RESEARCH BRIEF: Understanding student attrition - Interviews

We are interested in understanding more about why students do not proceed with, or discontinue, their studies at Swinburne. This research is commissioned by Swinburne, and being undertaken by independent research consultancy, Campus Intuition.

Participation will take about 30 minutes of your time in the form of an interview.

Participants will be paid in the form of a $50 online visa card.

How does it work?

You can register your interest on the link in the email. We will then select a group of participants. We will email those selected to confirm your interest and someone at Campus Intuition will book in an interview with you. The interviews will be conducted on MS Teams.

When the interview is finished, we will organise the payment via the university.

This is entirely voluntary. You can pull out at any time.

What kind of questions will you ask?

The interviews are semi-structured, meaning that we have some areas we want to explore but will shape the questions as we talk with you. All feedback is relevant, whether you decided to discontinue before you started classes, or whether you had already commenced.

Some areas we will cover include:

• Why you initially chose Swinburne and what your experiences/ interactions were like during enrolment
• When you made the decision to discontinue and what influenced this decision
• What may have changed this decision for you
•  If relevant, initial impressions of the campus, staff and the university as a whole

What will my answers be used for?

Campus Intuition will conduct the interviews and analysis. They will then deliver a report and recommendations to the university.

Your answers will be used to analyse for key themes and patterns, helping answer the questions:

• Why do some students choose to discontinue their studies?
• Are there any groups at greater risk of discontinuing?
• Are there are interventions that would help students continue their studies?

How will my privacy be maintained?

The names of participants who register their interest will be sent to the university. An administrator will verify and extract some demographic information (such as the course you were enrolled in and the date you withdrew). These demographics will be used to select a mix of students for the interviews, and in the analysis.

Your answers will be anonymous. Your name will not be associated with any answers, but the demographic information will be used in the analysis to help us identify important patterns.  You can read about the treatment of data in the privacy policy here.

Who can I contact with questions?

Dr Samantha Hall, Principal Director, Campus Intuition

Email: sam@campusintuition.com

Samantha can answer queries regarding the research approach, questions, handling of data from the University and analysis/report

Dr Nadia Tavakoli, Project Manager, Swinburne University

Email: studentexperience@swin.edu.au

Nadia can answer queries regarding the project, Campus Intuition’s involvement, data handling by the University, project administration and payment