The keynote session was on facilitating an effective transition into higher education. The two key messages were that student-led teaching and learning is at the heart of student retention and success, and that a sense of belonging in the academic sphere is vital (especially for at risk and lower socio-economic students).

Student engagement and belonging is at the heart of success.

Early engagement with an academic purpose is important. Students are less likely to use support services if they are not part of the academic sphere. And males are less likely to use support services (just as an aside, I’m not totally sure that statistic is reflected in the StudyUp on-campus participation rates so far, but will be interesting to have a close look at semester II).

There were a lot of great examples of programmes that engaged students, and the discussion focussed on various topics like having mature-age student support networks, teaching students how to work in groups (developing skills and rotating roles), and more work with high schools (using a partnership approach).

Overall, there was a reflective checklist that included improving the transition and retention rates by prioritising student capacity through social engagement with an academic purpose.  That actually made me think of tutorials and the fantastic role they used to play by getting small groups of students together to discuss that week’s lecture and the sessions were usually facilitated by a postgraduate student so that the whole peer assisted learning concept was fairly well embedded. Of course the tutorial model (as it was originally conceived) has not traditionally helped our distance students.