Student Success

https://studentsuccessjournal.org/
Student Success: A journal exploring the experiences of students in tertiary education. Student Success (previously titled the International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education) is a biannual, open access, peer-reviewed academic journal with one issue linked to the International STARS Conference. This Journal provides the opportunity to disseminate current research and innovative good practices about students’ tertiary learning experiences. Researchers, tertiary teachers and professional staff who are advancing student learning, success and retention in the tertiary sector are encouraged to submit.

List of Papers (Total 115)

When the Journey is as Important as the Destination: Time-Averaged Retention as an Alternate Measure of Student Engagement and Program Impact

University retention and completion rates underestimate true levels of student participation because of their reliance on measurements taken at commencement (or census date) and end of a program. As a result, these statistical snapshots miss what happens in between, failing to capture the true reach of the teaching and learning process, as well as the effort and resources...

Pastoral Care and the Caring Teacher – Value Adding to Enabling Education

The concept of pastoral care to effectively meet the personal, social and academic needs of students is a complex yet under-researched matter in higher education. Similarly, under-researched and institutionally undervalued is the pivotal role that the caring teacher fulfils in imbuing pastoral care in enabling courses. Using an enabling course in a regional Australian university...

"Monkey See, Monkey Do, That’s Not Going to Actually Teach You": Becoming a Self-Directed Learner in Enabling Mathematics Units

To explore the mathematics learning experiences of those more likely to come from non-traditional educational backgrounds, ten students studying one or two maths units in the Skills for Tertiary Education Preparatory Studies (STEPS) at CQUniversity Australia were interviewed. The aim was to investigate how these students learnt to become self-directed learners during their...

Grit-ability: Which Grit Characteristics Enable Success for Mothers Entering University?

Personal characteristics contributing to success in higher education has become an important area of focus in recent years. Duckworth’s (2007) grit framework shows positive correlations with a range of academic outcomes. This article explores the characteristics of grit in a study of female students who identified as mothers during their enrolment in an enabling program at...

Excellent Outcomes for All Students: A Whole System Approach to Widening Participation and Student Success in England

This article is about improving student retention and success to achieve excellent outcomes for all students. It draws on research undertaken by the author about student engagement and belonging; differential engagement and success, with a particular focus on commuter students, who experience intersectional disadvantage; and the development of a whole institution approach (WIA...

ANTS And POTS: Do They Change Lives? Students Perceptions on the Value of Positive Psychology Concepts

Positive psychology provides a different perspective to that of traditional psychology. There is a growing research base of scientific study to validate the significance of this psychological approach in people’s lives. Enabling courses have an increased number of students utilising them as an alternative pathway to gain access to university. These courses have an important...

2020 Special Issue: Enabling Excellence Through Equity

The Enabling Excellence through Equity Conference 2019 was held at the University of Wollongong, Australia from 24th to 27th November 2019. This was a combined biennial conference for the National Association of Enabling Educators of Australia (NAEEA) and the Equity Practitioners in Higher Education in Australasia (EPHEA). The Conference attracted higher education educators...

Treading on a Foreign Land: A Multiple Case Study of Chinese International Students’ Academic Acculturation Experiences

This article reports a multiple case study to explore the lived academic acculturation experiences of four Chinese international students with limited oral English capacity and how they describe the relationship between low oral English proficiency and academic acculturation. Self-Determination Theory was utilized as the theoretical framework to inform data collection and...

Teaching the Whole Student: Integrating Wellness Education into the Academic Classroom

College students are increasingly reporting higher stress, which can negatively influence their personal and intellectual development. Greater academic challenges and new social experiences in college may be accompanied by stressors like mental health issues, family concerns, or financial pressures. To help students manage stress, institutions typically provide resources through...

Supporting First-Year Students During the Transition to Higher Education: The Importance of Quality and Source of Received Support for Student Well-Being

The present exploratory study evaluated perceptions of actual support received in relation to stress and well-being among first-year students attending Canadian and U.S. higher education institutions (N = 126). Given that traditional assessments of received support account only for how often support was received, the present research examined unique effects of support quality in...

Student Wellbeing Through Teacher Wellbeing: A Study with Law Teachers in the UK and Australia

Research confirms law students and lawyers in the US, Australia and more recently in the UK are prone to symptoms related to stress and anxiety disproportionately to other professions. In response, the legal profession and legal academy in Australia and the UK have created Wellness Networks to encourage and facilitate research and disseminate ideas and strategies that might help...

Measuring PhD Student’s Psychological Well-being: Are we seeing the whole picture?

The psychological well-being of PhD students has become of interest after reports of high levels of psychological distress and mental illness amongst these students. In an attempt to measure psychological well-being among PhD students, some studies have used instruments that measure constructs related to well-being, most commonly psychological distress, whilst overlooking some...

Implementing a Whole-of-Curriculum Approach to Student Wellbeing

This article reports and extends on an emerging initiative presetned at the 2018 STARS Conference (Auckland, New Zealand). Many universities are invested in student mental health, but solutions can be hindered by concerns about the fit, cost, effectiveness, or sustainability of diverse initiatives. We argue that university staff looking to support student wellbeing should first...

How Do Students Adapt in Response to Academic Failure?

Ensuring student success has long been on the research agenda in higher education. In this study, we seek to understand if the changes students make in light of academic failure are consistent with this literature. Little is known about students who fail but subsequently persist in their studies. Through an online survey with students who had failed and persisted, we identified...

Fall Break Fallout: Exploring Student Perceptions of the Impact of an Autumn Break on Stress

The mental health of post-secondary students has dominated recent discourse surrounding higher education. Accordingly, many institutions have introduced a break in the fall term, designed to support student well-being. As part of an interdisciplinary, longitudinal study examining the effects of the fall break on student stress, we held focus groups with undergraduates. We...

Belonging as a Resource of Resilience: Psychological Wellbeing of International and Refugee Students in Study Preparation at German Higher Education Institutions

After 2015, several German higher education institutions (HEI) expanded their capacities for the study preparation of refugees. Nowadays, international and refugee students prepare for higher education degree programs through languages courses and subject-specific preparation courses at universities and colleges. So far, empirical research on refugee students’ wellbeing, in...

A Reflection on Harnessing Learned Optimism, Resilience and Team Growth Behaviour in Order to Support Student Groups

Change is all around us at universities, and learned optimism is a skill that is much sought after. Our rapid rate of change at Macquarie University has identified the opportunity for the Student Engagement team to implement learned optimism in their training and work practices in order to enhance the student experience. This paper will explain the current challenges and how our...

2019 Special Issue: Psychological Wellbeing and Distress in Higher Education

Many universities around the world have now initiated wellbeing strategies that encompass psychological wellbeing. These resources can be leveraged for change to better support students. Associate Professor Lydia Woodyatt from Flinders University, Adelaide and Dr Abi Brooker from the University of Melbourne are guest editors for this very special issue which includes a collection...

Volume 10 Issue 2 2019

We were pleased to hold the 2019 Students, Transitions, Achievement, Retention and Success (STARS) Conference in Melbourne, Australia as a celebration of the fifth anniversary of one of Australasia’s most welcoming and collegial academic communities of practice.    This year’s Conference confirmed that STARS is now firmly established as a collaborative and inclusive annual event...

Using an alternate reality game to facilitate student engagement during orientation

An alternate reality game was designed to facilitate transition and engagement amongst students commencing a tertiary preparation program at a regional university in Australia.  The design of the game was informed by a student engagement framework which proposes four psychosocial constructs which mediate engagement at the intersection between student and institutional influences...

The benefits of good tutor-student relationships in the first year

Teacher-student relationships (TSR) are an important influence on the student experience at university. Existing research, predominantly with lecturers, highlights that these relationships have academic and affective dimensions. Studies demonstrate good TSR increase student motivation, engagement, and learning. The current study adds a student voice to this topic, focussing on...

The Deakin 'Students Helping Students' and 'Students as Partners' collection: A contemporary take on the classic cut

Fashion metaphors are used to explore the relationship between Deakin’s ‘Students Helping Students’ strategy and its emerging ‘Students as Partners’ initiative. As the curtain is raised, the current ‘tertiary trend’ of Students as Partners is seen through a global lens. The Deakin Students Helping Students and Students as Partners collection is then paraded across the runway, at...

Regional study hubs: Increasing student engagement to support regional students facing high first-year attrition risk factors

The Country Universities Centre (CUC) network of regional study hubs are an emerging tool for supporting regional students to achieve success in higher education. The CUC cohort of students, and regional students more generally, face several risk factors for first-year attrition including: external mode of study, over 25 years of age, part-time study load, alternative pathways to...

Online learning in Australian higher education: Opportunities, challenges and transformations

Higher education is being rapidly transformed by the growth in online learning, with an increasing number of universities worldwide offering degree programs in online, distance modes of study. Australian education has a long history of 'distance education', primarily offered by regional universities. With the digital communication advances of the 21st century, traditional...

International students’ transition to university: Connection and disconnection in online group work interactions

An Australian higher education experience often includes group work as an important social learning opportunity. For international students, taking part in a group assignment can positively influence learning and adjustment to the new cultural and educational context through social interaction. However, students are increasingly choosing to use digital technologies to participate...