University 1 improved retention rates: U1 director

Magally Zelaya, staff

The U of M’s nine-year-old University 1 program is successfully easing the transition from high school to university and improving retention rates, according to data recently presented at the first national conference on first-year student success held last month at Ottawa’s Carleton University.

University 1, the faculty that most first-year students automatically enroll in at the U of M, was initiated in 1998 and allows students to either focus on a program of choice or sample various courses.

Since 1998-99, the rate of first-year students who continue into the second year, termed “retention rate,” increased from 82 per cent to 86 per cent — a level that held constant until 2001-02, the last year for which data is available.

“I don’t have data past 2002, but I know it’s getting better. I can see it when I look at the recent data,” said Christine Blais, director of U1, who led the development of the presentation and is compiling the more recent data.

Using data from 2005-06, Blais found that a third of first-year U of M students faced academic difficulty, meaning that they earned a GPA below 2.0 — including 27 per cent of those who entered with A or A+ averages out of high school.

“I call it ‘Life gets in the way,’ ” said Blais.

She said first-year students tend to suffer from transitional issues associated with study skills, work, finances, relationships parental pressures, and medical problems.

Blais attributed the success of U1 to the variety of specialized programs it offers to support all first-year students, inlcuding programs for student-athletes, students who enter with averages below 70 per cent, students who are showing early signs of academic difficulty, students in academic difficulty, aboriginal students, and international students.

The U of M is the only university in Canada that offers the flexible first-year programming.

“For the last 30 years, the Americans have had a focus on first-year students because they realized that’s the hardest year for students to get through,” said Blais. “Canada is just discovering University 1 and how important that first year really is.”

At the University of Winnipeg, students choose their faculty straight out of high school and are then directly admitted into either the faculty of arts, science, business or education. Majors do not need to be declared until second year in all faculties except the Faculty of Education, where the student is already in a focused program.

“I like what U1 does with the focused and the balanced approaches,” said Colin Russell, the U of W’s registrar. “We’re working on that right now — to try and revamp our materials to make sure that we’re helping people.”

Russell added the U of W has the “potential for guidance” dependent on the extent to which students are able to access it.

“I like, personally, the way the University 1 website and the Startbook are designed to give people some direction, and we aim to do that.”

The U of W’s first-year to second-year retention rate is 77 per cent. Russell noted that many first-year U of W students transfer to the U of M for professional programs.

At Brandon University (BU), students are also directly admitted to their faculty of choice out of high school. Janet Wright, the university registrar, said that it’s not unusual for students to change their minds in their first year of study, but added that it is not difficult to transfer credits over.

Wright said BU also offers a wide variety of supports including orientations and seminars to its first-year students.

“University 1 is a fine program: it offers the supports, the workshops,” she said. “But other institutions do as well.”

“I think it all comes down to advisement and students seeking help.”