Better Understanding Study Motivation and Module Choice

This project is concerned with identifying the reasons for falling new student registrations on a second-year History module with a view to supporting module teams in developing effective interventions. This will be achieved by investigating the ways in which students make choices about second year modules and identifying issues that may discourage new students from registering for modules, including, potentially, concerns about employability and career progression, diversity, and inclusion. 

The results of this project will be used to help module teams to identify the best ways to address falling new student registrations, and to develop materials and methods to support students making choices about their second-year modules. 

Project objectives: 

Although it can be easy to spot problems such as falling student numbers using quantitative data available to module teams, the reasons for some of the problems identified in this way are not always apparent. For example, the fall in new student registrations on the History module we are concerned with does not appear to reflect a more general trend of falling new student registrations for second-year History modules, or wider trends within the Faculty. As a result, this project aims to identify factors that might help us to explain the issue, and in turn, develop interventions to address it. 

This is a particularly challenging issue to investigate because it relates to choices made by prospective students of a module, which may relate to a variety of factors, including: qualification pathways, the ways in which students perceive the subject matter of the module, or related issues about employability, diversity, and inclusion.  

Research Questions: 

This project will address two central research questions: 

• What are the most effective methods of interpreting available quantitative data to understand the issue of falling new student registrations on a module?
• ​Aside from quantitative data analysis, what steps should be taken to further investigate and explain falling new student registrations on a module? 

By carrying out a multi-faceted investigation of potential reasons for falling student numbers on a second-year module, this project aims to develop a ‘cheat sheet’ or ‘tool kit’ that will support other module teams when investigating falling student registrations in future.