The ‘Otago Experience’: Insights Gained from the Otago Millennium Graduate Project

The ‘Otago Experience’:Insights Gained from the Otago

Millennium Graduate Project

Rachel Spronken-Smith, Nell Buissink-Smith, Gabrielle Grigg and Tony Harland

Higher Education Development CentreUniversity of Otago

Outline• Aims and rationale• Research methods• Background• Otago as a positive

experience• Views on the purpose of higher education• The ‘Otago Package’• Implications • Conclusion

The Otago Millennium Graduate Project

Aims - to explore:

• Views on the purpose of higher education

• Educational experiences at the University of Otago

• The impact of a higher education

The Otago Millennium Graduate Project

Rationale:

• Graduates today experience “a new kind of higher education and come and go into a new kind of society,” and the expectations students have of higher education are undergoing radical change (Scott, 1997:44)

• Paucity of qualitative research into the perceptions of graduates on their higher education experience and its impact on their life post-university

• What is the Otago experience?

Quality learning at UO(Teaching and Learning Plan 1996)

“The University of Otago is committed to scholarship through excellence in teaching, research and service to local, regional, national and international communities and to providing a stimulating campus environment in which students students from all sections of the community may develop lifelong learning skills” (Mission Statement, Annual Report 1996)

Four dimensions of quality learning for a rounded educational experience:

Disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge, skills and attitudes Understanding Ethical and social implications Lifelong learning

Research Methods

Cohort - Science and Humanities graduates in year 2000 = ‘Millennium Graduates’

Mixed methods– Surveys– In-depth interviews

Longitudinal study– Re-contact every 5 years

Surveys Would you recommend the

UO experience to others? Please discuss what

experiences you found positive or negative while at UO

Please describe and explain the UO learning experiences that impact on your life now

Overall, did you find attending UO worthwhile?

Using hindsight, if you could go back to UO and do your degree again, what would you do differently?

Graduated lately?

Got something to say?

Interviews What do you think is the

purpose of a university education?

What were your experiences at Otago?– What aspects of teaching

and learning stand out for you?

– Can you give me a specific example of a classroom experience?

Did your experiences meet your expectations?

How do you think your university experience has equipped you for work and life?

NZgrads2000(%)

UOgrads2000(%)

Sample(% /1111)

Response(% /134)

Interviewees(% /24)

Female 60 55 64 75 67Male 40 45 36 25 33NZ students 91 90 - 92Internationalstudents

8 10 - 8

Mature 22 17Schoolleavers

78 83

Demographics of survey respondents and interviewees

Sample(% /1111)

Response(% /134)

Interviewees(% /24)

BA 29.4 29.3 23.3BMus 0.4 0.6 3.3BDiv 0.25 - -BTheo 0.9 1.6 -BEd 14.8 17.3 13.3BTeach 0.33 - -BLaws 11.1 10.1 13.3BPhEd 11.6 9.6 6.6BSurv 3.7 1.6 -BSc 27.3 21.5 26.6BCom * - 8.4 13.3

*Not included in original sample but features due to double degree graduates

Types of degrees

Background to the Millennium Graduates

Survey results: Otago as a positive experience

Almost unanimous in positive view of Otago

96% would recommend Otago (same as Graduate Opinion Survey, 2001)

92% thought their education was worthwhile– Education gained (32%)– Friendships made (23%)– Life experiences (17%)– Student lifestyle and campus (14%) – Qualification gained or resulting

career (14%)

What graduates chose to say…Positive experiences Negative experiences

Social life, friendships (45%) No negatives (26%)Staff (knowledgeable, supportive,approachable, friendly) (38%)

Fees & cost of living (15%)

Campus & Dunedin environment(35%)

Poor teaching (12%)

Student lifestyle/community/culture(24%)

Cold and poor quality flats (10%)

Quality of education (20%) Poor career/course choice advice(9%)

Halls of Residence (14%) Bad weather (9%)Resources & facilities (14%) Rundown/cramped facilities and

resources (7%)Variety of courses & papers (14%) Student drinking culture (5%)Events and entertainment (13%)

Areas identified by graduates to describe the impact of their University education

Gained transferable skills(41%)

Learned life’s lessons (20%)

Research skills gained(19%)

Gained self-confidence andself esteem (12%)

Led to a job or career(19%)

Critically aware/ critical thinking(11%)

Socialising/friendships(18%)

Changed outlook on the world(9%)

Education gained (17%) Stimulated interest in topics(8%)

What would they do differently?

Only 9% were happy with their choices and would make no changes

Of the others:– Study different subjects (26%)– Do a different degree (15%)– Study harder (20%)– Socialise more (8%)– Seek better careers guidance (7%)

Interviews: Views on the purpose of higher education

JOB- ORIENTATED

CredentialismTransferable skills

(e.g. communication)Less self-fulfilled

‘Narrow’ benefits to society

Degree as ‘external’

‘Craig’ ‘Steve’

‘Sam’

‘Nick’

LEARNING- ORIENTATED

CredentialismTransferable skills plus

liberal values More self-fulfilled‘Wider’ benefits to

society Degree as ‘internal’

“The night I got [my degree] I dropped it down the back of the fireplace, and I was distraught, so I really did love that piece of paper. So I pulled this fireplace out and luckily it had slipped back down, and I got it. Along with a button that said: vote for Nixon. Which was kind of cool.” [Craig]

Purpose of higher education - job-orientated

Craig: “I think basically a degree should just be physical evidence that you’ve done these courses and you’ve obtained this knowledge and you’d be a useful person to employ”

Julie: “nowdays [the purpose of a university

education] it’s a big foot in the door to get a job… in the back of my mind a degree meant you got a job at the end of it.”

Purpose: job learning-orientated

Sam

“So at 18 it was purely a bit of paper. Everyone else was doing it and I’d get a job… When I was 24, it was well I’m here to learn so I should actually apply myself…and hey, I’ve got some pretty good skills now that I can cross over into, anything specific.”

Purpose: learning job-orientatedNick - initially thought that higher education: “should exist to serve some higher understanding and

knowledge and the outcomes that come from that should be self-fulfilling.”

- But now sees the purpose of higher education as:“keeping up [with] the pack because nowdays an

undergraduate degree is a commodity…employers would expect that.”

Purpose - learning-orientated

Steve

“(university is about…) growing as an individual, the way a person thinks and how they process information and look at the outside world…The breadth of knowledge instilled by the Arts department truly prepared me for anything. More importantly, they taught me to think, to question and to criticise: those are some of the most important aspects of my professional life”

Barbara: - “to open up new worlds of ideas and study… to show people

how studying can actually be rewarding in itself and for its own reasons, not for any particular job or anything like that… it will prepare me for being a lifelong student.”

Kiri: - has two distinct views on the purpose of higher education: to

gain a qualification that is relevant to obtaining a job; and to give something back to society.

She related a Maori saying “He mana e matauranga, with education, you’re able to have prestige and some may say, power, but you also have a duty, perhaps, to give back as well, to use your education for the benefit of other people.”

Why the variation in views? Of the 24

interviewees: 6 117

none moderate high

Job-orientated Learning-orientatedJob-orientated Learning-orientated

Parental cultural capital

Socio-cultural context

Cultural capital (parental)

Expectations of a university education

Curriculum & learning experiences

Sam, Craig

Sam

Nick, Steve

Nick

Craig SteveNick, Sam

Job-orientated Learning-orientatedJob-orientated Learning-orientated

Strong Otago Strong Otago identity & loyaltyidentity & loyalty

Positive experiencePositive experience

Positive educational Positive educational outcomesoutcomes

Social experience Social experience can outweigh can outweigh short-comings short-comings in curriculumin curriculum

The “Otago Package”Jamie “It’s unbelievable how good it is. It’s just an automatic

interest as soon as you mention that you’re an Otago University [graduate] and there’s an automatic warmth towards you that I just experience all the time. It’s sort of on the same level as you experience about being a New Zealander overseas. People tend to like New Zealanders and I get exactly the same experience from people in New Zealand about Otago.”

Implications for teaching staff and management: Best aspects

UO can provide a quality education and social experience that is highly valued

Student lifestyle Halls of Residence ‘Town and gown’

relationship Quality of teaching

Implications for teaching staff and management: Areas of concern

Differing views on the purposes of a higher education (meeting needs or changing expectations)

Not all graduates are exhibiting evidence of the four dimensions of quality learning - loss of liberal values

Lack of quality guidance Fees and burgeoning student debt ‘Town and gown’ issues

Conclusions• Otago offers an educational package that is highly valued.• However, the situation is extremely complex:

• Surveys - showed satisfaction • Interviews - showed the individual nature of the experience

• Broadly, graduates were orientated along a continuum from a job-focused to a learning-focused orientation. These views were based on experiences at Otago and five years of life post-university.

• Are we happy that we are producing some graduates with a very narrow educational experience? What are academics’ views?

• What do we do about cultural capital? • Need for improvement in quality guidance so students are clear about

what a university degree can offer them• Need to provide extra-curricula activities and peer support

• How can we ensure curricula embrace both liberal values and develop transferable skills?