Interventions Targeting “At Risk” Students Explored in Workshop

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Interventions targeting students deemed to be “at risk” because of factors impacting on their ability to succeed academically were debated at a recent workshop at UKZN.

The workshop, hosted by the College of Humanities Teaching and Learning Unit and the School of Education was led by visiting Associate Dean at Drake University in the United States, Dr Catherine Gillespie.

Gillespie addressed the academic welfare of students especially those who struggle and are considered to be ‘at risk’.

‘At Drake University, we have various factors that come into play when identifying “at risk” students.  The first involves students who live with their parents and commute to university or college finding it difficult to make friends and this can make them feel ostracised and not a part of the university community,’ said Gillespie.

‘Then there are those students who are the first in their families to attend university, putting greater pressure on them to perform well academically. There are also those who don’t attend orientation and end up not knowing what the expectations of being at university are all about. Another factor we take into consideration is low test scores students receive in their university entrance test (South African Matric results).’

Gillespie emphasised that these factors often contributed to students dropping out and some not performing to academic standards.

Looking at the engagement and solutions of student issues at Drake University, Gillespie shared strategies used to identify “at risk” students and the way such students were handled.

‘We have the Red Form Flag strategy in which lecturers help identify students who are struggling to cope academically. The lecturers fill out forms with the details of the students’ performance and share the students’ behaviourisms in class. I call those students in for a mandatory meeting, suss out the problem and try to help them achieve their goals.

‘A monthly meeting follows until the student is performing on par again. Often if a student receives three red flag forms within three semesters, they are excluded from the programme. But we try to help the student as best we can before this happens.’

Many ideas, thoughts and suggestions were discussed with the workshop participants.

The College of Humanities Dean of Teaching and Learning Professor Nobuhle Hlongwa said the workshop had been informative.

‘The workshop assisted us as UKZN to open our eyes to other risk factors that we were not paying sufficient attention to especially the one on meeting enrolment targets and other structural issues pertaining to our sessional dates. The workshop was well attended by representatives of all the four Colleges and we were able to share the different interventions we have to address issues pertaining to at risk students.’

‘It was evident from the discussions that different Colleges share similar initiatives but call it different names. An example which is vital for the College of Humanities is the Mentorship programme - other Colleges call it First year experience. This is where we attend to the first year students from orientation week assigning students to mentor them for the entire semester.’

Manager of the College’s Student Support Services, Ms Angeline Stephens, said: ‘The workshop was very beneficial as it illustrated both commonalities and differences across contexts within UKZN and also UKZN and other international Higher Education Institutions. Despite the many challenges faced by UKZN students and staff; it was reassuring to note that there are several forms of support that currently exist at UKZN.

‘Discussions highlighted the need for a more proactive and inclusive approach to support that would promote the successful academic careers of all students while being sensitive in its response to students who may be at a higher risk of dropping out or failing.’

Following the group discussions, Gilliespie challenged workshop participants to be more proactive, share resources to assist with student welfare across all four Colleges, tackle structural barriers, assist in putting policies in place to help students, maximise effective strategies and encourage students to attend lectures.

Melissa Mungroo