Student success and the graduation rate from tertiary education is crucial for the labor market, economic growth and innovative power of the EU-countries. Tertiary education is most important for an educated society aiming for social equality and justice as well as a responsible citizen. The EU proposes to lead at least 40% of the younger generation into higher education (HEd) and in order to reach the EU-wide ambitious goals tackling drop-out from HEd is an important strategy. For HEd, the drop-out rate is an indicator for (in-)efficiency. For the student a complete drop-out from the education is related to high personal and social costs which can go hand in hand challenges on the labor market. Despite various efforts in recent years still too many students in the EU drop out before they graduate. In order to prevent students form dropping out many universities increased their measures of support for students. But just providing unrelated entities shows not to be sufficient. Universities need a holistic support system, with inter-related elements targeting different needs of a heterogeneous student body. For students who are struggling in an HEd-environment seeking help and support is an important strategy. A large obstacle is, as research on help-seeking shows, that students who are struggling the most are the least likely to seek help. To help these students they need to be targeted with precise measures of support with a low threshold and avoiding stigmatization. Objectives: In order to tackle the issues mentioned above, the project’s main objective is to prevent students from dropping out of the HEd system by fostering their reflection processes, giving them the possibility to learn significant strategies based on their individual needs and showing them the broad but focused range of support available at their university and beyond. Institutionally, the project aims at providing universities with an online platform, that enables a concentration of information of their support services and a delivery of these information individualized to issues of a particular student. A third goal is to provide universities with aggregated data giving an insight on the situation of their student population. In more detail these objectives include the following activities and products: 1. The development of an online self-reflection tool (SRT 2.0) that helps students to reflect on their study situation, receive a feedback and identify potential fields of risk. This tool serves as an “early warning system” for students. The results can for instance be taken to personal advisory and channel this process. 2. The provision of adequate measures of support for students who face the risk of dropping out by a) a self-directed online training platform and b) an individualized bundle of information on support at the universities and beyond. Both measures are linked to the feedback provided by the self-reflection tool. 3. The development of a reporting system for participating universities on their student's situation in average, which can be used to develop and implement necessary additional measures of support. Target groups and participants: a) The main target group of the project are the students in order to equip them with tools, knowledge and resources that help to detect drop-out risks and to provide and find adequate support. b) The university support system represented by their student advisors, are a second target group. They can use the tools and products of the project to support and focus the advisory process. c) Universities at large are targeted by the project to implement and adapt the web platform for their own institution Impact: Students will profit from using the web portal by an enhanced reflection process, learning of relevant skills and receiving individualized information. Universities can improve their image by holistic counseling and advisory processes. Also, these processes can be improved by directing students seeking support to the right service. Furthermore they receive information on how students perceive their study situation in order to adjust their measures of support. Finally, with all these measures they will be able to lead more students to graduation. By reducing the drop-out rate more heavily needed skilled workers will enter the labor market. On EU-level, the projects outcomes are going to strengthen the goal attainment on graduation from higher education set by the EU. Long term benefit: All of the project's outcomes and products will remain available online after the end of the project's eligibility period and the partners will continue to work with them and keep them updated. An important part of the project is to transfer the products and tools to other non-partner universities. By widening the project and its impact on reducing drop-out from the education system the goals of the EU strategies will be supported sustainable.
Tertiary education is most important for an educated society aiming for social equity, justice and a responsible citizenship. For higher education (HEd), the drop-out rate is an indicator for (in)efficiency. For the student, a complete drop-out from the education system is related to high personal and social costs. Despite various efforts in recent years still too many students in the EU drop out before they graduate. To prevent students from dropping out many universities increased their measures of support for students. But just providing unrelated services shows not to be sufficient. Universities need a holistic support system, with inter-related elements targeting different needs of a heterogeneous student body. Objectives To tackle the issues mentioned above, the main objective of the project was to prevent students from dropping out of the HEd system by fostering their reflection processes, giving them the possibility to learn significant strategies based on their individual needs and showing them the broad but focused range of support available at their university and beyond. Institutionally, the project aimed at providing universities with an online platform, that enables a concentration of information of their support services, a delivery of these information individualized to issues of a particular student and a set of online learning modules that can increase students’ skills. Outcomes and products In more detail these objectives included the following activities and products: 1. Literature Review and Conceptualization. This output provides the overarching theoretical framework for the project and conceptualizes the need and the linkage between the Self-Reflection Tool (SRT) (IO2) and the content of the Online Learning Platform (IO3). This paper is an important contribution to the comparative research and prevention of drop-out in HE in Europe, considering that provides a state-of-the-art in the field of drop-out and adaptation to the University and includes indications on how Higher Education institutions can promote successful adaptation and decrease drop-out rates. The literature review guided the development of the following steps and outputs so that the conceptualization of the project is theory and evidence-based. 2. The development of an online self-reflection tool (SRT 2.0/2.1) that helps students to reflect on their study situation, receive a feedback and identify potential fields of risk. This tool serves as an “early warning system” for students. The results can, for instance, be taken to personal advisory and channel this process. The detailed feedback, besides given information on the measured construct and more specific information on the results obtained, also directs students to the online learning platform. 3. The provision of adequate measures of support for students who face the risk of dropping out by: a) a self-directed online training platform conceptualised and designed in accordance with contemporary approaches to education process, and b) an individualized bundle of information on sources of support at the universities and beyond. The online training platform includes 6 modules all connected to the measures from scales incorporated in in the SRT and to the feedback provided by it. The information given about the sources of support is provided based on four different profiles of students and, in some cases, is linked to the feedback provided by the self-reflection tool. Target groups and participants: a) The main target group of the project are HEd students The universities that can use the platform (partner Universities and two others in each country) cover about 450 000 – 500 000 students. b) The university support system represented by their student advisors. They can use the tools and products of the project to support and focus the advisory process. c) Universities at large were targeted by the project to implement and adapt the web platform for their own institution (a total of 16 Universities have their own versions of SUnStAR) Impact Students will profit from using the SUnStAR platform by an enhanced reflection process, learning of relevant skills and receiving individualized information. Universities can improve their image and efficiency by holistic counselling and advisory services. Also, these services can be improved by directing students seeking support to the right service. Furthermore, students receive information on how they perceive their study situation and become better aware of their strengths and weaknesses in relation to their studies to adjust their own measures of support. Finally, with all these services more students will be better supported so that they will be more likely to complete their studies . Consequently, by reducing the drop-out rate more heavily needed skilled employees will enter the labour market. On EU-level, the project outcomes can strengthen the goal attainment on graduation from higher education set by the EU.