Solent University use data to maximise student success.

Solent University is an institution of Higher Education that enrols 11,000 students a year. Retention and achievement are a key business focus with attendance and engagement being indicators of student success.

The Challenge

A modern, intuitive system was sought in 2016 that captures student attendance and engagement data alongside having the ability to develop in future predictive learner analytics. The system needed to provide continuity by integrating with Solent’s current card readers.

Objectives

• To develop a sophisticated attendance monitoring system personalised to each individual student’s pattern of attendance
• To have timely intervention/communication with students when attendance drops
• To have consistency and efficiency in attendance monitoring
• To contribute to setting high expectations from the outset

The Solution

SEAtS Alert combines attendance reporting with targeted student support with automated student communications for better outcomes. SEAtS monitors all students attendance with work employer funded students, international tier 4 students and government funded students.

Why Solent chose SEAtS

What set SEAtS apart from other vendors was their passion for student success and feature rich product offering. The following are just a few of the reasons why Solent University chose SEAtS:

• Continuity – SEAtS integrated with Solent’s existing card readers which provided consistency for students, while also being cost-effective.
• Intuitive presentation – SEAtS intuitive dashboard allowed for quick adoption amongst our staff.
• Matched Attendance – SEAtS provides matched attendance which allowed us to compare student attendance against scheduled events. Reporting capabilities allowed us to filter by student, course, school or the entire campus.
• 4 Stage Attendance Workflow – SEAtS worked with us in developing a 4-stage workflow where we automatically contacted students every couple of weeks about their attendance.
• Visa Compliance Workflow – Similar to the above workflow but more sensitive where international students would be contacted immediately if their attendance fell below the minimum requirements set out by government regulations.
• Automated Communication – SEAtS reinforced high student expectations with targeted emails.
• Scope for future Predictive Learner Analytics.

Looking at both the attendance data from SEAtS and our achievement data, we can see that those with higher engagement and attendance do go on to do better at Solent.

Get your free copy

The Impact

SEAtS has been a very effective tool in the work of the Student Achievement Team to improve student retention, with impact evident from the first year of implementation. In the first semester, attendance improved by 8% on average per week.

SEAtS attendance data was used to inform retention initiatives resulting in a 9% improvement for suspended returners, and a 14% improvement in repeat level students.

Students who received one-to-one intervention saw an 11% increase in achievement/progression compared to those who did not.

Following the successful roll-out of SEAtS Attend, Solent are now working with SEAtS to introduce a Student Engagement Monitoring Solution which will use machine learning to analyse additional student data including student demographic data, health and wellbeing data and entry qualification data to further support students.