Assessment, Learning & Teaching Reflections |
Friday 3 February, 2006
As the Staff Development Festival drew to a close, the Vice-Chancellor invited colleagues to consider using our talents differently , an ideal opportunity to think about going ‘beyond my own boundaries’. In January I began a secondment in the Carnegie faculty. My previous work in Leeds Met involved working in disadvantaged communities removing barriers to HE. Working with nervous students, encouraging and coaxing them into their University lives often not seeing them again until graduation day…or not. Like finding pages missing from a book, I was often frustrated, wondering what happened to them in between. Why did some of the students succeed against all odds when others didn’t?
My cross-University activities will focus on research about student retention and success, especially with regards to under-represented groups. Government statistics tend to show that universities with higher numbers of disadvantaged students from low income and lower socio-economic groups have poorer outcomes in terms of retention. My research will explore how narratives of ‘dropping-out’ link with structural inequalities to increase the likelihood of failure. I aim to use this research-led approach to inform retention strategies, and long-term curriculum development. Embarking on this research journey is using my talents very differently … watch this space.
Julie Harpin
Associate Researcher and Development Manager
