The Influence of Two Different Types of Intake Assessments on Student Success in the First Year of the Bachelor Program

Author(s):

Yvonne Slots(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 05 D,

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

13:30-15:00

Room:

K5.19

Chair:

Diana Aguiar Vieira

Contribution

In 2011 the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science presented their Strategic Agenda. Their purpose was to improve higher education in the Netherlands. One of their priorities was to improve student success. The Ministry offered the Dutch Universities the opportunity to demonstrate how they achieved this goal as stated in the so- called “performance agreements”. To stimulate the universities, the Ministry decided to allocate seven per cent of the university budget to achieve those objectives.

Student success has a qualitative and quantitative meaning. The quantitative definition entails the percentage of the students who passes their exams/ get their degree, the dropout rates and the number of study hours (study load) from one study year. The qualitative definition describes the development from an individual student (Nedermeijer, 2009). The National Student Union in the Netherlands describes student success as the development of the student and maturation of social awareness (LKkV, 2014). This research addresses both perspectives.

Increasing completion rates (less dropout and increasing the number of students obtaining their bachelor degree) is one of the priorities at Zuyd University of Applied Science (Zuyd University, 2014). Zuyd University of Applied Science is a university with 1700 employees, and 13.000 students in 50 different bachelor and master programmes. Zuyd University has taken 181 measures to improve student success.

This research focuses on the Department Commercial and Financial Management. The Department strives to achieve a student retention percentage off 70 % in the first year. However, the Department has not yet been able to achieve the goals of the university in relation to dropout and student retention. Despite several initiatives, the dropout rate in the first year is 45 per cent as measured in the period 2011-2016. For example, the Dept. already improved their information services, conducted intake interviews, reduced the number of students in one class and introduced a mandatory presence for students in order to decrease the dropout. Above all this faculty has the highest number of long-term students in comparison with other faculties.

In the Netherlands students have the right to take part in the study choice test. When a student applies for a study before May 1 the universities are required to provide those tests. To improve student success the management has changed the intake procedure and introduced guidance for each student individually following the intake. The results of these intake assessments are being used during coaching sessions. The scope of the current study is to evaluate the first results of this new policy.

In order to achieve better insights in the type of students that have chosen to start the education Commercial and Financial Management, the faculty has initiated a pilot with a new intake procedure (NOA- intakes) for the year 2016-2017. Proximally 80 students will start their bachelor study with this NOA intake; the other proximally 300 students will start with Kiesactief assessment.

Kiesactief assessment, which the faculty applied in previous years gives only insight in the competencies of the student. The NOA- assessment includes six sub tests and assesses topics like motivation, career- and educational orientation and competencies. Based on the assessment a report is written, which addresses the high and low scores of the student. Furthermore NOA conducts a risk profile for each individual student. Before a student starts with the study program the study-coach knows the dropout chance. The management of the faculty believes that the NOA- assessment in combination with tailor made guidance will improve student success.

The research question is: Has the tailor made guidance as a result of the NOA- assessment a better effect on student success in comparison with the Kiesactief assessment?

Method

Participants Two hundred and seventy sophomores participated in the survey study. Participation was voluntary and students did not receive any reward. In addition, 24 participants will be selected for in- depth interviews to shed more light to specific issues. Design The study is a survey based on Tinto’s Framework for Institutional Actions (Tinto, 2012). Additionally the results of the quantitave analyses will be followed up by a small scale qualitative study. Instruments The scale has been developed and validated by van den Boogaard (2015). The scale consits of four content areas: 1. Living and personal situation; 2. Commitment and expectations; 3. Teacher expertice, facilities and program structure; 4. Study behavior and learning. Furthermore, the students have been noted their student–ID-number which provided the opportunity to link the information from the survey with the grades that students obtained and the data from the MIS of the University. Relating the survey data to the data of the management information systems allows testing the relationship between Tinto’s Framework and study success. Procedures The survey has been administrated as a paper and pencil test directly after a lecture, amongst two different groups of sophomores (a. Commercial Management, b. Financial Management). Data of the in-depth interviews will be transcribed and coded by two independent researchers. Analysis Stepwise lineair regression will be performed in SPSS-22. The qualitative data will be coded inductively in Atlas.ti- 7.5.16.

Expected Outcomes

The survey response rate was 70.31%. The results will shed light on the relationships between students’ domestic and personal situation, the quality of the teachers, facilities, the education program, students ‘study behavior and learning’, and the grades and European Credit Transfer System Points (ECTS) that have been obtained. This provides an overall picture of the current situation and allows the faculty to improve their measures to enhance study success. In addition, the results will facilitate the exploration of whether the NOA- intake students (in combination with the tailor made guidance) generally perform better than the Kiesactief students. It is expected that if students rate themselves positively on the topics of Tinto’s framework in the survey they will have gained more credits. The current study may support and refine Tinto’s framework, and improve education or educational conditions.

References

Landelijke Kamer van Verenigingen (LKvV), Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg (ISO) en Landelijke Studenten Vakbond (LSVb) (2014), Studiesucces: een nieuwe definitie, [Study succes, a new definition]. Utrecht. Nedermijer, J. (2009). Wat is studierendement (What is studentretention?). Retreived October 22, 2015 from http://www.studiesuccesho.nl Tinto, V (2012) Completing college, rethinking institutional action, Londen: The University of Chicago Press. Van den Bogaard M.E.D. (13 februari 2015), Towards an action-oriented model for first year engineering student success. A mixed methods approach (Dissertation, TBM, TU Delft). Delft: TU Delft. Zuyd University (2014), Jaarrapport 2014, Kunst van het Lesgeven [Year report 2014. The art of Education]. Retreived March 4, 2016 from https://www.zuydnet.nl/binaries/content/assets/zuyd-intranet/nl/over-zuyd/feiten-en-cijfers/zuyd-jaarverslag-2014.pdf

Author Information

Yvonne Slots (presenting / submitting)

Zuyd University of Applied Science

Financial and Commercial Management

Heerlen

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