Office of Student Success to help those struggling

IDENTIFYING students who are struggling and making contact with them early on is the aim of the University of Otago’s new Office of Student Success.

The office will work with the Otago University Students’ Association, residential colleges, academic divisions and the university’s shared services.

It will be run by Stephen Scott, who said the centre would be running business analytics on the use of the Blackboard programme, an electronic resource available to students.

Usage of Blackboard would be used to determine how engaged the students were, and the office would be able to contact those displaying a lack of engagement.

Dr Scott said many high school pupils might be highachieving but for various reasons, such as shyness, they were reluctant to ask for assistance when they got to university.

When students were struggling in other areas of their lives — for instance, when it came to coping with homesickness — their academic work often suffered.

‘‘We’re not changing the student, but helping students by getting them pointed to the right support services.’’

Academic staff from each of the four divisions within the university were involved with the initiative.

Dr Scott, the director of the locals and firstyear experience programmes, said providing extra support for firstyears had been very successful but the second year was ‘‘when most of the changes happen’’.

He said students would not need to accept advice from the office if they did not want to.

Students living with their parents in Dunedin and in the Locals programme at the university would be covered by the service as well.

The move to establish the office comes after the university established the AskOtago hub on the ground floor of the library in July this year, a centralised information point for staff, students and the public.