly Australian context. Students at Australian universities tend to come from near the institutions or from far away, particularly Asia. At Curtin, for instance, 30 percent of the students are international.
Australia’s universities have long depended on international students for revenue, but a zig-zagging immigration policy and some attacks on Indian students in Melbourne have left universities “down under” competing harder with other English-speaking student destinations than they would like. As the universities have sought to become more globally competitive at a time when the Australian dollar has risen to the equivalent of $1.07, they have come to closely monitor data measuring the student experience.
The data have influenced how all students are treated. “Our first question cannot be if you are an international student or not,” says Jim Elliott, associate director for student transition at Curtin and president of the Australia and New Zealand Student Services Association.
Another factor in the Australian student-services equation has been a federal requirement, introduced seven years ago, that universities track first-year student retention. Combined with Australian universities’ own collection of student-experience data, and the growing global and domestic competition for students, the new data requirement has driven a trend toward improving student services. When the government first issued the retention numbers, Curtin did not do as well as it wanted to.
The university’s first step toward improving the numbers was research. In looking at why students dropped out, administrators found a plethora of reasons: Students had made a career choice that they quickly regretted or had hit an academic challenge. The students might also have experienced personal crises: anxiety, depression, unemployment, the end of a relationship, or a death in the family.
Ninety-five percent of the dropouts left without talking to anyone.
“Our experience is that the students who most need help often don’t ask for it,” says Ms. Smith. But the research indicated the university could have offered two-thirds of the dropouts some flexibility, such as delaying a test, that might have kept them enrolled.
No Passing the Buck
The administration reacted to the research with a series of programs, connected by the theme that student retention is everybody’s business. The university promotes the ability of students to switch their career choices; more actively intervenes with students when they are on academic probation; and makes short-term, no-interest loans to get students through difficult financial times. The university tries to make sure that if the first staff member students encounter cannot help them with a problem, then that staff member will at least know the right place to send them for help, to avoid annoying students with a “pass the buck” response.
When Curtin began the student-services push, about 82 percent of students made it through their first year. In four years that proportion has gone up to 87 percent. “When you get down to hard cold dollars,” says Mr. Elliott, “that is a significant difference.”
Follow-up surveys found that the strongest retention tool was the mentoring program, which has been rolled out gradually across the university’s divisions. Students who had considered dropping out said that mentors were often key in getting them to stay.
In the mentoring program, administrators choose students who have succeeded academically to each serve as mentors to about 15 students, who are usually assigned randomly to help students get to know people who might be outside their usual circle. The mentors are given three-and-a-half-hour training sessions, usually meet their students at orientation, then stay in touch with “remember I am here for you” e-mails and occasional in-person meetings. Some mentors bring their students together on Facebook.
The mentors’ service is noted on their academic records, and they get reward vouchers ranging from $100 to $250, depending on the division they are in.
Some of the mentors’ advice is finer details, like finding cheap places to print their documents, or a good parking space. Some advice is specialized to particular majors: Alissa Pemberton, a midwifery student and mentor, makes sure her charges pay close attention to documenting their practical experience, vital to succeeding in the program.
Other advice is broader, such as suggesting ways students can manage their time or encouraging them to approach professors with questions. “I think the main help that I provided as a mentor was being a point of call for quick questions and a face for the support available at Curtin,” says Amy Hetherington, now working as an adviser for prospective Curtin students.
The mentoring program ends after the first year of what, in Australia, are often three-year degree programs. But the hope is, Mr. Elliott says, that the program has “heavily inoculated students with an awareness of services in first year, and they will be more likely to use those services later on.”
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