September 2009 — Volume 3, Issue 5

Ensuring a successful transition to first year

Each university has a different compact with its community and at Griffith University the whole institution is committed to enhancing student transition to higher education.

Succeeding@Griffth, an institution-wide first year experience program, has been awarded an ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.

“Part of Griffith’s mission is facilitating social mobility and creating access and success for a very diverse group of students. Over 60 per cent of our students are the first in their family to attend university,” says Associate Professor Alf Lizzio, an instrumental figure in establishing the program.

Succeeding@Griffith is about “enabling student success” and is consistent with the federal government
aims of increasing participation and making higher education more accessible to students, he says.

According to Associate Professor Lizzio, the first year experience has undergone an evolution over the last 15 years. Initially, student transition was largely the responsibility of central services staff and primarily employed co-curricular strategies such as peer mentoring and learning support. A second generation of transition strategies is focused on designing more effective and engaging classroom environments. Succeeding@Griffth is seeking to be a third generation strategy.

“We are not only seeking to establish extra-curricular support and effective classroom design but we are also trying to develop a coordinated whole of institution partnership and consistent message about the first year
experience across the university.”

Key to this has been the creation of the first year advisor role. There are more than 80 student advisors across the university. Each is an academic with a specific responsibility to lead student transition in their school or program.

“This is a whole of university staffing model that services the student experience and manages their transition. I think that’s the first of its kind in Australia. That’s the strongest evidence of a university’s commitment, allocating staff resources.” says Associate Professor Lizzio.

First year advisors set up and lead school orientation programs, run workshops on student transition, support at-risk students and provide information on learning support.

Associate Professor Lizzio says a key function of the FYA role is helping students navigate where else in the university they might find the help they need. “Kids’ helpseeking skills aren’t all that well developed and universities often aren’t that well designed to facilitate it, so a local, friendly face is a big value add for our students.”

As part of the program’s ongoing evaluation, all first year students are surveyed about their early experience of university and how well they are managing their transition. Feedback from the Starting@Griffith survey shows that over time there have been significant improvements in retention and engagement but Associate Professor Lizzio says it is still a work-in-progress.

“Cultural change interventions are like turning around a large ocean liner. You really have to take your time, pay close attention and get the settings in place. But there are some very strong early indications that Succeeding@Griffith is successful.”

The program continues to be developed by providing extra training to support the student advisor role and developing better online environments such as a student website with online tools for self-directed information retrieval.

Associate Professor Lizzio says student services director Joanna Peters has significantly strengthened partnerships between support staff and academic staff and Lyn Burnett from the Griffith Institute for Higher Education is playing a key role in the ongoing support of first year advisors. At the management level, faculty Deans of Learning and Teaching perform a very strategic role in translating the Succeeding@Griffith strategy within their disciplines.

“Typically universities are siloed experiences and students have a challenge to navigate their way around so we are trying design a student-centred environment rather than a institution-centred maze.”