We are well underway with our investigation, and are working hard on many exciting new leads. The investigation only started last week but already we have found some great information to lead our investigation.

This Week:

Charlee:

I’ve been looking at how much student drops outs cost universities, and the impact this has on them. Using figures I’ve received from the HEFCE I’ve been able to look into how they band student costs and the percentage of student dropouts across the West Midlands.

A possible lead I could follow from this investigation is to contact universities directly and ask them how they are impacted by funding received from the HEFCE and whether they have to make cuts when students dropout.

Ollie:

Ollie has had the chance to chat to former Birmingham City University student Kris Hill about his experience at the university and why he dropped out. Their interview talks about the support Kris received and how this impacted his final decision.

Daniella:

Daniella has been making use of the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s stats and looking specifically at mature student drop out rates. She has found that the drop out rate is higher among mature students than younger.

This has definitely rang bells for us, as perhaps a major issue. So watch this space as we are investigating this issue further. We are working on arranging an interview with a mature student to discuss whether they feel there is a lack of support for mature students.

Taisha:

Taisha has been looking at student dropouts within the UK and has found some interesting articles about this via the web. She’s been in contact with Kerry Gough, the School of Media’s (Birmingham City University) welfare officer, and has an interview prepped to discuss the scheme that Kerry is currently working on to prevent drop outs within the university.

Vinnie:

Vinnie has been searching communities to find out their experiences regarding dropping out and has come across an interesting discussion on the Student Room where one user talks about her experience of dropping out and why she chose to drop out.

Our newest leads:

With all this information in mind, we still need to look at other universities across the West Midlands and experiences of dropping out.

Following our latest meeting, both Daniella and I are looking into a controversial case against Wolverhampton University where they amended their dropout figures in order to receive funding. However they were found out and ordered to pay back £3.5million.

We are currently looking into why they did this and the impact it has had not only on the universities reputation but the staff as they were forced to make staff cuts.

Vinnie is currently looking into setting up an interview with a student from Coventry University to talk about their experiences and why they felt the need to drop out of university and the support they did or did not receive.

If you do want to get in contact with us, you can at thedropoutreport@hotmail.co.uk or via twitter @dropout_report.

Image: benis979 / http://www.sxc.hu