Analysis of completion and retention of a graduate diploma

Abstract or Summary

Programme management appears to be becoming more "professionalised" in the ITP sector in order to meet several TEC expectations (2007), such as high student success rates. NACCQ, operating under ITPNZ, manages several qualifications and associated practices. McCarthy (2007) raised the matter of retention, covering work of Scott (2005) and others, but no papers followed since at the annual NACCQ conference. This paper presents a case experience at one institution towards further work on this very important matter. We are reporting our experience in analysing data for the management of student success in one programme with very high International student numbers, where the Code of Practice for the Pastoral care of International Students (2003) also apply. We noticed overall good pass rates, but also a tendency for students to fail either no or most modules and relationship between attendance and pass rates. We especially became aware of the need to take more than an elementary on-the-surface look at data, as it could be very misleading and unsatisfactory for everybody involved. More formal research can now be planned. We believe our insights and process would be useful to others even though it does not sit in the framework of ICT teaching contents proposed by Simon (2007) and used by Simon et at (2008) when profiling NACCQ conference papers 2000-2007.