Student Failure in First Year Modules in the Biosciences: An Interview Based Investigation

Evaluation of a peer mentoring program for a mature cohort of first-year undergraduate paramedic students

“…However, no information on prior study or knowledge was provided by these authors, which may have influenced the success of this mature age cohort. Furthermore, failure of first-year subjects often leads to nonprogression (10). Thus, students that did not succeed in first year may not have been captured in this study.…”

“…Undergraduate retention is a major concern for universities, and it is believed that failure of first-year undergraduate subjects is a significant factor leading to nonprogression and attrition of students (10). Importantly, the first year experience is essential for effective university progression and student retention (12).…”

Effect of A-level Subject Choice and Entry Tariff on Final Degree and Level 1 Performance in Biosciences

“…One could extrapolate this trend to final degree success but due to the changes at Exeter in the period between the two cohorts studied who have already graduated it would be prudent to wait until the 2010 entrants have graduated in 2013 in order to comment in more depth on the continuation of this correlation. It is clear however from the work of Roddan (2002), Yorke and Longden (2007) and Scott and Graal (2007) that the factors affecting achievement and failure are many and complex.…”

“…As average A-level tariff on entry has increased over the period studied, from 241 (CCC) from 1997-1999, to 338 (AAB) in 2010 there has been a reduction in the correlation between tariff and success, implying that for higher achieving students A-levels have less of an impact on degree success than for other students. Previous studies (Roddan 2002;Yorke and Longden, 2007;Scott and Graal, 2007) have looked at the factors affecting student retention and failure rates in higher education and demonstrated that both are due to a complex range of factors, including poor choice and advice in advance of choice of programme, lack of personal commitment, teaching quality and finance. Over the three years studied here the correlation between level 1 marks and A-level tariff has dropped from 30% of the variation being attributable to tariff in 1997-1999 to 24% in 2008 and just 11% in 2010.…”

The Effect of Academic Development Initiatives on Student Performance at a South African University: A Case of Finance Modules

“…Retention plays an important role in raising funds for universities as Departments of Education use the statistics from undergraduate retention to provide funding to universities (Scott & Graal, 2007). Thus, the retention of students in their studies is a key performance indicator in university quality assurance processes.…”