1. education

Faculty of Culture & Pedagogy
MA Coursework cover sheet
Student’s name
SANTANU VASANT
Course of study
MA in Information and Communications Technology in Education
Module title
Dissertation on ICT in Education
Module code
MMAICT_99
Date work submitted
31st January 2011
Title of Assignment / Report / Dissertation (Please circle)
Issues in the Transition of Students into Higher Education
Word Count
21,551
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UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION
Issues in the Transition of Students into Higher
Education
Masters Dissertation
SANTANU VASANT
January 2011
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of Masters of Art
in
Information Communication Technology in Education
Word Count: 21,551
This dissertation may be made available to the general public for borrowing, photocopying or
consultation without the prior consent of the author.
Abstract
Student Transition into higher education has become one of the largest concerns for universities in
recent years, as it tries to manage an ever increasing diversity in student population. Several
research projects have citied issues ranging from teaching quality through to travel, accommodation
and socialisation as effecting the transition process and retention of students during their first year
of undergraduate studies. However, lessons learnt from this body of research have not yet impacted
in the context of Brunel University. This study therefore seeks to contextualise the issues in
transition of students at Brunel, reflecting on the past experiences. Desk research was conducted on
various case studies. The analysis of this research was enhanced by interviews with a small sample of
students and results from two questionnaires. Results indicated similarities and differences between
the existing bodies of research when analysed using a qualitative content analysis framework.
Considering these results and the empirical comprehensions of the interviews and questionnaires, a
prominence may need to be placed on the academic issues (e.g. teaching quality) and a creation of a
better transitional strategy across the university to provide a more coherent experience for all
students, so they can settle into university life and learning in a way that is beneficial to all
stakeholders.
Acknowledgement
I am most grateful to my supervisors, Dr Harvey Mellar and subsequent supervisor Dr Neil Selywn,
whose encouragement, guidance and support enabled me to develop an understanding of the
subject.
Lastly, I offer my best wishes to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion
of this project.
Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter One: Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 2
Chapter Two: Research Questions and Methods ............................................................................ 22
Chapter Three: Analysis and Discussion .......................................................................................... 36
Chapter Four: Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 49
References ....................................................................................................................................... 54
Appendix I – Ethics .......................................................................................................................... 60
Appendix II – Questionnaires ........................................................................................................... 67
Appendix III – Findings ..................................................................................................................... 72
Appendix IV – Interviews ................................................................................................................. 84
A Wordle (http://www.wordle.net) representation of qualitative data set from a questionnaire
(See Appendix III for further information).
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Introduction
“The transition to higher education is often difficult for students, but especially for those with
additional needs or with more limited family support. Induction arrangements are central to
achieving this transition successfully - providing information about academic expectations and
cultures, institutional systems and welfare support, and facilitating the development of social
networks, particularly for students who are not able to participate in traditional student activities.
Effective transition can help to improve rates of initial retention and on-going success.” – HEA
Online, 2008
This quote captures succinctly the importance of transition and outlines the main focus of this
thesis. In addition, the role technology is a further issue that will be investigated. The key aim of this
thesis is to look at the issues faced by students in the transition process at Brunel University and to
explore the role of technology and possible steps that could be taken do in order to improve the
transitional experience through a series of sub questions relating to four areas – learning and
teaching, finance, travel and accommodation and socialisation. The aspiration for exploring the
issues faced by Brunel University students has in part arisen from the involvement in the work of
examining how transition and retention are affected by technology for a sub-set of students (Brunel
University, 2008b). Despite taking this as the starting point, this study does not begin and end with
that concept. Instead, it tries to articulate through the discourses of the students at Brunel, the
many complex issues they face in the following four domains – academic, administrative, travel /
accommodation and socialisation through the discourses of the students. As well as recording and
summarising these concerns, it is hoped the study will provide a point of departure for any future
strategy around transition.
The brief outline of this thesis will be described. Chapter one provides a review of a selection of
literature from the field. Chapter two focuses on the research questions and methods, outlining the
methodology and framework that will be used to analyse the data collected. Chapter three is
devoted to the analysis of the data collected and the discussion of the findings. Chapter four
concludes the thesis, with a discussion on wider implications, future trends and follow up research.
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Chapter One: Literature Review
This chapter reviews the literature that is applicable to this study and provides a conceptual
framework when addressing some of the issues relating to transition into higher education, as well
as the understanding of how and to what extent technology can or could facilitate this. Firstly, issues
in the transition process are described to establish the general discourse that pertains to this field of
study. Secondly, a comparison is undertaken between mature and non-traditional students versus
other students to ascertain an understanding of the differences and similarities in experience. Finally
several other issues, namely those of the induction process, the role of lecturers, technology and
widening participation are examined. The literature review concludes with a look to the future of
transition in higher education and the possible impact for higher education institutions.
Students enter HE from a wide range of backgrounds (HEFCE, 2001). The vast majority of students
still enter the sector from college or sixth form with A-Levels under the age of 21 (HESA, 2009).
These, for the purposes of this research project are classed as ‘traditional’ students. Other students
enter the sector with qualifications other than A-Levels, these include amongst others BTEC and
Access Courses, these for the purposes of this research project are classed as ‘non-traditional’
students. To this group, foreign students with none A-Level qualifications are added also. The third
type of student that enters the sector is a ‘mature student’, who for the purposes of this research
project is classed as over 21 and with A-Level or BTECs, Access Courses etc. Foreign students, with
any qualifications over the age of 21 are also grouped with the ‘mature students’.
What difficulties do students have in the transition to higher education?
The research highlights many difficulties faced by students in the transition to HE. Yorke and
Longden (2008) state that the major factors surrounding withdrawal in the first year of an
undergraduate programmes has shifted slightly from “poor choice of programme; lack of personal
commitment to study; teaching quality; lack of contact with academic staff; inadequate academic
progress; and finance” in the mid-1990s when they first conducted a review of first year student
experience . Contrast this to the most recent of their studies, that showed the “issue of contact with
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academic staff was becoming more significant for continuation, and that finance was declining in
significance”, although as will be seen by the research all of these themes are very much in the mix
in terms of transitional experience into HE and highlight the need for lecturers in HE to be aware of
these issues as they enrol students onto their courses. The studies undertaken by Yorke and
Longden both in the mid-1990s and from 2006-2008 are two of the largest studies of their kind
looking at institutions across the sector, although smaller scale studies undertaken by Laing and
Robinson (2003), Crabtree et al (2007) and as far back as Billing (1997) amongst others, highlight
some of these concerns for students, parents and their lecturers. The issues raised by the studies
mentioned previously will form the basis of this literature review along with other literature in this
area.
Poor Choice of Programme
Let us first take the issue of poor choice of programme. Research by Yorke (2000) found that often
students drifted into HE because it was the expected thing to do, often ill prepared and lacking in
the knowledge about the programme of studies they were due to embark upon. Yorke established
that this was more of an issue for younger students, those in the 18-21 year old age bracket, as they
often made decisions made on the basis of going to university, as opposed to studying for a degree.
Students interviewed by Yorke pointed out several reasons for this poor choice of programme. One
student mentioned the need to just leave home and go to university on the first offer received.
Another was led to believe the open day hype, stating “I was led to believe by institution tutors on
Open Day, that the course was perfectly suited to my needs and requirements. This wasn’t the case
despite my reiteration of what I wanted”. Another factor in the poor choice of programme was the
lack of skills or knowledge needed in the course, which was often realised after the students had
started the programme. An Engineering student commented on his lack of mathematical ability.
“*My+ Mathematics not up to the standard required. It was very difficult and the course content was
not explained before I embarked on it.” The problem of picking a subject that was a hobby as a
degree was also mentioned in the research by Yorke (2000), who quoted one student, who chose
Performing Arts as it was her hobby, as saying “my career objectives had always swung between
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Nursing and [Performing Arts]. It was only after I commenced the course that I realised that I was
not committed enough to *Performance Arts+ and that I wanted to do Nursing.”
Lack of Commitment to Study
Personal lack of commitment to study is another issue that arises in the literature. This was often
one that had a variety of reasons, but the research conducted refers to a few main reasons. One
reason is that of the family commitments and the conflict this has with studying. As Barron and
D'Annunzio-Green (2009, p. 13) state that for older students, the commitment to family and to
partners and the responsibility this puts on their studies is an extra factor when balancing home life
and studies. A further reason is some students work during term time and this take their focus away
from study. This view is reinforced up by Laing and Robinson (2003, p. 177) and also by Yorke and
Longden (2008, p. 8) who state “60 per cent said that they had had to undertake paid work in order
to support themselves while in higher education, and 39 per cent said that they had difficulty in
balancing academic and other commitments”. This comment highlights the complex nature of the
issues in this area and how they are more than just teaching related, but a myriad of other issues.
Teaching Quality
Teaching quality is another aspect in the transition process to HE. To help contextualise this wide
and varied concern, we must first look at the environment that the student has come from, be it
further education college, sixth form or the world of work, the environment is very different from
that of HE. Crabtree et al (2007) indicate the monitoring and standards culture that is prevalent in
the further education section (henceforth FE) is one that university lecturers have to educate
students in the art of thinking independently first before any subject knowledge can be delivered. As
Crabtree et al (2007) quotes from a sixth form college lecturer “at the end of the day you can teach
them what you want but it all comes down to success rates … The aims are to meet the GCE
requirements and my students have to be prepared for exams in January and June”. This is the
exact opposite to what many university lecturers expressed in the study. They expressed students
must “…able to reflect, to learn from experience, to identify and process relevant information,
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synthesise knowledge, evaluate, demonstrate independence and be capable of making one’s own
decisions, an ability to think, take a position, to justify and argue your case” (Crabtree et al, 2007).
These dichotomous perspective of this discourse makes the transition for some students that more
difficult.
Attendance
Apart from the issue of teaching quality, a related issue that is raised by Laing et al (2005, p. 251) is
that of monitoring attendance as one further factor during transition. Whilst many schools and sixth
forms have to keep attendance registers of students for official parties, many universities don’t keep
attendance registers. The responsibility for attendance is placed upon the individual student. The
study highlights that “the evidence appears to indicate that some form of correlation exists,
supporting the hypothesis that students benefit from attending teaching sessions, and that more
attendance is better than less attendance”. The authors conclude that “light of such studies, the
authors believe that influence attendance plays in academic performance”. (Laing et al, 2005, p.
251).
Administrative Issues
It is not just the academic teaching that is of concern to students. In work conducted by Yorke and
Longden (2008), they found that a small number of students had more general administrative issues
with their academic studies, including “failure in deferred assessments (the student concerned did
not find out, and “finally gave up on re-starting my course”); problems with an appeal regarding
submitted work for which there was no record of submission (at the time of responding, the student
was unsure whether re-enrolment would be permitted, or whether she wanted to re-enrol); late
notification of failure at the end of year 1;” Another issue was that of cancelled sessions, also
highlighted by Yorke and Longden (2008, p.50), who write “for a few (but highly critical) students,
the failure to give advance warnings of cancelled sessions was criticised strongly, especially when
they had travelled into the institution from a distance only to find that the scheduled session was
not going to take place.” Whilst these issues are in the minority in most institutions, they do
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highlight a worry to the sector as a whole and one that will be of continued concern when the
government raises the fees of undergraduate degree yet further from their £3,600 mark at present
and students possibly questioning the value for money of some degrees, as students in the US have
begun to do (BBCc, 2010).
Mass Production Standards of HE
This leads onto the other difficulty that Barron and D'Annunzio-Green (2009, p. 10) refer to as the
‘mass production standards’ of HE. They remark, “the realities of contemporary HE in the UK have
forced many academics to adopt what is referred to as mass production standards, where all
students are treated in the same way regardless of their different needs and requirements”. This
lack of personalisation in higher education is echoed by the National Audit Office (Bourn, 2007, p.
33) when referring to the use of technology to support such a framework of support. There are preuniversity courses offered in a variety of ways, an example is the work outlined in Laing et al (2005)
that explores the use of an online spiral programme (via a virtual learning environment), helping
students with key skills needed for university through a series of online activities. These types of
programmes are often offered to those students singled out as needing the help to make this
transition to HE, either because of their qualifications (i.e. not A-Levels) or their age (i.e. mature
students), however it must be noted that transition to HE is a difficulty faced by most students, it is
just the degree to which they feel this difficulty that is the difference and therefore these courses
would ideally benefit all students. This area of supporting students before they come to university
will be discussed later in greater depth.
Whilst some universities offer such induction programmes others due to their very nature have a
more general approach to supporting their students because they have a higher intake being either
from a non A-Level background or mature background. One such institution is Middlesex University,
who provide each and every student undertaking undergraduate studies with them the chance to
engage with what they refer to as “preparatory” materials in an online module prior to enrolling
formally. Anagnostopoulou & Parmar (2008) write “this module welcomes them to their
programme, provides information about what it means to be a student in higher education and
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offers programme-specific information and preparatory materials.” In this particular case, the
materials were tracked using the VLE used by Middlesex and data gathered for analysis, these have
their inherit issues, chiefly deciding the time to take the “snapshot” of student activity
(Anagnostopoulou & Parmar (2008); however some institutions this is not always possible due to
resources. This idea of an online induction programme is one that has also been carried out at
Southampton Institute, called onSIP. The key aim of this programme was to look at what the needs
of the students are and to address them during their first year of undergraduate studies. As Laing
and Robinson (2003) describe that often some students do not have the skills upon entry to higher
education and that their expectations are often based on previous life experiences including
schooling at sixth form or college. As the work of Crabtree et al (2007) has shown previously that the
ways in which the students are taught to learn are very different in sixth form or college compared
with university, so along with other difficulties they may face, adapting to the change of academic
pace and style is often one of the most important factors when it comes to the transition process for
many students. Crabtree et al (2007) describe the nature of the qualifications undertaken by college
students prior to joining university, they describe the difference in the qualification as “...level 3
vocational qualifications (such as BTEC National and AVCE awards and the new A level in Applied
Business), which are assessed primarily by means of coursework assignments, and the more
academic A levels which are assessed predominantly by unit based examinations, often based on
pre-seen or unseen case studies”. Crabtree et al (2007) go onto highlight the 2001 Ofsted Report on
the first year of the implementation of Curriculum 2000, where students did their A-Levels in two
stages, an Advanced Subsidiary (AS Level) in the first year and then the second part the A-Level in
the second year, commenting students “had fewer opportunities for independent work than before”
(Crabtree et al, 2007). This is echoed by the work of Yorke and Longden (2008).
Crabtree et al (2007) also found that the goals of a college and a university were fundamentally
different. Colleges in their study, described their role as “...in terms of delivery of the curriculum
and/or to ensure that the student’s made good progress”, whereas the universities largely described
their role as “...in terms of supporting and developing independent learning and thinking skills and
promoting an interest and enthusiasm about the subject.” There is an argument in both the FE and
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HE sectors as to how much each other can do to ease the transition of students who come into HE
from a college or sixth form background.
Sense of belonging
It is not just the academic skills that some students lack, but also those interpersonal skills, as Laing
et al (2005, p. 245) indicates, when referring to the online spiral induction programme “the informal
and relaxed manner of the sessions helps students to adjust to the requirements of the university’s
teaching and learning environment, to deal with change, and to develop those generic
communicative and interpersonal skills (e.g. listening, discussing and group working) that are
essential in any working environment”.
Some students may also feel they do not belong to the university community for cultural
differences, i.e. they may be foreign students or because they are not from the same social class as
their peers. This is highlighted as a common issue during the transition process by the National Audit
Office Report (Bourn, 2007). This is also noted by Billing (1997) who states that “the importance of
social integration for full-time students; the need for peer support networks and a consistently
understood and applied tutorial system” being central to the induction process.
A reason for this lack of integration into the student community at a university could also be to do
with where the student lives and how far they have to travel to be on campus. As Barron and
D'Annunzio-Green (2009, p. 19) describe the concern a lot of students in their study had to travel
and the time involved but also the expensive of that travel and the impact of the travel on their
studies.
Finance
Another factor in the transition process that D'Annunzio-Green (2009, p. 19) study also describes the
issue of finance that students have mentioned. A lot of students see the shift of having to pay for
education (this study was conducted after tuition fees were introduced into the higher education
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system) as a contrast to that of Further Education (i.e. sixth form or college) where the expensive is
not so great and is largely on books and not on the teaching itself. As D'Annunzio-Green (2009, p.
19) writes “the move from the FE system where students, at most, paid only a small contribution to
their studies, to one when a student can potentially possess significant debt on graduation”. Indeed
this shift away from free schooling to pay for higher education is also having an impact on the social
lives of students, who may have worked for experience before, but now are increasingly working to
survive in the higher education sector. The quote “I have serious concerns about organizing my parttime work around studying and organizing my social life around university responsibilities” from a
male, 26 respondent in D'Annunzio-Green (2009, p. 19) is typical of the students who have concerns
in this area. This discourse is echoed by research conducted by D. Reay et al (2002, p. 10), who also
quotes students in a similar situation and write “many students were either juggling extensive
labour market commitments or childcare and domestic responsibilities with studying. In such
circumstances, any sort of social life is often sacrificed”. This shows the very difficult position some
students find themselves in during their first year at University and is evident in most universities, in
similar studies conducted (Yorke and Longden, 2000, 2008 and Johnston, 1997).
The social aspect of university has also impacts on the students ability to learn and therefore many
studies into the area of transition also refer to the idea of ‘academic integration’ where the lecturers
need to understand that their student co-hort for a module is a diverse one and that they should
employ strategies such “active student-centred teaching and learning activities and on-going
summative assessment” to promote “social academic integration” (Crabtree et al, 2007). Although
Crabtree et al (2007) go on to highlight that in their research, first year business students still failed
to grasp the concept of independent study as a success factor in higher education. This highlights the
need to tackle this issue from a proactive rather than reactive approach, i.e. one that includes
interventions at a much earlier stage, possibly through better education in sixth form or college,
although the focus of these institutions, as highlighted earlier can be difficult, however it would be in
the interest of both students and staff at sixth forms and colleges, to motivate as many students as
possible who would like to go to university to stay on and complete their course. Indeed this is what
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a lot of Universities, including Brunel are undertaking, through their Widening Participation
Strategies (Brunel Widening Participation Strategy, 2008).
Do mature and non-traditional students have the same difficulties as other students?
Often the research into this area of education is conducted with either traditional (with A-Levels),
mature (over 21 years old) or non-traditional students (without A-Level) exclusively. This narrow
approach often yields issues pertaining to that sub-section of undergraduate student and ignoring
the other students. The research does show some quite major differences in difficulties faced by
mature and non-traditional students versus traditional students, summarised by the phrase “learner
profile” (Whittaker, 2007, p. 2). There are a number of themes that Yorke and Longden (2008)
highlight and compare to their previous work in this field. In this section some of these differences
will be reviewed as well as what common difficulties all students regardless of qualification entry
into higher education have. The findings will be compared to those from others in this field.
One such area of difference is that of family responsibilities, which often 18-21 year old students do
not have. These family responsibilities often have a major impact on the choice of university that a
mature student attends, whereas an 18-21 year old would have less family commitments and
therefore like to travel to another city to study. As Deay et al (2002) describes “material
circumstances, in particular those arising from family commitments, meant that nearly all were
operating within very narrow circumscribed spaces of choice in which the location of a university
becomes crucial”. Yorke and Longden (2008) study also echoes this as a factor, related to finance
and employment. They quote a participant in the study, who was categorised as a 26-30 year old
mother doing a medical related degree at the Post-1992 institution “...I had two small children at
nursery and the bursary barely covered the fees, as a family we struggled for six months until we
had to finally give up before we become deeply in debt” (Yorke and Longden, 2008). With young
families, often means that students need to choose between study and their families and leave
university as a result.
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Mature students also make the transition to university after time in work and/ or raising a family.
This means whilst they have a richer experience outside academia, due to “reason(s) of socioeconomic background, age, prior educational background, ethnicity, nationality, or disability”
(Whittaker, 2007), as compared with the traditional students, as defined earlier.
Mature students are also sometimes the first generation to go to university in their family and as
Whittaker (2007, p. 8) highlights the problem of social transition for mature students she argues
have “less peer support to draw on” and are more likely to find it difficult to make friends and
interestingly states that “mature students tend to rely more on interaction with their tutors to gain
support and advice in relation to their study, compared to younger students who prefer to seek
initial advice and support from their peers. Younger students tend to require immediacy in
addressing academic issues which is generally more readily available from their peers, even if not
necessarily the best source of guidance.” (Whittaker, 2007, p. 9). One possible reason for this is the
similarity in age of mature students and the lecturers. Whatever the possible reasons for this, it
highlights a difference in the way these two age groups deal with issue of support.
Furthermore, research into mature students by Yorke (2000) has indicated the perception of mature
students who come from access courses (courses that can lead onto undergraduate study) where
the environment is highly supportive, to the comparatively unsupportive nature of an
undergraduate degree environment find the transition very difficult. They also have more of a varied
experience prior to starting university, as they come from a variety of backgrounds, i.e. from the
world of work or bringing up their families. The universities, according to Yorke and Longden (2008)
are finding that their learner profile, i.e. the type of student that enters university education is very
different to a decade ago, mainly because of the widening participation agenda of the previous
Labour government, but also because more students are encouraged or expected to go to university.
This should led to universities re-thinking the way in which they cope with this diverse body of
students that enters their gates and the best way to educate them, a view supported by O’Donnell &
Tobbell (2007, p. 326).
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The academic demand that is summarised by York and Longden (2008) and Crabtree et al (2007) is
another possible issue for some students. They focus on issues such as lack of academic challenge,
i.e. not being stretched enough as areas of specific concern. Another issue is that of motivation and
the lack of formal teaching, resulting in students finding the transition academically into higher
education difficult. Yorke and Longden (2008) quote a female under 21 studying for combined
Arts/Humanities, Pre-1992 University, “I did not feel prepared for study at university, it was very
different from what I had been used to at grammar school”. This echoes Crabtree et al, 2007, which
was highlighted previously, as well as studies conducted by HEFCE (2001, 2005) who note that
students who have very coached A-Level studies may find it difficult to deal with the greater
independence expected in higher education. This is an issue echoed by some mature students, who
also felt the lack of structure or guidance from their lecturers made them feel very overwhelmed.
This feeling of not being ready for the academic demand is expressed again by a 24 year old mature
female student, “I felt like I was thrown in the deep end when lectures started. Freshers week was to
introduce you to the social side of university life but there was no proper introduction to studies.”
(Yorke and Longden 2008, p. 29). There is, therefore a need for some students, to have an academic
induction, as well as a social one offered in Freshers Week (Barber & Hassanien 2007).
If students live on campus, the issue of social integration is one that is sometimes citied as a reason
for non-completion. As Yorke and Longden (2008) indicate, the “dislike of a ‘partying’ culture” that is
expressed, especially if they were in a long distance relationship with someone back home. If
students live at home, they often express the feeling of missing out on the parties and not being part
of the university community. For some, this can lead to a feeling of isolation (Salter, 2003) and some
sadly leave their courses on this basis. For mature students however, Yorke and Longden (2008)
highlight, it is often a place they don’t feel they belong “issues arising from being a mature student
in an environment geared towards school leavers” was how one over 40 year old female student
studying Creative Arts and Design in a Post-1992 institution articulated herself in the study. As Laing
et al, 2005 conclude regarding this matter in their study “with an ever-increasingly diverse student
population entering higher education, the ‘one size fits all’ model of induction and subsequent
support is no longer satisfactory.” However they do not propose any possible changes to aid this
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paradigm shift. They point to the need for “more targeted and personalised support in a proactive
rather than a reactive manner” (Laing et al, 2005, p. 253), but again without being very specific with
policies and practical implementation to aid the sector.
What is the role of the teacher at School versus the role of the lecturer at University?
When Crabtree et al (2007) asked this question in their study, they found that the responses given
by school teachers and lecturers varied greatly, as they had very different perceptions about what
their role was, despite having some common methods of teaching. What Crabtree et al (2007)
report is that school teachers perceive their role in terms of “terms of delivery of the curriculum
and/or to ensure that the student’s made good progress”, this is in part due to the examinations and
league tables culture in the UK and the pressure on teachers to get the results for the students, so
they can go to University. In comparison, those lecturers at higher education interviewed as part of
the study saw their role as more of “supporting and developing independent learning and thinking
skills and promoting an interest and enthusiasm about the subject” (Crabtree et al, 2007). For them,
the notion of examination success was secondary to that of learning and having a passion for their
subject. This dichotomy between school and university educators is a key issue highlighted in many
studies (Yorke and Longden, 2008 and Crabtree et al, 2007) as a factor in the non-completion of the
first year, i.e. the pace and difference in the learning and teaching are so different, that some
students find it difficult to cope with this pressure and subsequently leave university. Some
institutions have devised credit bearing modules, such as the University of Paisley’s Next Steps
Programme (Knox, 2005), which is discussed later, that “allows students to overcome their concerns
about university and adjust to its delivery and assessment regimes in a nonthreatening and
supported environment” (Knox, 2005, p109). Many universities have Academic Support Services, to
help students, although the volume of students does mean that not all students get the support they
need.
What is the role of technology in the transition process?
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The use of a virtual learning environment is one that is seen as a key feature of any modern UK
university, however the use of the virtual learning environment as a tool in the transition process,
for use with potential students coming to university, during the induction process (a week before
term starts marked by talks and social activities) and into the first year a support mechanism is often
sadly overlooked by some universities. Those that offer this type of induction do so only to a select
group of students, often non-traditional (none A-Level) or mature students. Often, many
institutions, find the induction process can be very intensive and passive for their students. It is
often seen as an event and not a process by which the students learn from the staff delivering the
sessions as to what to expect at higher education and what academic study skills are etc. (Laing et al,
2005, p. 245). There are however some universities who are using online induction programmes for
some students to help to facilitate this. One such institution using this approach is Southampton
Institute, have in “an attempt to provide a more student-centred approach to induction, initiated a
Spiral Induction Programme” (Laing et al, 2005). One important aspect of the programme is the
ability to teach students, over the six weeks duration of the course, the importance of selfassessment and diagnosis of learning and teaching and how to get help in developing these, through
the use of the institution’s in house academic and pastoral care services.
According to the study, students undertook “individual on-line activities, with immediate feedback
provided by onSIP, online Spiral Induction Programme, the name of the initiative, being used in
subsequent group activities and discussions”. The study found that the students “appreciated the
use of a structured framework for the session activities, supported by onSIP”. However, the study
also found the use of a logbook, used a tool for reflection, and was not used well by the students,
with a “minimum of reflective writing”. (Laing et al, 2005, p. 250).
Another university that implemented a similar enterprise was the University of Paisley redesigned
their curricula in the first year in an initiative called ‘Next Steps Curriculum Design’ and brought in
the use of the virtual learning environment as a way to facilitate such a transition from school or
sixth form to higher education and highlight “in addition to lectures, seminars and workshops, ‘Next
steps’ makes extensive use of the university’s virtual learning environment, Blackboard. Students are
15
encouraged to engage in online discussions and to use Blackboard to develop their own peer
support networks” (Knox, 2005). Unlike other similar initiatives, “the module attracts 15 credits and
notionally requires 150 hours for successful completion.” The central aim of this module is to
“maximize their opportunities to develop the key skills for survival in HE.” (Knox, 2005). The study
does not however give details of the success rate of such a scheme, but by making it credit bearing;
at least the students are completing the course.
As described, this type of technology usage is one that is being carried out in other higher education
institutions, however, when it comes to day to day teaching or lecturing of students, according to a
2007 report from the National Audit Office examining the factors surrounding transition and
retention into higher education describe the use of a virtual learning environment as “some
academic staff see it as more challenging to assess students’ learning needs in this way.” (Bourn,
2007, p. 33). More HE institutions should share a viewpoint that Edinburgh University have, who
summarise “technology is becoming mainstreamed into teaching and learning at the University of
Edinburgh. There is nothing special anymore about e-learning, only learning and teaching with
strands of technology running through” (Hardy et al, 2009, p. 5).
What is the role of Widening Participation in the transition process?
The previous Labour government key election pledge when coming to power was “education,
education, education” (BBC, 1997). A key mechanism for this is the idea of widening participation.
Students, who would not usually attend university, were able to enter a higher education institution
usually via a vocational route or in later life. The Admissions into Higher Education review, chaired
by ex-Brunel University Vice Chancellor Professor Steven Schwarz, found that “while participation by
under-represented groups has increased significantly over the last 10 years, the gap in participation
rates is still wide” (Schwarz, 2004). BIS (2009) indicate an extra 10,000 students entered higher
education from low socio-economic backgrounds in the academic year 2007/8 than they did in
2002/3.
16
However, this process of widening participation is changing; the reasons for this are multi-faceted.
There are an interesting number of A-Level students not getting into higher education, with
approximately 3,500 straight ‘A’ grade candidates not getting into higher education (Clark, 2010).
This raises two important questions, should we be putting those with straight ‘A’ grades at A-Levels
ahead of those who deserve a chance at higher education later in life or via a different route? The
second question it raises is how do we have a fair admissions policy and what proportion of nontraditional and mature students do we take into our higher education institutions?
The former question is a complex one to answer, on many levels, not least of all moral ground,
however the latter question might be to make greater use of e-learning provision and offer a lot
more courses using this type of technology. BIS (2009, p. 110) recommendation 31 states “the
Government, working with the Higher Education Funding Council for England, should prioritise
investment in e-learning infrastructure to extend the possibilities of remote and online learning.”
This is something that the current government also favours. However, even with this e-learning
infrastructure, you would need tutors and a framework similar to that of the Open University, one of
the world’s largest distance learning providers and other providers, such as the London School of
Economics, who offer this type of distance degree. One student, quoted in a BBC Online article on
this issue, about her experiences, said “there's a virtual learning environment, and each subject has
its own forum. If you put a question down, 10 minutes later someone may have replied to you from
Hong Kong, trying to answer it. You can get 15 replies in 15 minutes, so you do get feedback from
your fellow students." (BBC, 2010a).
There is a danger, that without further investment, we could be denying a generation of students
the opportunity to engage in academic studies beyond school and sixth form and therefore not be as
competitive in the global market. Schwarz (2004, p. 28) recommends a post-qualification
applications system (PQA) as a possible solution to the problem. He argues that it would be fairer
and would even help the widening participation movement giving the example of helping “students
on one-year Access courses who must currently apply at a point when they and their tutors may not
have an accurate picture of their capabilities. There is anecdotal evidence that some students
17
currently might choose not to apply at all, or may restrict their choice of course, because they do not
think their marks will be good enough.” The disadvantage, which Schwarz (2004, p. 29) emphasises
is the time restriction on the student to apply to university. There would also be a very big demand
on UCAS and other such bodies to process requests as well as Universities’ own admissions teams.
Changing admission policy is one aspect, but one can argue that widening participation starts well
before students even begin to think about the transition to university from school or sixth form.
Some may even argue that it starts when a child is first at school, as Higher Ambitions (BIS, 2009)
states “we need new partnerships between schools, colleges and universities, where schools will
identify pupils with the ability and aptitude to reach for the top well before GCSEs, with proper
support in setting their sights on university” (BIS, 2009). Widening participation teams are talking to
students when they are in their teens at school has been occurring in some secondary schools for
several years. Brunel is one such institution where this process occurs (Brunel Widening
Participation Strategy, 2008). With regards to the issues faced in transition, Yorke and Longden
(2008, p. 8) comment “with the ‘widening participation agenda’ in mind, there were only very small
differences in response from the different (self-reported) social groups regarding their academic
experience. However, those from more advantaged backgrounds had less recourse to part-time
employment (with potential advantage to their academic studies).”
Widening participation matters when it comes to guiding students through what is to be expected of
them at university, as Yorke and Longden (2008, pp. 8-9) comment that “students from backgrounds
in which there is limited or no experience of higher education often lack the familial support usually
available to those from backgrounds that are more advantaged in this respect, and which helps
in coming to terms with the expectations of higher education.” This Yorke and Longden (2008) argue
is a factor in the transition to higher education and a factor in the non-completion by those from
these backgrounds. This is a view supported by D. Reay et al (2002).
What is the future of transition to higher education?
18
In the last labour government’s report, entitled ‘Higher Ambitions’ into HE, the then Business
Innovations and Skills Department wrote “in order to attract a greater diversity of students, more
part-time study, more vocationally-based foundation degrees, more work-based study and more
study whilst living at home must be made available. This is a core aim of these proposals, and our
wider skills strategy.” (BIS, 2009). This would suggest to a time when the traditional campus based
model of higher education will be a thing of the past and that a more flexible approach to studies
will need to be found. However, HEFCE (2010, p. 15), in its annual report, contradict this statement,
stating that “there is insufficient increase in representation from the underrepresented socioeconomic groups”, citing that universities are “struggling in the new market conditions”. One of
these new market conditions might be, as the Organisation for the Economic Co-operation and
Development (2007) report is the influx of students from India and China, coming to the UK to
receive a British higher education, as their growing economic power, gives them the ability to do so.
The OECD (2007) also report the decline in births in the UK since the 1960s, as women have children
later in life or not at all and comment that the “trend invites consideration of how education
systems might need to shift their centres of gravity towards adult learners.” This would mean a
greater number of mature students entering higher education later in life, coupled with the rise of
international students, changing the demographic of those making the transition to HE and adding
to the type of provision including issues around language provision for international students for
example.
In a report commissioned by Universities UK, written by Professor Geoffrey Crossick, Vice Chancellor
of the University of London, comments are made on the possible changes that lie ahead for all
higher education institutions in the UK and highlight several areas that will impact on the transition
into higher education. The first area is that of funding. Universities are funded from three major
areas, i.e. student fees, government and research grants. As the report highlights “the proportion of
an institution’s income coming from funding councils varies greatly between institutions. It currently
ranges from eight per cent at one end of the scale to over 70 per cent at the other.”(Crossick, 2010,
p. 1). This would seem to suggest that if a university were lacking funding from government or
19
research grants that it would need to increase revenue from fees. Since higher education institutions
cannot change their fee structure at the time of writing this, although this is due to change in due
course (Browne, 2010), they can only achieve the increase in revenue through an increase in foreign
students, who typically pay four times more than the Home and European Union fee. As Crossick
(2010, p.3) argues that the “huge growth in numbers, with few significant changes to the basic
models that defined the system, is one reason for the challenge of sustainability”.
Crossick (2010) also comments on the flexibility, which is echoed by the Higher Ambitions Report
(BIS, 2009), both point to the need to have a greater flexibility in the delivery of higher education to
ensure that a wider population is targeted, as the number of eighteen year olds declines (OECD,
2007). This flexibility, argues Crossick will change the way people think of the traditional campus
based university and the concept of attending a university as we now think of it will be the
experience only the few will experience, not the many, as is the case now. (Crossick, 2010). This
would imply that the concept of the transition to higher education will fundamentally change, as less
people go to university in its traditional or present sense and more people complete flexible degrees
whilst in work or via colleges etc. This is echoed by a recent BBC Online article, which reports on
what the universities of the future might be like and concludes that the survival of all universities will
be based on many factors and that they may deliver more courses online as a form of diversification
(BBC, 2010a).
If more courses are to be delivered online via a virtual learning environment or similar, how do
institutions support the transition of students to university both online and in the traditional face to
face context? As we have seen many universities have a range of strategies that they deploy in order
to ease the transition of students into university, these include the use of taster courses, summer
schools, having special routes into courses, i.e. foundation degree or access courses, aimed at
students who didn’t attain the grades needed for university, but also for mature students or those
without A-Levels or equivalent, who want to study for a degree. It must be noted that it is not just
former polytechnics or Post 1992 universities that are deploying a range of strategies to encourage
students from all walks of life into university. Universities such as the London School of Economics,
20
have expensive outreach programmes, working with charities to engage “disadvantaged year 7
students who have home environments that are not conducive to study” (Office for Fair Access,
2010, p. 48).
If we look at the use of online programmes for transition, many universities, as discussed early,
including Middlesex, Southampton and Brunel have transition resources made available to students
through an initiative called GetPROGRESSive (Brunel University, 2008b, Parnis et al, 2009). Another
such university that has historically pride itself on widening access to higher education and
continues to do so, is University College London, who have a dedicated website aimed at aiding the
transition of students to university, these include guides and podcast and frequently asked questions
(UCL Transition, 2010). Whilst many students still study at a traditional campus based university and
attend lectures face to face, the introduction of virtual learning environments in recent years and
other associated learning technologies, has seen the lines of traditional and distance learning blur to
a small extent and this may mean that the lines of transition will also blur in years to come,
especially if the cost of education is perceived to increase, as Mike Baker, an independent education
expert writing for the BBC comments “the University of Phoenix, a for-profit institution owned by
the Apollo Group, has seen huge demand for its relatively cheap degrees delivered largely via the
internet.” (BBC, 2010b).
The recommendations outlined by Lord Browne (Browne 2010), may well shape the nature of
transition if implemented. If, as Browne argues that universities will have to be more business
focused, then like a business, all Higher Education Institutions will need to market their product, i.e.
the degrees they offer in a way that they may have not done before and engage more explicitly with
students on the one things students care about, i.e. their education. This would include lecturing
timetabling, quality of teaching, employability data etc., he writes HE institutions need to
““...actively compete for well informed, discerning students, on the basis of price and teaching
quality..”, which be at odds the research focused viewpoint citied so dearly “the UK’s strength in
research – ranking first, for example, amongst G8 countries in the number of citations in relation to
public spend on R&D – must not be taken for granted” by Crossick (2010, p. 8). Students questioned
21
for the website, the Student Room, concluded “well over half of the respondents already at
university or who have graduated (62%) would not have gone to university if fees had been as high
as they are likely to rise to in the future” (Student Room, 2010, p. 26). Ultimately, the voice of the
students must be at the heart of the matter (Hardy et al, 2009). It is this voice of students at Brunel
University students in relation to transition that are at the heart of this thesis. In the next chapter,
the methodology used to articulate these discourses will be examined and documented, reflecting
on the reasons why they were chosen.
22
Chapter Two: Research Questions and Methods
With all these issues in mind, the remainder of this thesis will address the following research aims
and questions:
Research Aims
To investigate the views of first year students, at Brunel University, West London to the
aforementioned issues surrounding transition in the academic year 2009/10
To see what role the use of technology has on the transition process and what can be done further,
reflecting on past experiences.
First Research Question
The first research question was split into a series of sub questions as stated below What are the views of students on learning and teaching?
What are the views of students on finance?
What are the views of students on travel / accommodation?
What are the views of student on socialising with other students?
Second Research Question
The second research question was split into a series of sub questions as stated below What role does technology play on learning and teaching?
What role does technology play on finance?
What role does technology play on Travel / Accommodation?
What role does technology play on socialising?
This chapter now goes onto consider the methodological issues underlying the research design and
specific research methods used in order to address these research questions.
23
Research Design
From the literature review, the topic transition process into Higher Education, the issues
experienced by the students and the role technology had many avenues of investigation and
methodologies that would help address the research questions above. It was decided upon that a
series of semi-structured interviews with first year students, the design and deployment of a
questionnaire to students and comparing this with the discourse in the literature, which was also
reviewed previously, limiting this to the past two decades, i.e. 1990-2010, to minimise the threat to
validity (Cohen et al, 2007, p. 144) would yield enough data to evaluate. By focusing on these three
main areas of data collection, it was possible to explore the research questions and sub-questioned
mentioned above, exploring how the issues surrounding transition and the use of technology were
being represented by the students in the semi structured interviews, the questionnaire and to what
extent would they be different to those already represented in the literature.
In must be noted that the issue of transition is not a new one and has already been researched by
others, the discourses surrounding this area were collected and reviewed earlier. This not only
meant that this formed part of the background research into the thesis, but it also brought out
emerging themes in the current research that would help the design of the primary data gathering
methods of semi structured interviews and questionnaires (Bell, 1999). The next step was to conduct
the semi-interviews on a sample of students on the issues they perceived to be important and their
role of technology during their first year at Brunel.
After establishing a “clear statement of the problem” (Cohen et al, 2007, p. 79), it was necessary to
adopt appropriate data collection methods. The research focus was to interpret and analysis the
views of first year students in relation to their transition and the role that technology could play in
the process. In order to triangulate the data, a mixed method approach was implemented. It allowed
existing research into transition relating to the research topic, via research papers, government
publications to be used in conjunction with semi structured interviews and questionnaire data
resulting in a mixture of both quantitative data (Selywn 2007) and qualitative data (Fairclough
2005a) to be analysed using qualitative content analysis based on the framework outlined by
Berelson (1952, pp. 114-126). The mixed method approach enabled a balanced approach to the
24
research which enabled the collection of a wide range of data to be collected at several points
during the research and through various methods during the research project, enabling greater
reliability to the data collection as a whole and to the robustness of the project findings.
Data Gathering
In order to ascertain the issues in transition of students coming into the university, it was necessary
to establish boundaries in the data gathering phase of the research project, so that specific
information was collected from a wide range of publications on the subject matter in hand. The first
task was to decide on the publications that would be searched and to devise a set of criteria on
which the searches would take place. These would inform the rest of the research and be used later
on in the project as a data set. This was the search strategy of the thesis. Initially the following terms
were used in conjunction with each other to form various combinations in search engines across the
internet – transition, first year, student, higher education. However, it was observed that only a
limited amount of articles were displayed, so the words - traditional, non-traditional and mature
were also added, as these were often the types of students that research on transition was carried
out on. This inclusion of extra words yielded a far better set of articles. The date of publication of all
the articles was in the last twenty years. This ensured that greater validity in the data was obtained
(Cohen et al, 2007, p. 144).
Alongside the articles, it was necessary to interview five first year students. The criteria for this are
they had to be first year students, who started either their foundation year (an access course) or the
first year of their undergraduate course in the academic year 2009/0. The reason for interviewing
fresh first years as opposed to second or third year student about their first year, was to gain a very
recent view of the issues they faced and for us to compare this with the questionnaire data
collected, which will be explained later in this chapter. The selection of the students for the sample
was also something that needed to be considered. The students were selected at random and were
th
therefore a random sample (Krippendorff, 1980, p. 66), every 10 student selected, contacted
initially via email, then phoned up to arrange a date and time for the interview. This approach
worked best, as the student didn’t feel as if they were being cold called by someone, they had time
to think about whether they wanted to respond or not. This was important, as the nature of some of
25
the questions were personal. The interviews were conducted face-to-face, rather than a telephone
interview as it would enable “multi-sensory channels to be used: verbal, non-verbal, spoken and
heard” to be observed and noted during the interview. This was a particularly important facet to the
research, as it would potentially be rich qualitative data from Brunel students. The main focus of the
interviews were to gather the views of the students to the transition process and to see what role
the use of technology has on the transition process, hence the questions were constructed around
these two themes and met the research aims outlined above. The questionnaires also served the
same purpose. The questions around this theme were constructed and piloted with students prior to
them being deployed.
Due to the nature of the themes explored in the interviews, the interviews had to be ethically
carried out in accordance with the guidelines set out in ‘Revised Ethical Guidelines for Educational
Research’, (BERA (British Educational Research Association), 2004) prior to the interview
commencing. Ethics approval was obtained at both the Institute of Education and Brunel University
before data collection commenced (see Appendix II). The measures described below are compliant
with Institute of Education’s research ethics and that of the British Educational Research Association
code of conduct for researchers.
The three main ethical considerations were voluntary informed consent; confidentiality and what
will be the consequences of the interview would be if any of the content was to leak out. It was
decided that the interview would be recorded using a digital voice recorder, the consent was oral
and conducted prior to the interview commencing. It was stated that the research would be
confidential to this research project and would only be used for educational purposes and extracts
included in written works. To this end, the name of the interviewees have not be disclosed other
than to describe them as Yorke and Longden (2008) did as either Male or Female and from which
subject area they come from, i.e. Multimedia, Psychology, Business and an indication of their age.
The interviews and the questionnaires could have sensitive information enclosed; if disclosed to a
third party or the wider media or public they may have damaging consequences for the student.
Other ethical considerations that were relevant to the project included:
26

The right of the interviewee to withdraw (this was made clear prior to the interview and on
the first page of the questionnaire)

Recognise that the research may cause first year students, who are still settling into
university life distress and that steps should be taken to limit this.

Protecting the reputation of the educational research community

Report findings of the research honestly and accurately
(BERA, 2004)
These were taken into consideration throughout the data collection process for both the interview
and the questionnaires.
The format of the interview was a series of open ended questions conducted in a face to face
interview. The reason for a face to face interview was to observe and note down the nuisances that
are not evident in any other form of interview that may be important when analysing the interviews.
The interviewer would ask the questions decided in advance, however, if the interviewee had extra
points to address, the interviewer would allow for this. The interviews were conducted over a period
of three weeks in the autumn term of the 2009/0 academic year in classrooms in the University’s
Central Lecture Centre.
Cohen et al argue that open ended questions have several advantages including flexibility, clearing
up misunderstandings and the ability to go to areas that were not thought of in the initial question
formation, which helps builds rapport (Cohen et al, 2007)
Cohen et al continue and describe a particular type of open ended question called the ‘funnel’,
describing how it starts off with a “broad question or statement then narrows down to more specific
ones”. The reason for having a semi-structured interview as opposed to a structured interview was
that “…the interviewer can press not only for complex answers but also for responses about
complex and deep issues” (Cohen et al 2007, p. 349). It must be noted that an interview is not an
everyday conservation, it is an artificial situation with questions geared for a specific purpose (Cohen
27
et al 2007, p. 349), however the skill of the interviewer is to put the interviewee at ease and make
the situation as normal as possible and make the so called ‘Hawthorne Effect’ (Gillespie, 1993),
negligible, this is the effect of an interviewee answering or behaving in a specific way because they
are being interviewed or observed. It is also present in other data collection methods. Consequently,
the interviewers did not wear formal clothes, as this would put the students at ease, which was one
of the key components of this was something had to accomplished if high quality data were to be
obtained and a much richer discourse to emerge for the analysis.
In contrast, the questionnaires required more planning in the initial stages, both in terms of piloting,
but also in the question wording, order and formatting. Therefore, a table was constructed which
divided each of the research sub questions into questions for the proposed questionnaire. This
enabled the close alignment of research objectives and questions with the proposed questions.
Research Question
Survey Questions
1.1 What are the views of students on learning
Did you study your course at School / Sixth Form
and teaching?
/ College Level?
How many days per week do you attend lectures
/ seminars?
How many days per week do you undertake
private study?
Is there a difference between what you thought
the course would be like and what it’s actually
like? Please comment below
To date what has been your best experience at
the University?
To date what has been your worst experience at
the University?
Any other comments?
1.2 What are the views of students on finance?
I am worried about financing my way through
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my degree
I am worried about the debt after I graduate
I often have to make sacrifices in other aspects
of my life to pay for my degree
I have had to take up paid employment just to
make ends meet
1.3 What are the views of students on travel /
Where do you currently live whilst attending the
Accommodation?
University?
Roughly how close is where you live at the
moment to the University?
How do you travel to University if you live off
campus?
1.4 What are the views of student on socialising
I have made friends with people on my course
with other students?
I have made friends with people at the university
I have at least one close friend I can turn to at
University
I still keep in contact with friends from school,
sixth form or work
I go out most weekends to parties etc
I am not particularly interested in the clubs and
societies on campus as I do my socialising off
campus
I find it difficult to balance my academic and
social life
2.1 What role does technology play on learning
The University has excellent IT infrastructure on
and teaching?
campus to aid my learning (Computers, email,
Wifi etc)
29
The library’s resources are good enough for my
current needs
How many times do you login to the virtual
learning environment, u-Link each week
I would like to see virtual lectures (i.e. video
streaming off campus)
I would like to see my lecturer make better use
of technology generally
I would like to see SMS alerts to tell me when a
lecture is cancelled or when feedback is ready
on u-Link
I would like to see more use of social networking
sites in my academic studies
Any other comments about technology usage by
the University in relation to learning and
teaching?
2.2 What role does technology play on finance?
I use my credit/ debit card at least once a week
I feel online banking helps me control my
finances
I often use the web to find better deals on my
finances (e.g. cheaper broadband, car insurance,
phone tariffs etc)
I use the internet to market myself
2.3 What role does technology play on Travel /
I have used websites that have helped me to
Accommodation?
find private accommodation
I find the tfl website has useful information that
helps me plan my travel to university
2.4 What role does technology play on
I use social networking sites (e.g. Facebook,
30
socialising?
Twitter etc) to keep up with friends and family
Please specify which of the following sites you
use more than once a week –
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo, Other –
Please specify __
How often do you use your mobile phone?
After this stage, the initial wording and layout of the questionnaires was piloted “using a group of
respondents who are drawn from the possible sample but who will not receive the final, refined
version” (Cohen et al 2007, p. 343). The online survey tool, survey monkey
(http://www.surveymonkey.com) was chosen for its ease of use and ability to export data after
initial collection. It is used widely to collect survey data of this nature, both in educational and noneducational settings. The piloting was undertaken to avoid any distress in the wording, to highlight
any questions that were not clear to the students, to see if the different types of questions were
being understood by the student pilot testers and to test how long it would take a student to fill out.
Ethics approval was undertaken both at the IoE and at Brunel University’s Ethics Committee.
Only after this planning, piloting and ethics approval, was the final questionnaire released to target
audience by way of a posting on an internal web page, which explained the nature of the project and
a link to an online questionnaire. Paper copies were also distributed on campus and filled out by first
year students only. The layout to these was closely matched to the online equivalent to keep
consistency. There was a small possibility that a student other than a first year student would fill out
the online questionnaire. This was the known prior risk of the online questionnaire and one that is
highlighted here in the thesis. Knowledgeable of the fact that the response rate of this questionnaire
might be low, data was taken from a second constructed questionnaire, which was written and
piloted in the same way as the first questionnaire, however it was just deployed online via the
virtual learning environment, with only first year students enrolled onto the section. This cut the risk
of other students filling out the questionnaire. The data analysis and collection of this questionnaire
31
was somewhat more difficult than the online survey monkey tool, as the data was not easily
downloadable in comparison to survey monkey.
The process of analysing the data required a methodology that was similar to the type of data
collected. There was a small but varied qualitative data set; hence the methodology of qualitative
content analysis, as outlined by Berelson (1952, pp. 114-126) was selected as the most suitable
methodology. One of the aims of the research was to understand the views of first year students.
Berelson (1952, p.18), defines content analysis as “a research technique for the objective,
systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication”. However,
qualitative content analysis is applicable when there is a “small or incomplete sample” (Berelson,
1952, p. 21). The seven step outline of qualitative content analysis as described by Berelson (1952,
pp 114-126) would be the basis of the analysis. At its heart, as Berelson writes “qualtitative analysis
is more likely to take them in the large on the assumption that meanings preside in the totality of
impression, the Gestalt, and not the atomistic combination of measurable units” (Berelson, 1952,
p.126).
Using the key words used in the search strategy were deployed to the qualitative data sets of the
interviews and questionnaires, locating the meaning and identifies the various points in the data
where issues in the transition to university and the viewpoints expressed were present. After
selecting the methodology of qualitative content analysis, to ascertain issues in transition in the
data, the task was finding a theoretical framework which could help in understanding the issues of
the students in this research topic and how they compare to the literature in this field of study. This
was not an easy decision, as Fairclough (2005a) comments, “theoretical frameworks, perspectives
and categories” bear heavenly on a research topic. It was important to “…be selective, i.e. to make
judgments about which ‘mix’ of available resources yields the most fruitful theorisation of the
research topic.” (Fairclough 2005a). It was decided that theories that accomplished this objective
were those of Deacon et al (1999) ‘Researching Communications’ chapter on the analysis of media
texts, Yorke et al’s works on Transition and the article entitled ‘Managing the transition into higher
education’ by Laing et al (2005). In addition to these three main bodies of work, the wider work of
32
Krippendorff will also be used to compliment the use of content analysis, the content analysis primer
of Weber (1984) and the work of Berelson (1952) particularly on ‘qualitative content analysis’.
Theoretical Framework
Developing the theories put forward of analysing text by Deacon et al (1999) were of particular
significance to infer hidden meaning to texts in relation to the issues in transition faced by students
at the university. The data from the three main areas of data gathering (albeit a selective sample in
nature), the questionnaires data and the interviewee viewpoints had to be deconstructed on a
denotation level initially but also on a connotation level more deeply using content analysis and the
notion of interference, as Krippendorff says “inference is, of course, the raison d’être for any
content analysis” had to be taken into consideration (Krippendorff, 1980, p. 55). It must be noted
however, as Krippendorff states, that all words and data analysed using content analysis, exclude
“the feelings, interests, and subjective perspectives of the source” (Krippendorff, 1980, p. 43), so it
was important to keep a sense of perspective during the data analysis phase and to relate and
compare it to the literature in the field, which itself has some level of inference to it. These notions
of inference and non-neutrality are summed up by McGregor, when he comments “our words are
never neutral. Our words convey how we see ourselves as a profession, our identity, knowledge,
values, beliefs, and our truths – our discourse permeates everything we do” (McGregor, 2003). It is
therefore necessary to locate the points in the texts where meaning is both explicit and implicit to
the issues in transition and the role of technology and to develop a rationale as to why this is the
case. The article by Laing et al (2005), entitled ‘Managing the transition into higher education’
explores the issues surrounding the transition into higher education and the concept of an online so
called ‘spiral induction’ programme, a type of bridging course, offering feedback to students on
where to improve their via a virtual learning environment into higher education and the impact this
has to the transitional experience and the issues this raises. The article concludes that such an
approach “can provide an efficient predictive system to identify ‘at risk’ students.” (Laing et al, 2005)
This early warning allows for more targeted and personalised support in a proactive rather than a
reactive manner” (Laing et al, 2005, p. 253). It is one of the aims of this research to take these
observations and others and see where they lie in the research conducted. Yorke and Longden have
33
conducted many studies on the topic of transition, none more prominent than their 2008 report ‘the
first-year experience of higher education in the UK’ for the Higher Education Academy. The report
articulates some major points most notably that most first year students are happy with their
transitional experience in the main, however highlighting areas of interest and concern. With
regards to non-continuation of studies, the issues are broadly similar to those raised by similar
participants in their study a decade previously (Yorke et al, 1997). This is interesting, as it would
appear to show little change in the issues of transition, despite a relatively rapid change in the way
technology has been deployed into higher education institutions over the same time period. It would
seem to imply that although technology has been deployed, it has not been embedded into the
processes in Higher Education to make a significant impact. This is a view concurred by Selywn
(2007). The report explores the student discourse behind the transitional experience, aiming to
highlight the sorts of issues that students in the institutions researched find to be important. The
report concludes that higher education institutions need to find a way of bringing a personalised
experience into the first year experience and highlight some areas as to where all higher education
institutions can develop their policies and procedures in the future (Yorke and Longden, 2008). By
using the theories in this thesis, the aim is to highlight and try to explain the “complexity of the
causes of student attrition” (Yorke and Longden, 2008, p. 53) that are evident in the research data
collected. These theories will feed into the content analysis to provide a more holistic view between
the research into this field to date, the viewpoints students in interviews and how this compares
with they say in our questionnaires and what can be interpreted from all of this.
Methodologies
The ability of content analysis to systematically deconstruct various texts lends itself to a
methodological device at an initial stage, lends itself as a research method in this project. It is
described by Berelson (1952, p. 15) in three key ways, firstly it must being objective, that is that two
different analysts could analyse the texts and come to the same conclusion, secondly it must be
systematic, that is there must be some form of categorisation of the text, third and finally, it must be
quantitative, that is, the extent to which the analytic categories appear in the content. This leads to
the Berelson derivation of the definition “content analysis is a research technique for the objective,
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systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication” (Berelson,
1952, p. 18).
By employing content analysis, it was possible to do a systematic initial analysis of the texts by using
wordle.net, which took the qualitative data set of both questionnaires and produced two visual
representations (see Appendix III), then going further by means of a series of searches based on key
words relating to the research sub questions. For subsequent deeper analysis the works of Laing et
al, Krippendorff, Deacon et al, the work of Berelson, and using the theories of Yorke and Longden,
offered the necessary devices needed to decipher the semiotics in the student discourse of
transition and the issues they face.
However, it must be noted, as Krippendorff (1980, p. 22) argues, “messages do not have a single
meaning”, he argues they have multiple meanings and can be viewed from a number of
perspectives. He writes “a message can convey a multitude of contents even to a single receiver.
Under these circumstances, the claim to have analysed THE content of communication reflects an
untenable position” (Krippendorff, 1980, p. 22).
Therefore, content analysis cannot be used in isolation as a technique, as it ultimately needs
inference from the researcher and deeper explanation (Krippendorff, 1980, p. 23), therefore it needs
to be supplemented, hence the context of the discourse needs to be analysed critically. As Weber
(1984) says “each investigator will have to find the resolution that makes the most sense in light of
the substantive goals of the analysis”.
Encouraged by this, it was decided that some limited critical discourse analysis, henceforth CDA,
would also be undertaken, drawing upon the work of Fairclough (2005a). The definition of discourse,
as Fairclough defines it as “… diverse representations of social life” (Fairclough, 2005a) which in the
case of this research and the texts gathered is student discourse, so discusses the issues of transition
that are commonly associated with a transitional agenda – those of academic work, sense of
belonging to the university community etc. CDA allows the coding and analysis of data through
‘‘…‘order(s) of discourse’, a specific articulation to diverse genres , discourses and styles.”
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Exploring these three categories in a little more detail, the category of ‘genres’ is the way in which
discourses are ‘framed’ and organised within the social practice of language through ‘diverse ways
of (inter)acting in their specifically semiotic aspect” (Fairclough, 2005a) which in our research are the
interviews or questionnaires with the first year students and literature in the field. The category of
‘discourse’ is how the interviewee is representing their views, i.e. in written or oral communication.
Remember, that our discourses have multiple meanings (Krippendorff, 1980, p. 22). The category of
‘styles’ is how the interviewee in the texts is revealing their own state of being, again in the written
or oral modes of communication. Again, in our case how does this related to the other texts being
analysed.
As Deacon et al, (1999, p. 134) points out that there should not be an ‘academic apartheid’ to this
whole quantitative versus qualitative battle and that rather than having “mutual neglect and
miscomprehension” which has been the case in the past will yield better results. This is a view
echoed by Bell who argues “no approach depends solely on one method any more than it would
exclude a method merely because it is labelled ‘quantitative’, ‘qualitative’, ‘case study’, ‘action
research’ or whatever” (Bell, 1999, p. 102).
Other methodologies such as grounded analysis were considered, but seen as inappropriate for this
research project as a whole because of their overly quantitative nature, which due to the nature of
the research data being rather mixed in nature, a more mixed method approach in the analysis was
decided upon.
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Chapter Three: Analysis and Discussion
The present research was conducted on the basis of personal interaction for almost a year (20092010) with first year undergraduate students at Brunel University in the capacity of an e-Learning
Adviser at the University and data collected through two online questionnaires and five semistructured interviews and search online for data using the search strategy outlined in chapter one.
The response rate of the first questionnaire (n=44) was low and if this had been higher, it would
have yielded a far higher sample on which to base conclusions on. However, the second
questionnaire data compensated for this (n=211). A breakdown of quantitative answers to both
questionnaires and a wordle.net visualisation, an online tool where the frequency of the words in
the qualitative responses to the questionnaires is represented can be found in Appendix III.
While analysing the data collected, it was felt that the respondents were not being completely
honest or forthcoming with their opinions, especially in the questionnaire, whereas the semistructured interviews there were a lot of more opportunities for them to express their views more
freely. This is a limitation in the research, however with the data from the questionnaires, it was felt
there was enough to analyse and locate the major issues in transition faced by Brunel students
(Krippendorff, 1980).
With this in mind, the rest of this analysis and discussion chapter, will analyse the data collected
against the theoretical framework, the literature gathered in this field and will be based around the
research questions, originally stated in chapter two, with some references to the issues raised in the
literature review, chapter one.
What are the views of students on learning and teaching?
There were several learning and teaching based questions in both the questionnaires and a mixture
of responses to similar questions in the semi-structured interviews. Taking the first questionnaire
(n=44), there were a mixture of comments. When asked “are there any differences between what
you thought the course would be like and what it's actually like”, one student said “less practical
work” and another commented similarly “yes. I thought it would be more practical, but it was much
more theory”. This is a common issue, that of different teaching styles and the greater theoretical
37
nature of HE, as highlighted by Barron and D'Annunzio-Green (2009, p.11). Other students thought
their courses were easier than they thought; this is typical comment, “too easy, too slow, learning
basic material”. A couple of comments, highlighted perceptions of a lack of contact time in teaching
and helpfulness of the lecturers in some courses with comments “the lecturers can be very
obnoxious and unhelpful even though we are paying a fortune to them to teach us” and “thought
there would be more lectures than what I have seeing as I pay £3300 a year”. Whilst these
comments are expressed very directly and clearly show the frustration at the lack of academic
support both via number of and quality of lectures, these are in contrast to those made in the
second questionnaire, “all the lecturers are really friendly, and they don’t get annoyed if you ask
them questions which is nice” and another student commented “they helped clear the fog and I
found out many useful, practical things to know. The breakfast with staff and induction parties were
great for talking to course mates and breaking the ice, and made me realise how approachable and
friendly my lecturers were.” Looking more broadly at the other issues that impact the learning and
teaching process, many students both in the questionnaires and in the semi-structured interviews
felt that they had an increase in their academic workload, these are typical of the discourse, “there a
lot more to learn about than I realised”, another commenting “there is a lot more independent
study than I expected, the avenues for support are sometimes difficult to find. Though when they
are found they had been very helpful”. This agrees with the research conducted by York and
Longden (2008) and Crabtree et al (2007), which highlights the academic pace and change of
teaching style as a significant issue for some students making the transition. However it must be
noted that the converse is also true in some cases, that as stated previously, some students find the
academic pace too slow or boring, (Yorke and Longden, 2008, p. 28), when they wrote a male, under
21 sports science student in a post 1992 institution, “throughout the 8 months I attended this
course, I believe I learnt nothing that I didn’t already know, which is not what I was expecting.
Therefore I found it boring and not worth the expenses.” This is also evident with comments in the
first questionnaire such as “too easy”.
Another factor in the success of learning and teaching is that of the role of the personal tutor during
the transition period. As Billing (1997) highlights the need for a good tutorial system within an
38
institution is vital for the success induction and transition processes. This is a view reinforced by
HEFCE (2001, p. 16) who highlight “establishment of tutor support” as a key tool during the first
term.
In the research, the responses in both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were mixed
about their views of the tutoring system, although these are some common views from students
about their personal tutors, one respondent commented, “have not met my tutor at all or do not
even know who he or she is”, “the first time that I met my personal tutor he greeted me and tried
his best to make me understand the things that the university expects from its students.”, “my
personal tutor was very friendly and met with myself and members of my tutor group and answered
any questions we had”. From the semi-structured interviews, the comment from a male, under 21,
Engineering student states “yeah, they gave you the option to come and seeing them, and also let
them know of any problems you have, so on their part that was good, I knew where to go, so
yeah...that was good” stood out, as it highlights that there’s no need to have a very rigid support
mechanism, but to have an open door policy for students is the best thing for all concerned.
Although quantitatively, a total of 95 students either strongly agreed or agreed with the statement
“my personal tutor made satisfactory arrangements to see me” in the second questionnaire, the
qualitative data shows a significant proportion found their school or department’s personal tutoring
system lacking, either because of a lack of communication to them to state who their personal tutor
was or the personal tutor lacked the skills or time to undertaken this role, which is typified with this
comment from one annoyed student “my tutor merely showed up at a pre-specified time to a group
meeting and spend maybe two-four minutes talking to us which was simply us introducing ourselves
going around in a circle, there was very little true interaction. Afterwards he merely told us to
attempt our task and that he wouldn’t help. I noted that many other tutors would help to guide the
students by asking them questions about the device to help them realise the issues and I feel Mr
[name removed as per ethics guidelines] should have done the same. He also implied that he would
join our group for the session we arranged the next day and did not.” These statements highlight the
variation of experience within a course, depending on tutor.
39
The issue of attendance as noted in the literature review was questioned, with the majority of
students attending lectures or seminars for three days a week and undertaking a further two days of
private study. As Laing et al (2005, p. 251), comment that there is some positive correlation between
attendance to lectures and seminars and academic performance, hence progression and retention.
What role does technology play on learning and teaching?
As noted previously, according to a report by the National Audit Office, 2007, technology whilst
being used in the administrative processes, its role was not being fully utilised in the academic arena
in the same way, because academics did not see this as a beneficial way of meeting their needs
(Bourn, 2007). In the data collected, this lack of use of technology and the over reliance of packages
on a few packages, such as PowerPoint is manifested in a few comments, one student wrote in the
first questionnaire, “Lecturers rely too heavily on PowerPoints”, another student, also in the same
questionnaire, comments “teach Lecturers how to use technology!”. Whilst these are just two
comments, about general technology usage by academics, they do highlight a small group of
students who are critical of the way their lecturers use or don’t use technology. Most worrying are
comments such as these, by any students “I have serious concerns regarding the teaching standards
of the first year.” These comments need to be addressed, as the research by Yorke and Longden
(2008) and Crabtree et al (2007) illustrate that teaching quality is a key issue in the transition of
students in higher education. Their quotations also highlight similar issues.
If we look at the use of the virtual learning environment, called u-Link at the university, which is the
key learning technology that most lecturers at the University use, we can see firstly, that in all three
data sets, it is commented on both positively and negatively by students, almost equally. These are
some of the typical comments from the first questionnaire “u-Link's really good.”, “u-link needs to
be faster and set out better.” In the second questionnaire a student writes “….and also u-link is a
smart idea but is a little complicated to use in the beginning and for new students i think that the ulink cafe must be open for more than an hour. For example I have been wanting to go but I can’t as I
have classes in the same hour...also it’s is too much information thrown at you in the beginning. I
could suggest for a more detailed u-link introduction meeting where you would have the students
learning how to use it with a teacher teaching you how on a projector.” This comment is mirrored by
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two similar comments in a study on technology use in transition in Brisbane, Queensland by Nelson
et al (2005), “there was little support for new students with little computer experience. I had no idea
how to use the system and requested help from a number of people who could not/would not help
me.” Another student wrote, referring to the virtual learning environment “it is already of quite a
good standard, maybe have an introductory section which shows new student the most important
sections of online information and how to use them” (Nelson et al, 2005).
These comments show that students want to use technology in their learning, but want to be shown
how to and also want their lecturers to use technology in their teaching. This also seems to be
supported quantitatively in the first questionnaire. In response to the question on average during
term time how many times do you login to the virtual learning environment, u-Link, each week?, a
total of 12 students login to u-Link more than 5 times a week, with 9 students logging in 5 times a
week and 8 students logging in to u-Link 4 times a week. These are higher than the number of
students that attend lectures, with most students only attending lectures 3 times a week.
This would seem to support the claim that technology can be used in a way to aid the traditional
models of learning and this was a view of the last government, which stressed the important of what
it called “digital technology and e-learning” and the importance of these technologies to the
improvements to “quality and the overall learning experience” (BIS, 2009). In contrast to this
optimistic discourse from the previous government, it is worth noting the practicalities of learning
technologies, according to Nelson “it is possible that the design or content of some units does lend
them to utilising synchronous real-time out of class online discussions” They go on to argue that
“Some possible applications may include: complementing existing face to face student consultation
hours, continuing lecture or tutorial discussions once the scheduled time has elapsed or replacing
other forms of electronic communication e.g. group emails”. Nelson concludes by saying that “on
balance, it seems such functionality may well be suited to online learning where it is designed into
curriculum activities rather than as a bolt-on technology used to support more traditional
approaches to learning” (Nelson et al, 2005, p.8). This pedagogically embedded approach would
enable students to use the technologies from an educational context, not out of exploration but for
actual practical benefit (Butterfield & Wilson, 2009).
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There are also interrelated issues that manifest themselves in u-Link because of its wide spread use
as a portal as well as a learning environment, that impact on the learning experience, i.e. for
timetables, seminar groups and course handbooks, the following comments in the second
questionnaire when asked about how induction was organised, typifies the response “the timetable
was put up on u-link in advance. However there was a mistake on the timetable, which meant
everyone turned up for induction at 9am when the actual induction was at 11am.” Another student
in the same questionnaire when answering a question on finding their timetable wrote, “No-one
explained anything about our timetables, my lectures have begun and I still do not know my lecture
or seminar groups. We are expected to be able to find everything on u-Link, the most confusing
web-site I have ever encountered, and when we do manage to find the right file, I am unable to
open any of them. It seems people are incapable of telling us things around here, you rely on this
website too much. I had to have an older student tell me how to work out my timetable because no
other students understood it.” A further student commented “It would have been nicer if it had
been available sooner and in paper form rather than having to find it on u-link”. This illustrates that
whilst the role of technology in learning and teaching has a major part to play (Nelson et al, 2005),
for some cases, using paper is the preferred option for some students, however not for all, as one
student commented in the second questionnaire “the time table being on u-link as well as in the
resource room made all the information easy to find.”
A related issue that impacts on learning and teaching is that of multiple logins used to access various
systems, a problem, which is prevalent at many HE institutions including Brunel. However, in the
data collected, especially the open ended responses in questionnaires, the issue of multiple logins
were a recurring theme; hence it is referred to here. The following comments illustrate some of the
confusion and frustration that first year students have with this issue. When asked ‘It was easy to
get my computer logon.” One student wrote “the whole registration process could be simplified.
Why do I have different login names for u-link, library and Brunel intranet; It would be so much
easier to just have my student number as my login to all the sites.” Issues such as these are indirectly
affecting the quality of the student experience and are at odds with the ideals summarised by
Nelson et al, 2005 and Whittaker, 2007.
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What are the views of students on finance?
The issue of finance is less prominent in the qualitative data gathered than would have been hoped,
however this agrees with the summarisation by Yorke and Longden (2008, p.40), in which they say
finance is “less salient for the students who responded to the present survey than for those who
responded to that of a decade earlier” and that the reason for such a trend is that the issue of
finance has become something that many students factor into when entering higher education. A
comment by male, under 21 Arts student in the semi-structured interviews further demonstrates
this point, “I don’t see debt as a worry, I’ve been as careful as I can be with no spending it wildly, but
it’s something to think about”.
Summarising the responses to the questions on finance in the first questionnaire, the majority of
students worry about financing their way through their degree, are also worried about the debt
after they graduate and often make sacrifices in other aspects of their lives to pay for their degrees.
Interestingly thought, the response was rather neutral to taking up employment to make ends meet,
possibly due to the downturn in the economy at present or maybe they felt they had a “big
workload can’t work and study”, as one student commented in the first questionnaire.
As D'Annunzio-Green (2009) have highlighted the shift in paying for education that students would
not have done prior to joining university in the past, is one that many students find hard, often
taking out loans to pay for their fees and other essentials. This is a typical comment in the second
questionnaire, in the context of joining clubs and financing them, “in a way it’s a good thing because
I don’t even have the money for it but now I know what to expect next year so I’ll apply then but I
was looking forward to joining so it’s quite disappointing”. These views are echoed by a female,
mature student studying a Health Science degree commented in the semi-structured interviews on
how “expensive the canteen food was” and that it was “cheaper to bring in packed lunch, if I could
find a place to eat it”. There are also implicit or hidden issues relating to finance, chiefly that four
out of the five students interviewed had sold their cars, citing that it was “too expensive” to run and
that they would use public transport instead. In summary these comments show that almost all
students consider finance to be an issue, with some students viewing this as a major issue. There is
not enough data in this research to draw a firm conclusion regarding finance, other than to
43
comment that based on the limited evidence, it broadly echoes the works of D'Annunzio-Green
(2009), Yorke and Longden (2008) and Laing and Robinson (2003).
What role does technology play on finance?
The role of technology on finance was another area that students made little qualitative input in
their the interviews, however when asked in the first questionnaire about the use of a credit/debit
card, the most of the students strongly agreed with this statement, however they were more neutral
about their use of online banking, however they did use the web to find better deals, with a total of
17 students agreeing to this statement. A possible reason for the neutrality of online banking is that
many in this small sample may prefer face to face banking. It is also worth noting that the sample for
this questionnaire was low, so cannot be generalised. With comments made elsewhere in the data
sets relating to technology as changing the student experience (Whittaker, 2007) it is at odds with
little overt comment from students about technology and finance. Referring to the literature
regarding this issue, there is also little evidence of any links made to these two areas. One possible
explanation is that the students interviewed and questioned don’t see perceive technology playing a
part in finance or that it is invisible in their daily lives. This is therefore an area that merits further
research.
What are the views of students on travel / accommodation?
Of the five students interviewed, four of them had sold their cars in favour of using their public
transport or because they were living on campus. This illustrates how closely these two areas are,
often with other factors such as family problems intertwined in the process, a point that is
summarised by Yorke and Longden (2008, p.20) when they say “students who lived at home, in a flat
or in other private accommodation, much more frequently than those in institution-run
accommodation, cited financial problems as influential in their departure. They had a greater
tendency to point to a lack of personal support from family and/or partner; the demands of
employment while studying, and difficulties related to travel”. The issue of accommodation can start
to be an issue for students even before they arrive at the university, as Billing (1997, p.126)
comments on “students very critical of: … lack and lateness of accommodation details)”.
Accommodation on campus can be a good thing, as a male, under 21 Engineering student
44
commented “…personally I would like to stay on campus, the whole time whilst I’m at Uni. Means I
don’t have to find accommodation elsewhere. Being on campus makes things close, the library’s
here, the Lecture Centre’s here; your lecturers are close by…” but it can also be a source of stress
and conflict, as another under 21 male Design student interviewed commenting on his fellow
students in halls “who were setting the fire alarm off at 4am in the morning”, he went on to say his
focus was his “large workload”. He concluded by saying he “had an argument with the drunken girls
who set off the fire alarm”, but they told him “to lighten up and it was just a bit of drunken fun”. This
highlights the tensions that exist with some students and are a clash of cultures (HEA Online, 2008).
The issue of accommodation can also have an impact in the socialisation and sense of community of
students on campus. A female, mature student studying a Business degree commented on “feeling
less engaged in uni life” but that she had done this in the past and has now got “other
commitments”. This seems echo the work of Yorke and Longden (2007, p. 29), who comment on
mature students, “they were less likely to be engaged in the social side of higher education and
more likely to have external commitments”.
In the first questionnaire, most students lived on campus and walked around the university and
nearby town centre etc. Due to the small size of the sample and the time of year for the collection of
this data, this is probably not a true reflection of most students in this category. In the interviews
however, three students lived on campus, the other two did not, but travelled into university from
nearby, taking between 30 minutes and 1 hour. This is a reasonable time, for some students, the
issue of travel and the lack of thought prior to attending a given university can be a factor in their
non-completion of their degree, as a student in Yorke and Longden’s research comments “the main
reason that I left university was the difficulty with travelling. It took me over 2 hours to get to
university that along with a part time job (18hrs), made it impossible to do both”(Yorke and
Longden, 2008, p.35). A student in the second questionnaire also commented to this effect
“travelling 2 hours into university to find my only lecture that morning at 9am lecture was
cancelled.”
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What role does technology play on Travel / Accommodation?
In the first questionnaire, a series of questions were proposed to the students regarding this issue.
From the responses received, it was found that just under half of the respondents used the internet
to look up deals of flights, train fares etc., with just over a quarter of the students were neutral
when asked if they actively searching price comparison sites for travel, the rest of the responses
were distributed evenly amongst the other options. The final statement asking the students if they
use the tfl.gov.uk website to plan travel in and around London, again just under a half of them
strongly agreed. This is not surprising if the majority of them said they lived on campus (see above),
then they might not need to go to London all that often.
What are the views of student on socialising with other students?
The issue of socialisation and its many synonyms is a key issue during the transition period and also a
key issue in the subsequent withdrawal of students, as the “difficulty in fitting in socially — students
from deprived areas may feel culturally isolated” (Bourn, 2007, p.46). It is a complex issue and one
that can only be covered to a certain depth in this analysis with the data collected.
In the first questionnaire data, when asked to reflect on the best thing about the first year so far,
comments surrounding socialising were made, including “socialising with friends I've made”,
“socialising in halls” and also associating socialising and learning new things together, “socialising
and learning new things in my course” and “Freshers week and second semester socialising”.
However, there were some negative views to socialising, with one student commenting “not
knowing anyone on my course” and a further student commenting how they had “an argument with
a housemate.” There were also calls the second questionnaire relating to organise “more activities”,
both in the day and night.
The second questionnaire also had numerous positive comments about how important it was for the
new students to get to know people within their halls of residence; this comment typifies the type of
response. One student commented about “getting to know lots of new people”, he continued “I
think there should be more emphasis on getting to know the people in your flat. The other people
in my flat were great at including everyone and making sure we all got to know each other, but I
46
heard that a lot of other flats weren’t as friendly, and people were feeling that they didn’t know
anyone. Just a small encouragement for people to knock on the other doors in their flat and make
an effort to get to know people, would have been great.” This comment demonstrates how some
students also see the issue of socialisation as a key factor during the transition period into university.
Of the five students interviewed, all but one of them lived on campus, with the only off campus
student living close by. All the students commented how difficult it was to socialise on top a busy
first term, that included coursework hand in deadlines, although, a male under 21 Engineering
Student commented that he had made friends on his course because of the types of activities they
were asked to do.“Yeah, I have. We had project break, the week before and after Christmas and so
that was a very fun two weeks and very challenging as well, and so from that moment a lot of people
from the course didn’t know people from the course began to speak to one another. Up to that
point they knew only a few people on the course, but after project break people knew each other a
bit more.” This is an idea supported by Whittaker (2007), Tinto (2005) and Laing et al (2005), who
criticise the UK model for induction and first semester (or term) programmes against those in the
US, they feel in the UK model, there is “…insufficient time to develop social and peer support groups
in a more structured manner.” They conclude there must be this social and academic integration to
aid transition and ultimately retention of students. This is something that the university must
therefore deploy across of its courses, to ensure the experience is as coherent as possible.
What role does technology play on socialising?
With the rise of social networking sites such as Facebook in recent years, the issue of socialising
using technology has never so prominent in the lives of many, especially those of first year students.
Focusing on the data gathered, of the respondents in the first questionnaire, all 44 of them using
Facebook and 9 using the micro-blogging site Twitter, with a further 3 saying they used something
else. No students used the social networking site, Bebo. A large majority of the students when asked
if they used “social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter etc.) to keep up with friends and family”,
either strongly agreed or agreed with the statement. It must be observed that these are small
numbers to make a concrete statement about the use of social networking of these students, but it
highlights the popularity of these technologies in some student’s lives. Other evidence gathered,
47
would appear to show some schools / departments also organised events for students during the
first few weeks of term, “networks such as you go and Facebook groups helped with meeting
people”, commented a student in the second questionnaire. This shows how technology can play a
part in helping those who find it difficult to make friends, get together and provide the “social
integration - peer support networks” that Whittaker (2007) discusses.
Nevertheless, it must be noted that not all students have a Facebook account, as illustrated in both
the interview of a female under 21 Arts student “I don't really have a Facebook account, I don’t like
having my picture and details online” and also by a student who said they didn’t have a mobile
phone, in the first questionnaire. Whilst these are probably now in the minority, it is worth keeping
in mind that not all students have these technologies or are comfortable using them.
Other Issues in Transition
The issue of working or volunteering whilst studying was the only other major issue in the data
collected, especially in the interviews. Three out of the five students who were interviewed, gave up
part time work to focus on their studies. This was a typical comment with regards to working “I don’t
have a job at the moment, I have applied to many places, but it’s hard finding part time work”.
Interestingly, all students interviewed, none of them had a part time job, which is contrast to the
issues raised by Yorke and Longden (2000, 2008), Barron and D'Annunzio-Green and Bourn (2007).
This may be in part to do with the recent economic downturn and the lack of part time vacancies for
students.
Another issue that arose during the analysis was that of administrative issues, mainly related to the
communication of cancelled lectures and the reading and interpretation of timetables. This
comment highlights the communication issue “travelling 2 hours into university to find my only
lecture that morning at 9am lecture was cancelled.” Another student suggests using Facebook, “if
Facebook was used at Uni it would make life so much easier. For example if a lecture was cancelled
Facebook would be easier of communicating because there are notifications which pop up on the
page.” This is an area highlighted by Yorke and Longden (2008). The second administrative issue,
that of timetables “The timetable was extremely late in becoming available” is also an issue for a few
48
students. These issues, whilst small in nature do impact on the whole co-hort, so therefore must be
taken seriously by the school / department concerned.
In all the texts reviewed, the discourses are all representations of the issues during transition from a
selected group of students and are a snapshot of the issues and therefore must be kept in
perspective, as Anagnostopoulou, K and Parmar, D. (2008) comment. This is a limitation of the
research (Hardy et al, 2009) The comments made by students, both in the questionnaires and in the
semi-structured interviews exhibit the non-neutrality expressed by McGregor (2003), but are also
“diverse representations of social life”, as expressed by Fairclough (2005a).
49
Chapter Four: Conclusion
The research undertaken in this thesis has provided us with a view on the issues faced by first year
students at Brunel University, as they made the transition into higher education from school, sixth
form, college or the world work. This concluding chapter of the thesis, will be split into three main
parts, firstly, some of the main points that have arisen throughout the thesis will be summarised,
secondly, the main aims stated in the introduction of the thesis will be referred back to and
commented upon and finally there will be some brief discussion about the wider implications and
future trends in this topic area.
Main Issues
Taking the first of these areas, many issues have arisen in the various discourses throughout this
thesis, however, three key issues emerged, and they were academic issues, focusing on teaching
quality, including technology use, administrative issues, focusing around timetabling and
communication of lecture and seminar times and cancellation and lastly issues surrounding
socialisation, focusing mainly around the lack of social activities and social integration within and
between courses. These emerged in all three data sets and frequently, therefore they were chosen
as the main three issues, although there were other issues in this complex area of educational
discourse. This assessment reiterate the works of Yorke and Longden (2000, 2008),
Anagnostopoulou, K and Parmar, D. (2008), Crabtree et al (2007), Bourn (2007), Whittaker (2007)
and Laing et al (2005) amongst others.
Observing the discourse around academic issues, a few students felt that the teaching quality was
not value for money and that they felt the lecturers were not sympathetic to their needs. This is an
issue that is echoed in the research by Crabtree et al (2007) and the works of Yorke and Longden
(2000, 2008) as an issue in the transition process and successful completion of the first year of
undergraduate studies. From the diverse range of comments, it would appear that not students’
needs are being met by the institution. Lecturers need to have an understanding of and put into
practice practical pedagogies outlined by the University’s HEA funded project, called ENTICE
(Stephenson et al, 2006). Related to this issue, was the notion of tutor support, which was
highlighted in some of the discourses by a few students not knowing who their tutor was or the
50
tutor not having the correct training to deal with their problems. A few students also highlighted the
use of technology, being both critical in terms of the lack of uniformity within their courses and how
they use technology, but also commenting how much they value the use of the virtual learning
environment, reflected in how many students mentioned the system in various responses
throughout all data sets. The reference of “multiple logins” to the various systems was also a theme
unpinning the questionnaires, but there was also some confusion in the distinguishing the systems
during the interviews. The ideal situation would be to have a single login to a customised academic
portal, as advocated by Nelson et al, 2005 and Whittaker, 2007; this is sadly still some time off for
the university.
The second main sets of issues were that of timetabling and communication of lecture cancellations
etc., which several students in the questionnaires highlighted. The main concern with regards to the
timetables was how difficult they were to either obtain, with many on the virtual learning
environment, which wasn’t available until they had registered, so they didn’t know where they had
to be during the first week of term. Reading them was also an issue, with a few students
commenting how confusing they were and how inaccurate some of them were, with a few students
commenting on how they had several different versions to contend with. This is an issue that should
be negated as much as possible and more information should be freely available to students, a view
supported by Billing (1997). An associated issue is that of communication of cancelled lectures,
seminars and changes in venues. This drew several critical comments from a few students, who
often travel to get to campus or have other commitments with their time and who felt very angry at
the lack of communication from their school of department about a cancelled lecture, with a few
citing the use of social networking sites or similar as a way of communicating cancellations of this
kind. It must be noted however, that not all students are always near a computer or mobile device.
This is supported in the research of Yorke and Longden (2008).
The final issue that arose during the analysis was that of socialisation. There were largely positive
comments across the data sets; however, a few students wanted a wider range of activities during
induction and during the term, both during the day and night. It was recognised by some of the
students themselves in the interviews and also in the questionnaires, the need to mix with people
51
on their course and also in the wider community, with a strong response in the first questionnaire,
indicating that indeed they had been socialising. There were positive comments about the induction
week, with a particular mention to the helpful staff and present students on campus, but also
students felt it could have been longer and there were comments of “too much information”, which
echoes the work Laing et al (2005). This is an area that the use of technology prior to induction could
aid the socialisation and increase the sense of community within and between academic courses via
an extended induction programme possible via a virtual learning environment. A form of online
extended induction has been implemented at Southampton (Laing et al, 2005), University of Paisley
(Knox, 2005) and at Middlesex (Anagnostopoulou, K and Parmar, D., 2008) amongst others but has
only been offered to mature and non-traditional learners at Brunel both online and face to face
(Crooks & Murray, 2010, Brunel University, 2008b).
Referring back to the Aims and Objectives
Referring back to the introduction and the central aims of this thesis “to investigate the views of first
year students, at Brunel University, West London to the aforementioned issues surrounding
transition in the academic year 2009/10 and “to see what role the use of technology has on the
transition process and what can be done further, reflecting on past experiences.” as outlined at the
start of chapter 2.
Taking the first aim, some of the main issues faced by students have been noted and discussed,
however more research needs to be conducted in this complex of educational discourses in order to
more comprehensively understand the needs of students and what they experience prior to
attending the university, which can only be understood by conducting a similar investigation in
schools and colleges with prospective students to gain their viewpoints on a number of issues. This
would then lead to a comparative analysis of the perceived issues prior to transition and after
transition into HE.
Regarding the second aim, there is some evidence, both at Brunel (Crooks & Murray, 2010) and
elsewhere (Laing et al, 2005, UCL, 2010) of the use of technology during the transition period to aid
the process and to provide a mix of study skills, ICT skills and social interaction with students to
52
make them feel more comfortable with entering HE. It is encouraging to see universities such as UCL
have a virtual learning environment site set up for anyone to register and go through their transition
resources, however, as the research has shown, technology is most effective when it has a human
face behind it and it is embedded within the curriculum, as Knox (2005) exemplifies when discussing
the ‘Next Steps’ initiative where a credit bearing module has been devised as a way of introducing
key concepts to students and also creating a sense of belonging, that is crucial to the success of
students in their first year, as illustrated by Laing and Robinson (2003). These types of initiatives and
their evaluation in the Brunel context need to be implemented, so that the transition experience
improves further.
Wider implications and future trends
This research highlights essentially some of the issues hypothesised by others researching this field,
including Laing and Robinson (2003), Knox (2005) and Yorke and Longden (2008), but also highlights
the little change in the issues in transition, despite the extensive investment in the acquisition of
technology in many HE institutions. This led to Yorke and Longden (2008, p.45) stating “since there
has been so much political attention given to retention and completion since the late 1990s, should
not things have changed?” and summarise that the more personal student discourses expressed in
their research and also displayed in the research in this thesis, are “deep-seated characteristics of
students” (York and Longden, 2008, p. 45) and are beyond the influence of any institution. However,
they point to improving the general student experience, whilst managing the rising student
expectations, a view also supported by Laing et al, 2005, who add the need to manage these
expectations, so students are properly informed about the transition they are about to undergo.
An area of improvement to this field would be the possible interviewing of some of the lecturers as
well to gain a better understanding of the issues they perceived during transition for their students.
This is echoed by Hardy et al (2009).
Looking to the future of this topic and this field, Tinto, describes the future of transition and
retention of students as something all of us in education should “leave our retention fiefdoms and
join forces with a larger educational movement that seeks to restructure the way we go about the
53
task of educating all our students” (Tinto, 2005 p. 10). He sets out three clear changes that need to
occur, they are –
“link developmental education and study skills courses to content courses”, what he refers
to “contextualise academic support”
“programs must employ collaborative and/or cooperative pedagogies that require that
students learn together in a coherent interdependent manner”
“programs must connect classroom activities to support services on campus as occurs”
(Tinto, 2005, p. 9)
In these proposed changes, which this research would support based on the discourses outlined
above; there is a role of technology to aid this transition and retention of all students. It must be the
case that technology is thought of at the start of the curriculum process, not as an add-on to it, to
make it most effective in the transition process. (Nelson et al, 2005, Tinto, 2005).
In summary, the issues highlighted in this thesis add to a large body of work conducted by others in
this field. Opportunity was provided to research issues in transition of first year students with a view
to how this knowledge might guide the development and design of transitional strategies and
resources in the future. The review of the literature and issues and the student questionnaires and
interviews were discussed and formulated into key issues that can be addressed institutionally. The
research into the issues in transition had a secondary and far more challenging outcome in that it
highlighted a varied and incoherent approach to transition on an institutional level, some of the
nuances of complexity involved in synthesising and presenting these issues in a way that they are a
true reflection of the discourses that are so personal to each student who responded to this study.
These discourses and the recommendations of this study and similar studies mentioned previously
should be embedded into policy to help improve the student experience and hence NSS survey
results that have not been as good as similar institutions in recent years (HEFCE, 2009).
54
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Appendix I – Ethics
Masters and Diploma Students’ Ethics Review Form
To be completed by the Research Administrator
Date received:
20.03.10
Our Ref:
Outline of proposed research to be submitted for ethical approval
PLEASE NOTE: Before completing this form you will need to discuss your
proposal fully with your Supervisor/s.
Please ensure that all necessary letters and other documents are attached.
Department
London Knowledge Lab
Name(s):
Santanu Vasant
Supervisor(s):
Dr Harvey Mellar
How may you be
contacted? (address,
telephone and email)
58 Constable Gardens
Edgware
Middlesex
HA8 5RZ
Into which category
does your research fall?
(Tick one)
Title of your programme:
Provisional Title of
Project:
Tel: 020 8952 8515
Email: [email protected]
MA  M.Sc.
Diploma (state which):
MA in Information and Communications
Technology in Education
Issues in the Transition of Students into Higher
Education
61
PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS giving full details
where necessary:
Project design:
What are the aims of your project and/or your research questions?
1. To investigate the views of first year students, at Brunel University,
West London on issues surrounding transition in the academic year
2009/10
2. To see what role the use of technology plays in the transition process
and what can be done further, reflecting on past experiences.
What is the design of your project?
An empirical study of the issues of the first year students in relation to
transition and the role of technology in this process, comparing this against
published work in this field.
What data collection methods will be employed?
Online questionnaire
A copy of the questionnaire is attached.
(If a questionnaires/structured interviews/unstructured interview
schedules/visual methods are to be used, a copy must be attached).
Will your research involve human participants?
Yes
Who are the participants (i.e. what sorts of people will be involved)?
Year 1 Students at Brunel University.
How will they be recruited?
Thought a link on the University’s internal homepage
If participants are under the responsibility of others (such as parents,
teachers or medical staff) how do you intend to obtain permission for the
participants to take part in the study? (Attach letter or details of permission
procedures.)
Contacted Mary Liddell, the Data Protection Officer at Brunel University.
Attached email.
How will you obtain the consent of participants? We recommend that opt-in
rather than opt-out procedures should be used wherever possible.
At the start of the questionnaire the students will be asked to opt-in to the
questionnaire and will be informed in writing on screen that their participation
is voluntary..
Describe the process by which you will inform participants about what you
are doing:
62
The web page will inform the participants what the project is about, and how
the data will be used prior to the questionnaire link
Might participants experience discomfort or embarrassment as a result of
your study?
Yes
If YES what steps will you take to explain and minimise this?
All data will be held securely only for the duration of this project. A pilot will
carried out to ascertain the level of discomfort or embarrassment the
questionnaire may cause.
If NOT, explain how you can be sure that no discomfort or embarrassment
will arise?
N/A
How will it be made clear to participants that they may withdraw consent to
participate at any time?
In the written statement at the start of the questionnaire, there will be a
statement that will make it clear to participants that they may withdraw
consent to participate at any time.
Will you provide participants with information about the findings of your
study? (This could be a brief summary of your findings in general; it is not the
same as an individual debriefing.)
YES
If YES, what form will this take?
A link from the internal website homepage (which is a SharePoint News
Page) of the University once the dissertation is finished. Permission has
been granted from the Publications Officer.
If NO, why not?
N/A
How will information obtained from or about participants be protected?
(Please read the Main Principles of the Data Protection Act.)
The information will only be used for the purposes of this report and be
securely handled, with all personal data removed /changed to protect the
anonymity of the person(s) involved.
What steps will you take to ensure the secure storage of personal data?
All data will be securely stored on two computers, with password protection
on the file and computers, with no other copies made. All data will be
destroyed after the dissertation is over.
Are there particular features of the proposed work which may raise ethical
concerns or add to the complexity of ethical decision making? If so, please
outline how you will deal with these.
No
63
Outline any other information you feel relevant to this submission, using a
separate sheet if necessary.
N/A
Notes and references:
Robson, C (2002) Real world research: a resource for social scientists and
practitioner researchers (2nd ed). Oxford: Blackwell. Has a helpful section on
ethical considerations - – pp 65-71 (NB page references are for the 2002
second edition)
You should read and understand relevant ethics guidelines, for example:
British Psychological Society (2004) Ethical Principles for Conducting
Research with Human Participants (www.bps.org.uk/documents/code.pdf)
OR
British Educational Research Association (2004)
(www.bera.ac.uk/publications/guides.php).
OR
British Sociological Association Guidelines (2004) (www.britsoc.co.uk)
If you are conducting research with children and young people, P Alderson &
V Morrow (2004) Ethics, social research and consulting with children and
young people, Barnardo’s, Barkingside, has useful suggestions.
If you are planning to carry out any research which will bring you into face-toface contact with children or young people (under the age of 18) in the
United Kingdom, you will need to have a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)
check before you start. If you do not already hold a current CRB check, you
will need to obtain one. The relevant forms can be obtained from the ITE
section of Registry, to whom they should be returned with the fee; obtaining
a CRB check will take about a month. If you are an overseas student, the
procedure is different; full details can be found in the helpful booklet available
from the ITE section of Registry; you will need a ‘Certificate of Good
Behaviour’ which can be obtained from your embassy or other appropriate
organisation.
64
I confirm that the information given above is correct and I endorse the following
statement:
"I confirm that I have attended the ethics session on an appropriate programme, and
that I will seek further advice and support if and when unanticipated dilemmas arise.
I have also read and understand the following set of guidelines, which I will abide by
in my research: BERA”
[Delete where appropriate].
Signature(s)
Date
15th March 2010
65
Student’s name: Santanu Vasant
Student’s Department: LKL
Programme: MA ICT in Ed
Project title: Issues in the Transition of Students into Higher
Education
To be completed by the supervisor/first reviewer
Do you foresee any ethical difficulties with this research?
No
Signature of supervisor
2010
Date 18th March
To be completed by second reviewer
Do you foresee any ethical difficulties with this research?
NO
Signature of second reviewer
Date 19.03.10
Decision on behalf of Reviewers

Authorised
Authorised subject to the following additional measures
Not authorised for the reasons given below
Referred to Faculty Research Ethics Committee (FREC)
Points to be noted by other reviewers and in report to FREC:
Comments from reviewers, for the applicant:
If the proposal is not authorised the applicant should seek a meeting
with their supervisor or ethics reviewer.
66
Ethics Letter from David Anderson-Ford, Chair, Brunel University Ethics Committee (below).
67
Appendix II – Questionnaires
This appendix has two sets of questions from the first and the second questionnaire.
These are the questions asked in the first questionnaire.
Q1) When did you start your Undergraduate Studies at Brunel?
Learning and Teaching at University
The following questions are on Learning and Teaching at University
Q2) Did you study the subject area that you are studying at undergraduate level at School / Sixth
Form / College Level? (e.g. you may have studied A-Level Mathematics and now you are studying for
a BSc in Mathematics)
Yes / No
Q3) Is there a difference between what you thought the course would be like and what it’s actually
like? Please comment below
Q4) On average during term time, how many days per week do you attend lectures / seminars?
None | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 days | More than 5
Q5) On average during term time how many days per week do you undertake private study?
None | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 days | More than 5
Q6) On average during term time how many times do you login to the virtual learning environment,
u-Link, each week?
None |1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 days | More than 5
Q7 Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with the following statements using the
following scale: Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
I would like to see more investment into IT infrastructure (i.e. a faster network, one username and
password for all systems, better Wifi access and a better virtual learning environment (u-Link) etc).
Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree| Strongly disagree
I would like to see the library invest more into e-Resources such as e-books and e-journals.I would
like to see virtual lectures (i.e. video streaming off campus) Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral |
Disagree| Strongly disagree
I would like to see my lecturers make better use of technology generally Strongly agree | Agree |
Neutral | Disagree| Strongly disagree
I would like to see SMS alerts to tell me when a lecture is cancelled or when feedback is ready on uLink Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree| Strongly disagree
I would like to see more use of social networking sites in my academic studies Strongly agree |
Agree | Neutral | Disagree| Strongly disagree
68
Q8) Any other comments about technology usage by the University in relation to learning and
teaching? Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree| Strongly disagree
Finance and University
The following questions are on Finance and how they affect your studies
Q9) Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with the following statements using the
following scale: Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
I am worried about financing my way through my degree Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral |
Disagree| Strongly disagree
I am worried about the debt after I graduate Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree| Strongly
disagree
I often have to make sacrifices in other aspects of my life to pay for my degree Strongly agree |
Agree | Neutral | Disagree| Strongly disagree
I have had to take up paid employment just to make ends meet Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral |
Disagree| Strongly disagree
I use my credit/ debit card at least once a week Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree|
Strongly disagree
I use online banking at least once a week Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree| Strongly
disagree
I often use the web to find better deals on my finances (e.g. cheaper broadband, car insurance,
phone tariffs etc) Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree| Strongly disagree
Travel and University
The following questions are on Travel and University
Q10) Where do you currently live whilst attending the University?
Home (with Parents / Guardian / Partner) | On Campus | Private Accommodation Off Campus
Q11) Roughly how close is where you live at the moment to the University?
On Campus | Under a 1 mile away | 1-5 miles away | 6-10 miles away | More than 10 miles away
Q12) What is your primary mode of transport to get to University?
Cycling | Walking| Public Transport (Bus / Train) | Public Transport (Bus Only) | Tube | Drive
Q13) Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with the following statements using the
following scale: Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
I use the internet to look up deals on flights, train fares etc
I use (actively search) price comparison sites for travel
I use the tfl.gov.uk site to plan my travel in and around London
69
Socialising and University
Q14) Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with the following statements using the
following scale: Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
I have made friends with people on my course Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly
disagree
I have made friends with people at the university Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly
disagree
I have at least one close friend I can turn to at University Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree,
Strongly disagree
I still keep in contact with friends from school, sixth form or work Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral,
Disagree, Strongly disagree
I go out most weekends to parties etc Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
I am not particularly interested in the clubs and societies on campus as I do my socialising off
campus Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
Q15) Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with the following statements using the
following scale: Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
I find it difficult to balance my academic and social life Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree,
Strongly disagree
I use social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter etc) to keep up with friends and family Strongly
agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
Q16) Please specify which of the following sites you use more than once a week (i.e. login and read
posts) –
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo, Other – Please specify __
Q17) How often do you use your mobile phone, on average?
More than 3 times a day | Once a day | Several Times a Week | Twice a Week | Once a Week | Once
a Month | Less than once a month
Q18) Any other comments with regards to Socialising and University?
Q19) To date what has been your best experience at the University?
Q20) To date what has been your worst experience at the University?
Q21) Any other comments you would like to make about this questionnaire or your experience of
the transition to University?
70
Second Questionnaire Questions
1. Are you an Undergraduate or Postgraduate student?
2. Which Academic School are you in?
3a. The information I received was clear, easy to follow and adequately prepared me for my arrival
at Brunel.
3b. Comments on question above.
4a. Appropriate arrangements were made to meet my needs as a student with a disability.
4b. Comments on question above.
5a. When I arrived on campus, I was efficiently directed to where I needed to be and was able to get
there.
5b. Comments on question above.
6a. The activities and approach of UBS contacts were valuable in meeting new people and 'settling
in'.
6b. Comments on question above.
7a. The University induction talks were useful.
7b. Comments on question above.
8a. The Registration was managed efficiently.
8b. Comments on question above.
9a. My School arranged sufficient opportunities for me to meet other students socially in the first
few days.
9b. Comments on question above.
10a. Staff have been friendly and helpful.
10b. Comments on question above.
11a. It was easy to get my computer logon.
11b. Comments on question above.
12a. The programme for induction in my School was well organised.
12b. Comments on question above.
13a. My personal tutor made satisfactory arrangements to see me.
13b. Comments on question above.
14a. My teaching timetable was easy to obtain and follow.
14b. Comments on question above.
71
15a. There was a vibrant atmosphere on campus during Freshers Week.
15b. Comments on question above.
16. What was the best bit about Freshers Week?
17. One thing to improve about Freshers Week?
72
Appendix III – Findings
This appendix states some of the major findings of the various data collection methods used in the
research project using visualisation representations and explains briefly some of the initial findings,
which will be analysed and discussed in the next chapter.
The first set of data was a small sample where n=44. It was therefore decided that rather than
having charts, the results would be summarised here after each questions.
1. When did you start your Undergraduate Studies at Brunel?
Most students (41) started in 2009, as would be expected, as this was the year in which the
questionnaire was deployed.
2. Did you study the subject area that you are studying at undergraduate level at School / Sixth
Form / College Level? (e.g. you may have studied A-Level Mathematics and now you are studying
for a BSc in Mathematics)
Most students (35) had studied the subject area they are studying at undergraduate level.
4. On average during term time, how many days per week did you attend lectures / seminars?
The majority of students (21) spent 3 days attending lectures or seminars. Interestingly, a total of 17
students spent 4-5 days a week attending lectures or seminars.
5. On average during term time how many days per week did you undertake private study? (i.e.
completing seminar hand outs, revising for tests, reading lecture notes and writing essays)
A total of 18 students spent 2 days in private study, with the other students’ responses spread out,
with 3 saying they spent no days in private study and 3 saying they spend more than 5 days in
private study.
6. On average during term time how many times do you login to the virtual learning environment,
u-Link, each week?
73
A total of 12 students login to u-Link more than 5 times a week, with 9 students logging in 5 times a
week and 8 students logging in to u-Link 4 times a week.
7. Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with the following statements using the
following scale: Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
A total of 14 students agreed with the statement “I would like to see more investment into IT
infrastructure (i.e. a faster network, one username and password for all systems, better Wi-Fi access
and a better virtual learning environment (u-Link) etc.).” However, the students were more neutral
about “I would like to see the library invest more into e-Resources such as e-books and e-journals. I
would like to see virtual lectures (i.e. video streaming off campus)”. The statement “I would like to
see my lecturers make better use of technology generally”, a total of 16 students agreed with this.
The following statement drew the largest strong agreement, “I would like to see SMS alerts to tell
me when a lecture is cancelled or when feedback is ready on u-Link”, with 22 students strongly
agreeing. The final statement of this question, “I would like to see more use of social networking
sites in my academic studies”, the responses were more even, with the majority of responses (11)
saying the statement is neutral.
9. Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with the following statements using the
following scale: Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
These statements focused on the financial aspects of the first year at University. The first statement
“I am worried about financing my way through my degree”, the majority of students (16) agreed to
it. The following statement “I am worried about the debt after I graduate”, a total of 21 students
agreed with this. The next statement “I often have to make sacrifices in other aspects of my life to
pay for my degree”, a total of 17 students agreed with this. I use my credit/ debit card at least once
a week, a total of 21 students strongly agreed with this statement. I use online banking at least once
a week, a total of 18 students were neutral about this statement. A total of 18 students said that the
statement “I have had to take up paid employment just to make ends meet” was neutral with them.
The final statement of this question set “I often use the web to find better deals on my finances (e.g.
74
cheaper broadband, car insurance, phone tariffs etc)”, a total of 17 students agreed to the
statement.
10. Where do you currently live whilst attending the University?
A total of 22 students lived on Campus with 12 living at home with parents and a further 10 living in
private accommodation.
11. Approximately how close is where you live at the moment to the University?
A total 22 students lived on Campus with 7 students living within 1 mile, 6 living 1-5 miles away, 5
living 6-10 miles away and 4 living more than 10 miles away respectively.
12. What is your primary mode of transport to get to University?
Two students cycled to University, a total of 27 walked, 4 used Public Transport (Bus / Train), 2
Public Transport (Bus Only), no students used Public Transport (Train only) or the Tube but 9 drove
to University.
13. Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with the following statements using the
following scale: Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
The statement “I use the internet to look up deals on flights, train fares etc”, 20 students strongly
agreed to this statement. The statement “I use (actively search) price comparison sites for travel”,
13 students said they were neutral to this statement. The final statement “I use the tfl.gov.uk site to
plan my travel in and around London”, a total of 20 students strongly agreed with this.
14. Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with the following statements using the
following scale: Strongly agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly disagree
The statement “I have made friends with people on my course”, 18 and 22 students respectively
strongly agreed and agreed with this. The following statements “I have made friends with people at
the university” and “I have made friends with people at the university”, 22 students strongly agreed.
The statement “I still keep in contact with friends from school, sixth form or work”, 29 students
75
strongly agreed. The following statements “I go out most weekends to parties etc.” and “I am not
particularly interested in the clubs and societies on campus as I do my socialising off campus”, 14
students disagreed. The statement “I find it difficult to balance my academic and social life”, most
students, 15 were neutral, with 10 agreeing and 10 disagreeing. The final statement in this section “I
use social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter etc) to keep up with friends and family” drew a
strongly agree response from 24 students.
15. Please specify which of the following sites you use more than once a week (i.e. login and read
posts)
The site all of the students said they used was Facebook with 9 saying they used Twitter and 3 saying
they used something else, with no students saying they used Bebo.
The qualitative data from the 44 responses were put into an online visual text representation tool
called wordle.net, which takes the frequency of the words and displays the most frequent as the
largest. This was a form of content analysis. The visualisation below also uses shades of grey for
frequency. As you can see from the representation below, the words ‘people’, ‘year’ and ‘course’ are
three of the biggest. Although these words need to be viewed in their context to establish whether
this is a positive or negative discourse that the students are expressing.
76
Second Questionnaire Findings
The second set of data that has been turned into pie charts is that of the second questionnaire,
where n=211.
Q1 Are you an Undergraduate or Postgraduate student?
2
14
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
Not Answered
195
Q2 Which Academic School are you in?
31
10
School of Arts
8
Brunel Law School
32
41
Health Sciences and Social
Care
Information Systems,
Computing and Mathematics
Sport and Education
School of Social Sciences
34
Engineering and Design
not answered
38
17
77
Q3 The information I received was clear, easy to follow
and adequately prepared me for my arrival at Brunel.
11
2
16
30
Strongly Agree
Agree
28
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Not Answered
124
Q4a Appropriate arrangements were made to meet my
needs as a student with a disability
6
8
16
0
Strongly Agree
1
Agree
26
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Not Answered
155
Not Applicable
78
Q5a When I arrived on campus, I was efficiently directed
to where I needed to be and was able to get there.
21
2
36
17
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
58
Strongly Disagree
Not Answered
77
Q6a The activities and approach of UBS contacts were
valuable in meeting new people and 'settling in'.
7
5
16
49
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
57
Strongly Disagree
Not Answered
77
Q7a The University induction talks were useful.
4
16
31
Strongly Agree
36
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
27
Not Answered
97
79
Q8a The Registration was managed efficiently.
5
16
52
16
Strongly Agree
Agree
28
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
94
Q9a My School arranged sufficient opportunities for me
to meet other students socially in the first few days.
17
10
Strongly Agree
37
Agree
21
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
51
75
Not Answered
80
Q10a Staff have been friendly and helpful.
2 16
2
13
Strongly Agree
83
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Not Answered
95
Q11a It was easy to get my computer logon.
61
77
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
19
Not Answered
9
27
18
Q12a The programme for induction in my School was
well organised.
8
4
17
43
Strongly Agree
Agree
28
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Not Answered
111
81
Q13a My personal tutor made satisfactory
arrangements to see me
21
41
19
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
19
Disagree
54
Strongly Disagree
Not Answered
57
Q14a My teaching timetable was easy to obtain and
follow.
18
28
Strongly Agree
27
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
68
37
Strongly Disagree
Not Answered
33
82
Q15a There was a vibrant atmosphere on campus during
Freshers Week.
2
1 19
19
Strongly Agree
Agree
96
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Not Answered
74
The qualitative data from the second questionnaire was combined into one file and then processed
using wordle.net, to produce the following pictorial representation. The largest words below are the
most frequent in the qualitative data. As you can see the words ‘people’, ‘helpful’ and ‘good’ are the
three of the largest words. Again these need to be analysed in their context.
83
Semi Structured Interviews Findings
Here the key findings from the semi structured interviews will be briefly stated before the deeper
analysis takes place in the next chapter of the thesis. It is worth noting that due to the very small
sample of five interviews, the results from this part of the research cannot be generalised (Cohen et
al, 2007), although the findings will be used with the other findings to explain some of the issues
that students are having when making the transition to Brunel University.
It was found that all the interviews had strong views on their time at the University so far and on the
issues that affected them during this process. There was a strong sense of comment on the
academic issues, of personal tutoring, lectures, the use of the virtual learning environment and
assessments. Most of the interviewees felt they had far more to learn at University than they did in
School, College and Sixth Form or from the work. Many interviewees had personal issues either prior
to attending the University or during the first term when these interviews were undertaken. These
highlight how individual a case each student is in terms of support. However, almost all of them
were positive about their experiences at the University.
84
Appendix IV – Interviews
Transcription of Interview
This is an excerpt of the transcript of one of the semi-structured interviews
Interviewee: Student (JA)
Interviewer (SV)
Location: Lecture Centre, Brunel University
JA: Ermm, yeah, My name is [deleted under ethics guidelines+, I’m doing my first year at Brunel,
which is the year.
SV: For the purposes of the tape you don’t mind being recorded?
JA: No, that’s ok.
SV: So, ermmm, what course are you studying?
JA: This year I did, Aerospace Engineering.
SV: Was Brunel your first choice?
JA: Ermm, Brunel was my first choice, yes.
SV: What did you originally apply to do?
JA: I originally applied to do Aerospace Engineering.
SV: Ok, How have you found the first year, in terms of the studies?
JA: Yeah, the studies haven’t been too bad, the modules they were good, say one of them, material
science, there was a lot of chemistry involved, I didn’t do Chemistry previously, but with time I
caught up, but they were challenging, but not too easy and so they were challenging but not to hard,
but they were manageable, but it’s not easy but, yeah, the modules were good.
SV: Did you find the lecturers, erm supported you or?
JA: Yeah, they gave you the option to come and seeing them, and also let them know of any
problems you have, so on their part that was good, I knew where to go, so yeah...that was good.
SV: Did you have more or less support than in sixth form?
JA: I would say in that sense, less I would say, as even though you have your tutor, it’s more about
independence. It depends on the individual. But then the support is there if you need it, so there
was support available but less than in sixth form.
SV: What did you do in your sixth form in terms of subjects?
JA: I did BTECH Engineering, Physics and Mathematics.
SV: How did you find those?
85
JA: Yeah, Mathematics was challenging, Physics was also challenging, erm, so was Engineering, but I
find Engineering very interesting, so, it keeps me focused on wanting to do well in it, so with that as
well, it helped me to be more focused on Physics and Maths, so yeah, they were challenging, but
enjoyable at the same time.
SV: So how many hours in terms of lecturers?
JA: At sixth form or here?
SV: Well here...
JA: It varied really, cos first term we had a lot of hours, then second term wasn’t as much but we
were here. But say, first term one of our days was from nine to seven, we only two hour breaks in
between, which was quite a lot, but the hours, I didn’t make a count of the hours, but on average I’d
say we had about three to four hours a day?
SV: What did you do in your breaks?
JA: In the breaks, you as in terms between lectures?
SV: Hmm, yeah...between lectures...
JA: Depends on what I just had and what I have next, say I have a two hour lecture next, I’d probably
just relax, I’d just look at the notes I just had or look at other notes on u-Link or something, but a lot
of the time, it wasn’t structured, it was just have a little break and go back.
SV: Erm, did you think, erm the experience at college help you with University or, erm, not?
JA: I would say it did because at sixth form you had to be independent and stuff, yes, after being
here, I think sixth form was kind of a mini university in a sense that you are doing what you want to
do, your own subjects, it’s up to you to put to put the effort in, even though, in a sense, the teachers
will say where’s your homework, where’s this, where’s that, it’s up to you to do want you want to
do, at the end of the day it’s your A-Level, it’s your degree, and so how you do it, so you’re going to
get it. It’s your degree, so do it well, so yeah, it’s helped me be more prepared. It’s not just about
what you get taught, but also how to like, to mix with different people. So it has helped.
SV: So have you done any group work in your course?
JA: Yeah, I have. We had project break, the week before and after Christmas and so that was a very
fun two weeks and very challenging as well, and so from that moment a lot of people from the
course didn’t know people from the course began to speak to one another. Up to that point they
knew only a few people on the course, but after project break people knew each other a bit more.
SV: Do you live on Campus?
JA: Yeah, I do.
SV: Do you think that has helped you or not?
JA: Ermm, yeah, cos it’s not too far, personally I would like to stay on campus, the whole time whilst
I’m at Uni. Means I don’t have to find accommodation elsewhere. Being on campus makes things
close, the library here, the lecture centre here, your lecturers are close by…
SV: Are you going to stay on campus next year?
86
JA: I applied but I didn’t get it, so I’m gonna stay with a close family nearby. But hopefully there
might be placed, as people drop out etc.
SV: So how far have you travelled to come to be at Brunel then?
JA: I came down from Newcastle.
SV: Oh right! So, how’s that been for you? In terms of adapting to London really?
JA: I didn’t know anyone in to the University, I was like, what am I going to do, but then, I wasn’t
really worried in a sense, it was just about getting used to the environment, it was just about getting
used to the cultural, cos it’s different to up north, so it was difficult.
SV: I’m from West Yorkshire, so erm, originally... so I kind of see where you are coming from, yeah…
JA: I got a good group of friends now…