Student Success Journal

📣 We are very pleased to announce the release of the 2024 Special Issue: Conversations with Ella Kahu – Guest Editors Dr Catherine Picton and Professor Chi Baik This special issue celebrates the work of Professor Ella Kahu and her substantial contribution to the advancement of our collective understanding of student engagement. In June 2024, Professors Karen Nelson and Chi Baik, and Dr Cat Picton sat down with Ella for a reflective conversation about her work, and additional insights in her theorising and research on student experience and engagement. In this issue, they present the interview transcript and showcase Ella’s key publications on the student engagement framework, through her collaborations and the development of the educational interface to a series of empirical articles, exploring different dimensions of the student experiences, including students’ expectations of university, student belonging and metaphors of learning and life. This issue includes a special introduction outlining her academic career. Part One presents the conceptual foundations of the framework of student engagement. Part Two explores the first-year student experience. Part Three delves into teaching practices that promote student engagement. Also included are a series of videos, a podcast episode and other forms of dissemination from Ella’s career. Conversations with Ella Kahu represents a call to action to the community of researchers and practitioners to continue to use the framework as a lens to understand the complexity and nuance of the student experience, and creatively apply it through research and practice. 🔗https://lnkd.in/gm77GgTa #StudentEngagement #StudentExperience #FirstYearExperience #HigherEducation #retention #StudentSuccess #SpecialIssue #StudentEngagementFramework Karen Nelson PhD PFHEA Rachael Field Ron Oliver Jason M. Lodge Jason T. Sally Kift Marcia Devlin AM, PhD Kerrie-Lee Krause Steve Larkin Ruth Pickford Lorraine Stefani Vincent Tinto (Intellectual Icon) Jennifer Keup Nicolette Lee PhD PFHEA Liz Thomas Tracy Creagh (AFHEA) Carmel O'Sullivan Kathy Egea Cathy S. Professor Sarah O' Shea

Thank You! ⭐ As 2024 draws to a close, we would like to acknowledge and thank the Editorial team, the Advisory Board and the Editorial Board, the authors and especially the Journal reviewers for their significant and valuable contributions throughout the year. ⭐ The Journal remains committed to publishing scholarship exploring the experiences of students in tertiary education, providing the opportunity to disseminate current research and innovative good practice about students’ tertiary learning experiences. ⭐ Importantly, the Journal's research and scholarship is accessible to all, without paywalls and via best practice in open access publishing. #OpenAccess #HigherEducation #StudentEngagement #StudentExperience #FirstYearExperience #retention #StudentSuccess Karen Nelson PhD PFHEA Rachael Field Ron Oliver Jason M. Lodge Jason T. Sally Kift Marcia Devlin AM, PhD Kerrie-Lee Krause Steve Larkin Ruth Pickford Lorraine Stefani Vincent Tinto (Intellectual Icon) Jennifer Keup Nicolette Lee PhD PFHEA Liz Thomas Tracy Creagh (AFHEA) Carmel O'Sullivan

📣 New article: The Agentic Belonging Workshop: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Social Belonging Intervention in two English Universities - David Gilani, Daniel McArthur and Liz Thomas 🔓 Open access article: https://lnkd.in/gA_xzjDy Given its close links to student success, universities are heavily invested in how they can positively influence their students’ sense of belonging. One approach to this is through social belonging interventions, where universities attempt to develop student agency. This study takes a quasi-experimental approach by evaluating the impact of a newly developed agentic belonging workshop at two English universities. Findings show that the agentic workshop led to significantly higher self-reported scores in understanding of belonging amongst attendees compared to non-attendees. Whilst changes in students’ sense of belonging was not significantly different across workshop groups, belonging workshop attendees were significantly more likely to continue into the second year of study compared to both control groups. This study contributes promising findings for how social belonging interventions can be taken forward within the higher education context in the United Kingdom. #StudentBelonging #StudentEngagement #retention #HigherEducation Karen Nelson PhD PFHEA Rachael Field Ron Oliver Jason M. Lodge Sally Kift Marcia Devlin AM, PhD Jennifer Keup Ruth Pickford Lorraine Stefani Vincent Tinto (Intellectual Icon) Nicolette Lee PhD PFHEA Carmel O'Sullivan

🔊 Call for Papers – 2025 Student Success Special Issue A Generation of Transition Pedagogy: Looking Back, Looking Forward Sally Kift's ALTC Fellowship that led to the development of 'transition pedagogy' began nearly 20 years ago, in 2006. Reflecting on nearly two decades of transition pedagogy provides a unique opportunity to assess its impact and envision its future potential. This special issue aims to gather diverse perspectives and insights that will not only celebrate the achievements thus far but also critically address what remains to be done to continue evolving and enhancing student transitions in tertiary education. Guest editors Professor Ryan Naylor and Associate Professor Jessica Marrington welcome submissions for this special issue (due 30 January 2025) 💠 All details, including themes, timeline and submission guidelines: https://lnkd.in/gecsiwCV #TransitionPedagogy #StudentEngagement #HigherEducation #StudentSuccess #CallForPapers #SpecialIssue Karen Nelson PhD PFHEA Rachael Field Ron Oliver Jason M. Lodge Jason T. Sally Kift Marcia Devlin AM, PhD Kerrie-Lee Krause Steve Larkin Ruth Pickford Lorraine Stefani Vincent Tinto Jennifer Keup Nicolette Lee PhD PFHEA Liz Thomas Tracy Creagh (AFHEA) Carmel O'Sullivan

🎉 Student Success celebrates International Open Access Week 2024 🔓 This week (21-27 October) is Open Access Week - an opportunity to join together, take action, and raise awareness around the importance of community control of knowledge sharing systems. This year’s theme is 'Community over Commercialisation' and prioritises approaches to open scholarship that serve the best interests of the public and the academic community. 🔓 The Student Success Journal is an international, open-access, peer-reviewed, scholarly publication exploring the experiences of students in tertiary education. Authors retain copyright and articles are licenced via Creative Commons to make published articles more readily available and useable. There are no APCs (Article Processing Charges). Authors can submit and publish at no cost. 🔓 Importantly, Student Success is indexed in DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). DOAJ Membership is a clear statement of intent and proves a commitment to quality, peer-reviewed open access. DOAJ is co-author to the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (Principles) and DOAJ members are expected to follow these principles as a condition of membership 🔓 Student Success remains committed to making education research and scholarship accessible to all, without paywalls and via best practice in open access practices. The Editorial team acknowledge and thank our International Advisory Board, Editorial Board, authors and reviewers for their sustained committment to quality publications. Interested contributors may discuss their research and scholarship with the Editors at journal@unistars.org Karen Nelson PhD PFHEA Rachael Field Ron Oliver Jason M. Lodge Jason T. Sally Kift Marcia Devlin AM, PhD Professor Kerri-Lee Krause PhD, GAICD, PFHEA, FSRHE Steve Larkin Ruth Pickford Lorraine Stefani Vincent Tinto (Intellectual Icon) Jennifer Keup Nicolette Lee PhD PFHEA Liz Thomas Tracy Creagh (AFHEA) Carmel O'Sullivan Christopher Hart

🆕 New article: Sense of Purpose in Life Predicts University Performance and Attrition Jacob E Alderson, Nathan A Lewis, Patrick L Hill and Nicholas A Turiano 🔹 Open access article: https://lnkd.in/grGqp7ck Individual differences are important predictors of academic success. A sense of purpose in life is gaining increasing attention as a key individual difference factor to foster in university students. The current study examined whether a sense of purpose in life, a dispositional tendency to pursue goals and activities in line with one’s overarching life direction, predicted better academic success across several years of university. Students (n = 769) at a large, U.S. public university were asked to complete a baseline survey in the summer prior to entering university, which included measures for a sense of purpose and background characteristics. Students were then followed throughout their first three years of university. Results demonstrated that higher levels of purpose were associated with a higher grade point average (GPA), more credits earned, less credits dropped, and an increased odds of persisting through the first three years of university. A sense of purpose also appeared to buffer the negative effect of low entrance scores on university GPA. These findings support cultivating a strong sense of purpose prior to entering university as an effective means of improving a variety of academic outcomes. Karen Nelson PhD PFHEA Rachael Field Ron Oliver Jason M. Lodge Jason T. Sally Kift Marcia Devlin AM, PhD Professor Kerri-Lee Krause PhD, GAICD, PFHEA, FSRHE Steve Larkin Ruth Pickford Lorraine Stefani Vincent Tinto (Intellectual Icon) Jennifer Keup Nicolette Lee PhD PFHEA Liz Thomas Tracy Creagh (AFHEA) Carmel O'Sullivan Christopher Hart

🆕 New article High School Enabling Programs, Learning Journeys, and Transitions: Measuring Effectiveness from the Student Perspective - Anita Maclaurin, Rebekah Sturniolo-Baker, Sue Shaw and Deb Monteith. 💠 Full open access article: https://lnkd.in/gHsViXpZ Summary: University enabling programs provide historically underrepresented students with aspirational gateways and the academic skills and knowledges essential for success at university. Measurement of the efficacy of such programs has been typically neoliberal and quantitative in nature. This article argues for a nuanced measurement of success, exploring the efficacy of enabling programs from the students’ perspective to reduce marginalising the lived experience of enabling students. The key findings indicate that enabling students feel well equipped for first year transition, but some barriers endure. The qualitative evidence could give rise to the creation of a more holistic measure of student success and encourage universities to develop stronger transition strategies for equity groups. #EnablingEducation #transition #StudentEngagement #HigherEducation#StudentSuccess Karen Nelson PhD PFHEA Rachael Field Ron Oliver Jason M. Lodge Jason T. Sally Kift Marcia Devlin AM, PhD Kerrie-Lee Krause Steve Larkin Ruth Pickford Lorraine Stefani Vincent Tinto Jennifer Keup Nicolette Lee PhD PFHEA Liz Thomas Tracy Creagh (AFHEA) Carmel O'Sullivan Christopher Hart

🔊 Call for Papers – 2025 Special Issue A Generation of Transition Pedagogy: Looking Back, Looking Forward Sally Kift's ALTC Fellowship that led to the development of 'transition pedagogy' began nearly 20 years ago, in 2006. Reflecting on nearly two decades of transition pedagogy provides a unique opportunity to assess its impact and envision its future potential. This special issue aims to gather diverse perspectives and insights that will not only celebrate the achievements thus far but also critically address what remains to be done to continue evolving and enhancing student transitions in tertiary education. Guest editors Professor Ryan Naylor and Associate Professor Jessica Marrington welcome submissions for this special issue (due 30 January 2025) All details, including themes, timeline and submission guidelines: https://lnkd.in/gecsiwCV #TransitionPedagogy #StudentEngagement #HigherEducation #StudentSuccess #CallForPapers #SpecialIssue Karen Nelson PhD PFHEA Rachael Field Ron Oliver Jason M. Lodge Jason T. Sally Kift Marcia Devlin AM, PhD Kerrie-Lee Krause Steve Larkin Ruth Pickford Lorraine Stefani Vincent Tinto Jennifer Keup Nicolette Lee PhD PFHEA Liz Thomas Tracy Creagh (AFHEA) Carmel O'Sullivan Christopher Hart

Thrilled to have a our Graduation Help Desk efforts published in the Student Success Journal! #UTSAGHD #TimelyGraduation #StudentSuccess

The power of collaboration! It was a privilege to work with colleagues Nikki Anghileri Marta Ortega Vega Patricia Zunszain Olivia Scott Jonathan Nassar Katharina Stegmann across three London-based universities and an NHS partner Maudsley Learning for this project as part of an OfS initiative to promote student wellbeing. This Practice Report published in Student Success Journal is of interest to anyone working with students to co-design meaningful interventions to promote positive student mental health.