Teesside widens access and improves student retention

The University of Teesside has made significant strides in reducing the number of students who drop out of their courses before gaining their degree, according to the latest performance indicators published today by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

The figures also show that Teesside is one of the leading universities for attracting students from neighbourhoods with a low participation rate in higher education.

The data refers to university performance in the 2003/04 academic year and reveals that the University of Teesside:

• more than met the benchmark set for admitting state school students - and increased its already high intake from state schools from 95.6% in 2002/03 to 98.2%
• saw another improvement in the number of young full-time undergraduate students from low participation neighbourhoods – with the percentage rising from 27.1% to 28.3%
• increased the number of students expected to complete their courses, with the percentage of full-time students failing to do so falling by 2.5% over two years to 18.5% - more than beating the 20.4% benchmark calculated by HESA.

Professor Graham Henderson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Teesside, said: “We’re very pleased with the latest Performance Indicators and the results of a huge national survey of student satisfaction which is also published today.

“We continue to be one of the best universities in England for participation by groups that are under-represented in higher education with the latest figures putting us in the top ten for working class entrants and in the in the top four for attracting students from low participation neighbourhoods.

“Both of these are key targets for us and demonstrate that Teesside is fulfilling its mission of providing opportunities to more and more students.

“Just as important is the indicator about projected learning outcomes. This shows that our student retention strategy is starting to bear fruit. The strategy has stimulated widespread interest from across the whole university sector, particularly about how Teesside can continue to achieve success in widening participation whilst simultaneously increasing the quality of its learning outcomes.”

“Well, the latest figures show that the strategies being pursued within the University have indeed made it is possible to balance increased access with improvements in academic performance. I’m not saying it is easy and I think it is a tribute to our academic and support staff that the latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that we have been able to make such real progress in this important area.”

Among the biggest improvements in performance, according to today’s figures, is the progression rate for mature full-time degree students at the University of Teesside, with nearly 88% continuing or qualifying following year of entry. The national average is just 82%. Only 10.8% of mature full-time degree students at Teesside were recorded as dropping-out of higher education, compared to a national average of 15.4% for mature students.

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