In our continuing focus on HEPPP@UNE we take a look at a project that is designed to make students feel welcome and boost their sense of belonging.

The Personalised Retention and Engagement Program or PREP was first piloted in 2017 and is usually the first contact a student have with UNE after enrolment.

A student advisor will call each enrolled student and talk them through everything they need to know to get started at university. This can include how to navigate Moodle, how to get textbooks, study load and time management, where to get help if they need it, information on study centres, intensives and pracs amongst a number of other things. Students who can’t be contacted are sent an email with all the most important information on getting started (including a link to UNE101 – Online Orientation) as well as a link to the UNE online booking system, so they can book a call at a time that suits them.

PREP was designed and built by a small group of staff in what was then the Student Support Team and has grown quite a bit since 2017. The core team is run the Student Engagement Coordinator who is also responsible for running the reports that inform who to call, who to send out wall-planners to, and who to upload into UNE101 – Online Orientation. The Coordinator has two full time student advisors and regularly liaises with other PREP sites – the team is currently making PREP calls from Sydney, Tamworth, and Taree study centres, Oorala Aboriginal Centre, and from the Student Accessibility and Wellbeing Office in order to provide a personalised learning journey for students that live in those areas and/or are serviced by those business units.

Enrolled students are registered in a report which feed into a dashboard and produces a number of lists. Those lists are used to generate information for the various business units, enrolment into UNE101, and the mailing list for wall planners as well as a welcome letter from the Vice-Chancellor. A project team comprising Jane Schmude, Yuzhi Hu, Connor Ventura, and Matt Krug are currently working on streamlining this process, which will hopefully be introduced in 2022.

The team has recently completed their second major regression analysis of the PREP program with outstanding results: a five per cent increase in retention amongst students.  

Next year the team hopes to introduce PREP calls coming from Country University Centres and also trial PREP calls to students ‘at offer’ rather than after they enrol in order to improve on the five per cent figure as the literature on retention is very clear on the excellent effects of early intervention.

Student feedback is overwhelmingly positive:

• I’m grateful to hear about the different support networks that UNE has and I’m really thankful for the call!  

• I was so nervous about my studies but by end of it I’m really excited to begin.  

• Many students express their appreciation of the PREP call as it is informative, friendly and welcoming