Enabling students to succeed
Professor Rob Freathy, Dean for Taught Students.
“Success for All continues to lie at the heart of our University strategies, including our overarching Strategy 2030 and our underpinning Education Strategy 2019-2025. Through the University’s culture of collective responsibility, collaboration and practice-sharing, Success for All activity is now embedded across our University and spans all stages of our students’ journeys with us.
This was no more evident than during our first in-person Success for All Conference held in September 2022 which I was able to attend and participate in as a workshop presenter. It was wonderful to see academic and professional services colleagues, coming together with student representatives, to share and celebrate the work being undertaken to break down barriers and ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed to the very best of their abilities.
Highlighted below are examples of work being undertaken by our Success for All Working Groups, including: enhancing the transition and induction of students from under-represented groups; ensuring our model of education is culturally inclusive; improving the experience of our international students; and introducing our Exeter Cares programme to support those entering Higher Education with additional responsibilities, for themselves or others.
The efficacy of these interventions is evidenced by our outstanding student continuation and completion rates (consistently exceeding 95%) and strong progression into graduate employment. We have also made progress in narrowing key awarding gaps and have closed the University’s disability awarding gap for the past three years. However, the work of our Degree Outcomes Steering Group continues, monitoring our progress and ensuring that we continue to provide both equality of opportunity and high-quality education for all our students.”
Professor Rob Freathy, Dean for Taught Students.
“Success for All continues to lie at the heart of our University strategies, including our overarching Strategy 2030 and our underpinning Education Strategy 2019-2025. Through the University’s culture of collective responsibility, collaboration and practice-sharing, Success for All activity is now embedded across our University and spans all stages of our students’ journeys with us.
This was no more evident than during our first in-person Success for All Conference held in September 2022 which I was able to attend and participate in as a workshop presenter. It was wonderful to see academic and professional services colleagues, coming together with student representatives, to share and celebrate the work being undertaken to break down barriers and ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed to the very best of their abilities.
Highlighted below are examples of work being undertaken by our Success for All Working Groups, including: enhancing the transition and induction of students from under-represented groups; ensuring our model of education is culturally inclusive; improving the experience of our international students; and introducing our Exeter Cares programme to support those entering Higher Education with additional responsibilities, for themselves or others.
The efficacy of these interventions is evidenced by our outstanding student continuation and completion rates (consistently exceeding 95%) and strong progression into graduate employment. We have also made progress in narrowing key awarding gaps and have closed the University’s disability awarding gap for the past three years. However, the work of our Degree Outcomes Steering Group continues, monitoring our progress and ensuring that we continue to provide both equality of opportunity and high-quality education for all our students.”
Effective induction and transition are absolutely vital
Alison Truelove, Chair of Transition and Induction Working Group.
“Although we have exceeded the targets for reducing non-continuation and awarding gaps mentioned identified in Exeter’s Access and Participation Plan (APP), the group continues to work towards eliminating these gaps entirely through evidence-led actions to improve the whole induction and transition experience for all of our students. With increasingly diverse cohorts entering the University at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and in the light of significantly challenging external factors such as the cost-of-living crisis and concerns over young peoples’ mental health, it has never been more important to both diagnose and attend to the specific needs of each student at the point of entry.
Over the past year, the Success for All Transition and Induction Working Group has worked with colleagues across disciplines and professional services to adapt provision due to the move from Colleges to Faculties. Changes to our pre-arrival courses, hosted on the FutureLearn platform, proved especially challenging as we moved over to a mixed model approach, with some provided at department level, some at Faculty level, and others grouping smaller sets of disciplines together. This confirmed the value of bespoke provision, designed in alignment with local awareness of the needs of each cohort; as we extend the application of our new university-level Principles for Transition and Induction, this flexible approach gives educators and support staff the confidence to develop provision that best meets their students’ requirements.”
Improving communications
During the academic year 2021/22 we worked closely with the University’s Communications team to enhance the usefulness and tone of emails that are sent to students prior to their arrival on campus.
These early interactions with students are important opportunities for us to establish connections and expectations, signposting to pre-arrival tasks and resources to smooth the transition onto taught programmes, and more generally to provide reassurance on the availability of support. We also developed a new leaflet for Chinese students that offers information on all of the support services across our Exeter campuses in both English and Mandarin Chinese. This was made available on our website and handed out in printed format at induction events during Welcome Week.
Developing a sense of belonging
When mapping the characteristics of well-transitioned students for the purposes of our new Principles for Transition and Induction we confirmed the importance of providing opportunities for them to develop meaningful relationships with both peers and staff.
This requires a joined-up approach that brings together academic and support staff, student representatives, and the Students’ Guild / Union, so we have worked this year to facilitate extended conversations between these groups to shape more interactive programme-level welcome events.
With core information offered asynchronously via pre-arrival courses and web pages, the focus is predominantly on facilitating activities that enable students to form friendships and to develop a sense of belonging on their programme of study.
Focus groups and informal conversations with new students have confirmed that these structured community-building activities work to break down barriers and overcome anxieties, setting the foundations for peer support throughout their time at Exeter.
Our well-developed peer-mentoring programmes bolster this approach, every year connecting hundreds of new students with mentors who receive training and accreditation for their efforts.
Towards an inclusive and diverse learning community
Professor Vrinda Nayak, Associate Academic Dean for Taught Students.
“The main focus of Success and Inclusive Education Working group in this academic year was to address the barriers faced by students to achieve success and to embed the elements of inclusive education in all student support activities.
Significant work has been carried out to support staff to engage with the three pillars of Transformative Education Framework, inclusive education, racial and social justice and sustainability, as part of curriculum enhancement and co-creation with students.
A curriculum enhancement framework with guidance on embedding the principles of Transformative Education into module content is being developed by the Academic Development team. Co-creation with students is supported through Education Incubator where a theme on Transformative Education was provided for educational research projects.
The inclusive education practices are enhanced through a project that specifically looks at applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to teaching and learning practices and provide staff training on this. Support for disabled students is enhanced through a project that specifically considers the effective ways of creating and implementing individual learning plan for these students with a focus in inclusive education.”
Embedding inclusive teaching and practice
Decolonising geography
The ‘Mapping Decolonisation in Geography’ project was a student-led collaborative project designed to map existing decolonial approaches, practices, and curricula within the geography discipline.
The project, beginning in the 2021/22 academic year, has developed through two stages.
- Information gathering, and ‘mapping’ to establish what decolonial approaches are being applied in geography and what do students recognise, through surveys and focus groups.
- Applying the findings through:
a. Assessment workshops (in development) to focus on understanding how to embrace different learning styles. This is a first step to understanding why this is important, for example embracing authenticity and lived experience as a method of inclusivity related more broadly to decolonisation.
b. Open discussions to encourage communication and learning from others.
c. An annotated bibliography to make accessing decolonial resources easier. This includes gathering a variety of resources, academic papers, videos, news articles, zines, etc with a small description for each, to help educators with limited time.
The focus on decolonisation has evolved from the initial project to a passionate community of geographers wanting to decolonise their work and will be continuing in future years.
Transformative Education Seminar Series
The Transformative Education Seminar Series (TESS) was developed to showcase the values of the Transformative Education Framework, including highlighting work around the three core pillars of: inclusive education, racial and social justice, and sustainability.
The aim of TESS is to share good practice associated with the framework, inviting both internal and external speakers across institutions to share their experiences and to stimulate and encourage collaborative learning. Topics included Using Data and Analyses to Address Degree Awarding Gaps; Championing Education for Sustainable Development; Belonging and Inclusion; and Supporting Disabled Students in Higher Education.
Supporting student carers
Natalie Bracher, Chair of Under-represented Students Working Group.
“We have had a busy 12 months always looking at ways to further support our under-represented students throughout their student journey and ensure we have effective internal processes. Working with practitioners from universities across the Southwest, this year saw the first year of our collaborative outreach programme with the aim to provide a joined-up outreach offering for looked after young people across the southwest.
We have recently entered into an agreement with the Rees Foundation to provide all of our care leavers, care experienced and estranged students with an ‘Ask Jan’ membership if they would like one. This annual membership consists of access to external counselling sessions, personal finance and wellbeing advice, discounted days out and access to all other Rees Foundation projects. The membership will be available to students throughout the duration of their studies and for one year after they graduate.
Looking ahead, this year we will be carrying out a student retention analysis to investigate the student journey in more depth in particular looking at interruptions, exam resits, academic misconduct and repeats specifically where under-represented students are disproportionately affected.”
Stand Alone Pledge
Last November, as part of the Stand Alone Pledge Estranged Student Solidarity Week, the University renewed its pledge to support students that are estranged from their family.
The University of Exeter first signed the Stand Alone Pledge in October 2017 and our financial and pastoral support for students has significantly increased since then. The pledge requires universities to establish a named contact for estranged students; to develop processes to identify students and monitor their progress; to ensure staff and students across departments and faculties are aware of the support available to estranged students and to commit to staff development around awareness of the barriers estranged students face.
The renewal of the pledge was celebrated at a special event at the University of Exeter where Vice-Chancellor Professor Lisa Roberts met with University staff, representatives from the Students’ Guild and estranged students to discuss provision and any improvements which could be made.
The University of Exeter also received a Stand Alone Pledge Award in recognition for innovation and creativity in supporting estranged student’s emotional wellbeing, the second year running that we have been recognised as part of these awards.
Recipient, Estranged Student Bursary.
“You have made the journey of travelling to the opposite end of the country less worrying for me. You have made sure the University have supported me with extra support educationally, mentally and financially. University is something I never ever thought I would achieve, especially at such a prestigious university, and now I can finally see a really bright future for myself.”
Guild Advice Service
The Exeter Students’ Guild is funded by the University to provide 1:1 pastoral support to specific student groups including students who are estranged from their families, student carers, care leavers and asylum seekers or refugees
Specific help around financial support (and collating evidence for applications) is especially valued by the students as well as organising counselling sessions, signposting to services and advice to navigate accommodation. Another emphasis of the work is to promote social opportunities through ‘give it a go’ activities and trips and informal peer support meet-ups.
Success for All International Student Experience (ISE) Working Group
International recruitment is strategically vital for the University and one of the priorities in our Strategy 2030 is to increase the international diversity of our student community.
To support this work, the International Student Experience Working Group was set up in November 2021 to understand the international student experience and identifying and addressing any themes, gaps and persistent challenges which may mean that international students are not able to reach their full potential in their studies. This enables us to meet our strategic aim of enabling an inclusive university culture as part of our Success for All plan as well as our ambitions to create a global culture and broaden international partnerships across our research and education as part of our Global Strategy.
The team focused on identifying gaps which was achieved by conducting a series of meetings to survey service providers and understand their priorities for improvement. We then moved to bolster existing research within the University to understand key themes from the students’ perspective. This was done by summarising the themes from the Pulse Survey 2021 and the Start of Year Survey 2022 as well as conducting focus groups.
Recommendations have been turned into an action-plan which is being operationalised in 2023.
Narrowing degree awarding gaps - new text?
Considerable efforts have been made to better understand and address differential degree outcomes experienced by some of our under-represented students, and particularly by Black, Asian and Ethnic minority students and those with disabilities.
And, while progress has been made, there is still much to do. This work has involved detailed investigation and analysis, consultation with staff and students, promotion of inclusive educational practices, and interventions at discipline level.
The University’s Degree Outcomes Group has led detailed analysis and mitigation work to monitor and address these issues. The University also took the step of appointing Dr Billy Wong as its first ever Principal External Examiner to provide external assurance and scrutiny.
Developments to the University’s Education toolkit, investment and highly active grass roots activity to promote and embed approaches to decolonise the curriculum engaged academic staff and students in extending inclusive practice.
Adaptations of our educational provision in response to Covid including the development of digital learning spaces and teaching methods, introduction of a no detriment policy, alternative assessments and investment in a range of online tools and mitigations, were also impactful.
We continue to see improvement against our targets to narrow the most persistent awarding gaps and this work continues in earnest.
Narrowing degree awarding gaps - new text?
Considerable efforts have been made to better understand and address differential degree outcomes experienced by some of our under-represented students, and particularly by Black, Asian and Ethnic minority students and those with disabilities.
And, while progress has been made, there is still much to do. This work has involved detailed investigation and analysis, consultation with staff and students, promotion of inclusive educational practices, and interventions at discipline level.
The University’s Degree Outcomes Group has led detailed analysis and mitigation work to monitor and address these issues. The University also took the step of appointing Dr Billy Wong as its first ever Principal External Examiner to provide external assurance and scrutiny.
Developments to the University’s Education toolkit, investment and highly active grass roots activity to promote and embed approaches to decolonise the curriculum engaged academic staff and students in extending inclusive practice.
Adaptations of our educational provision in response to Covid including the development of digital learning spaces and teaching methods, introduction of a no detriment policy, alternative assessments and investment in a range of online tools and mitigations, were also impactful.
We continue to see improvement against our targets to narrow the most persistent awarding gaps and this work continues in earnest.