Monitoring Student Progress Part 2
6.8 In cases of underperformance and unsatisfactory attendance, lecturers or personal tutors should offer appropriate guidance to the students concerned. Staff should be prepared to consider the implications of students' personal or professional problems for their academic progress and commitments. Strategies should normally be agreed to meet individual circumstances and should be kept under review: additional coursework may be prescribed or additional study skills acquired. Serious or persistent cases should be considered and monitored by the Department meeting or programme director. The position should be fully reviewed at least by the end of the session when a decision whether or not to re-admit would be taken and any conditions relating to re-admission specified.
6.9 In appropriate cases, personal or programme/module tutors should meet with their students at the end of each stage of the programme to discuss their profile, choice of options (if appropriate) and preparations necessary for studies during the next stage of the programme. In particular, progress may need to be reviewed and any examination failures or underperformance analysed and, where necessary, additional support prescribed. Tutors should encourage students to prepare thoroughly for the coming stage and may prescribe vacation/project work.
6.10 Effectiveness of these procedures should be monitored in terms of the quality and regularity of re-submitted or subsequent work and regularity of attendance.
6.11 Withdrawals among part-time students are significant and made for a variety of reasons. The College endeavours to minimise the numbers who withdraw by encouraging Departments/Schools to develop a supportive environment through friendly contacts between staff and students and by fostering a sense of community and mutual support among students.
6.12 On an individual basis tutors should counsel and offer appropriate encouragement, advice and support to students contemplating withdrawal. Reformulation of targets in terms of the length of the programme may be considered in appropriate cases. Cases of financial hardship should be referred for consideration under the appropriate College awards scheme. A break in studies may be considered as an alternative to permanent withdrawal.
6.13 Departments/Schools should record and analyse information concerning the causes of student withdrawal where these are known (see 8.9). Experience of problems encountered by students which affect their ability to complete their programmes successfully can be helpful to staff advising prospective students.
6.14 Student support and retention are key elements in Birkbeck’s Learning and Teaching Strategy 2009-2012, which includes the following amongst the key projects:
“Project 2: Learning Support. Each School to identify the support needs of their student body and to ensure that these needs are being met;
Project 3: Retention. All Schools to identify the mechanisms for supporting student retention, examining and enhancing as necessary current practice within Schools.”
6.15 Study Skills Support (Central and Collaborative Provision, Registry Services) is the locus and provision of Personal Development Planning opportunities, study skills, academic English provision, counselling and advisory services. Study Skills Support (SSS) work with College Learning Support Officers to support Schools in providing student learning support and in rolling out good practice in the retention of students across the College and coordinates that provided by the Library, IT Services (ITS) and the Students’ Union. Departments/Schools should continue to work with SSS in supporting student progression.