University of Bolton asked to improve by Office for Students

The university has been asked by the Office for Students to improve its drop out rates for undergraduate and post-graduate courses.

It has also been asked to improve on the number of students getting jobs and or moving to postgraduate study from PGCE teaching courses.

The Office for Students is an independent public body reporting to the Department for Education. It aims to ensure students get the results they want from their universities.

Figures published in March 2018 by the Higher Education Statistics Agency showed the University of Bolton had a drop-out rate of 17 per cent, losing 130 of its 755 full-time entrants in the academic year 2015/16.

This is the second highest drop out rate in the country, behind only London Metropolitan University, with a rate of 19.5 per cent.

89.7 per cent of those who quit their studies at the University of Bolton did not return to high education.

Nationally the number of drop-outs at university has increased.

The Office for Students has told the university their statistics mean they are “at an increased risk” of breaching a condition of registering with them.

The condition, that the university “provide successful outcomes for all of its students” which are “valued by employers and/or enable further study”, is a standard of quality that the Office for Students asks institutions to meet.

Dr Kondal Reddy Kandadi, Pro Vice Chancellor at the university, said: “The University of Bolton welcomes the new approach of the OfS to improve the key areas of student outcomes, including student retention, graduate employment and student satisfaction, across the higher education sector.

“The university is successfully registered with the OfS and is working closely to achieve continual improvements in these metrics.

“We have deployed a strategic and holistic approach for the sustainable improvement of student retention through the overall enhancement of our course portfolio, student experience, learning infrastructure, student engagement and individualised support provision.

“This holistic approach is now showing positive results and the university’s student retention and satisfaction has been improving over the past two years.

“The current retention metrics data available publicly is historical, and relates to the entrants in the 2015-16 academic year.

“These metrics do not take into account the recent improvements in student retention and overall student satisfaction achieved by the university.

“For example, our student satisfaction rates across the university, based on the latest data (NSS Scores 2018), show significant improvements when compared regionally and nationally.

“The university has exceeded its sector benchmark for overall student satisfaction and has been number one in Greater Manchester for the recent two consecutive years.

“Through its improvement plan to the OfS, the university is committed to achieve further improvements in student continuation, completion and employment outcomes with strategic investments in additional staff, student learning infrastructure, individualised support provision, industry collaborations and employability skills development.”