17 Sep 2025
Miriam Fox is an alumni student of the PgCert in Creative Education.
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This artwork is an image created from sixty-four individual graph outputs from the OfS Data Dashboard, taken from Higher Education Arts institutions (including UCA), contorted into an abstract representation of the data they are capturing. This includes disability, ethnicity and TUNDRA. Heavy digital over-processing creates a heightened sense of emotion and energy. One piece of data, a little circle, appears separate to the chaos; part of and apart from the overall storm. Titled “Storm in a Teacup / Drop in the Ocean”, it aims to illustrate the dissonance between the quantification of issues directly impacting student retention and the reality that each individual student experiencing these is undergoing.
According to Nieuwoudt and Pedler, who links the concepts set forward by W.G. Spady and John P. Bean to reorientate ideas of suicide prevention to attrition prevention; students are less likely to drop out if they feel “shared values of a group”, i.e., belonging within their university, and have a supportive friends/family (Nieuwoudt and Pedler, 2021). Tinto also highlights that students with strong goal commitment are also more likely to persist with studies (Kerby, 2015). Other theorists follow the similar idea that behavioural characteristics of the individual influence their persistence, coupled with factors influenced by the university, such as cohort, content and environment. However, it is indisputable that within an average cohort some students will be impacted by a “Crisis Event” at some point in their university career that affects retention. A recent study by Taylor Smith on challenging the effects of Crisis Events on student retention defines these as “a range of situations that disrupt the normal functioning of students’ academic lives” and identifies them as “Personal”, “Institutional” and “Societal” (Smith, 2024). (While the essay focuses on FE, I believe there is overlap with HE as well). These can range from the death of a pet to a parent, to arrest, sexual assault, sudden deterioration of health, etcetera. There are also what I am terming “slow burns” where an issue develops slowly over a longer period such as a mental health issue, family/relationship difficulties or finance problems. ....[understanding this] has given me greater appreciation for what students are experiencing at ground level, and I hope this experience I can feed this back into my own teaching practice.
The UCA Engagement and Attendance policy states “we will reach out to students to offer support to those who are falling short of our expectations. In some cases, the most appropriate outcome may be for a student to be interrupted through the ‘Support to Study’ process or withdrawn from the University.” (UCA, 2025). However, [...] participating in Support to Study interventions, these processes do not always operate in the students best interests. [...] This does not encourage trust or respect from the student if the only beneficiary is the university. The policy further states that “The primary purpose of the [Stage 2] meeting is to help the student get back on-track… It will be established whether there are any previously unsupported issues impacting on their ability to meet the attendance requirement that may require support.” (UCA, 2025), however I feel the focus on procedure means the latter is losing emphasis when it is most needed. [...] Working closely with teams to explore how we can introduce agendas to these meetings. These could create a clearer structure to the meeting, allowing dedicated time for compassionate dialogue that encourages students to engage with support, rather than focusing on the consequences of continued disengagement.
[...] Over-emphasis on procedure reads as a by-product of issues transmuted into quantified statistics (whether in OfS data or percentages in attendance audits) and links back to my creative response. When these experiences are rendered as data, we risk forgetting what the individual is going through; they become a drop in the ocean. What wakes us up is when someone falls through the cracks and hits the ground hard as we have seen in the case of Natasha Abrahart (PG, 2024). The broad range of factors affecting students according to OfS research that can impact mental distress range across “academic studies, financial problems, key transition points…social and cultural pressures… childhood trauma…perfectionism…social alienation” (Office For Students, 2022). This highlights that in addition to external factors, an institution and its environment can be just as complicit in the negative impacts of a student’s wellbeing as it can be in alleviating it.
The Advance HE Essential Frameworks for Enhancing Student Success summarises that enhanced success requires practical support, outreach, financial assistance, accessibility, academic/pastoral support, inclusivity and belonging (www.advance-he.ac.uk, n.d.). Students are likely to persist with a course where they experience ownership, studying a subject they are immersed in with appropriate support. Therefore, I believe it is vital that while developing methods of improving overall figures, through policy, research, frameworks and methodology, we do not neglect 1-1 facilitative relationships with students as much as possible. Only through knowing our students as individuals and fostering trust will we be able to understand and act on their needs and to recognise and act on warning signs. However, our helping hands are also tied behind our backs, as tutors and resources are impacted by our knowledge gaps as well as wider university limitations such as time, resources, staffing, and student numbers.
Bibliography
- Kerby, M.B. (2015). Toward a New Predictive Model of Student Retention in Higher Education. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, [online] 17(2), pp.138–161. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025115578229.
- Nieuwoudt, J.E. and Pedler, M.L. (2021). Student Retention in Higher Education: Why Students Choose to Remain at University. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, [online] 25(2), p.152102512098522. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025120985228.
- Office For Students (2022). Suicide prevention - Office for Students. [online] Officeforstudents.org.uk. Available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-providers/equality-of-opportunity/effective-practice/suicide-prevention/ [Accessed 15 Apr. 2025].
- PG, D.E. (2024). High Court Dismisses University of Bristol’s Appeal in Natasha Abrahart Case. [online] DPG Law. Available at: https://dpglaw.co.uk/high-court-dismisses-university-of-bristols-appeal-in-natasha-abrahart-case/ [Accessed 15 Apr. 2025].
- Pratchett, T. (2016). The fifth elephant. London, England: Doubleday.
- Smith, T. (2024). Tackling the Effects of Crisis Events on Student Retention in UK Further Education Institutions. [online] Research Gate. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/388154406_Tackling_the_Effects_of_Crisis_Events_on_Student_Retention_in_UK_Further_Education_Institutions [Accessed 15 Apr. 2025].
- www.advance-he.ac.uk. (n.d.). Essential Frameworks for Enhancing Student Success | Advance HE. [online] Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/guidance/teaching-and-learning/essential-frameworks-enhancing-student-success [Accessed 15 Apr. 2025].
- UCA (2025). Engagement and Attendance Policy. [online] Available at: https://www.uca.ac.uk/about-us/quality-assurance-enhancement/university-regulations-policies-and-procedures/ [Accessed 15 Apr. 2025].