Faculty of Engineering & Environment

Research submitted for:

The Link

Academic Year 2015/16

Niall Simpson

Usage and Interaction with the Link

Contents Page no.

Contents i

List of figures ii

1. Introduction 1

2. Research Questions 2

3. Methodology 3

3.1 Limitations 3

4. Results & Analysis 4

4.1 The total number of student interactions with The Link facility 4

4.2 The total number of student interactions by course that have 6 interacted with The Link facility

4.3 The total number of student interactions with The Link by 7 purpose of visit

4.4 The impact of The Link 8

5. Conclusion 9

List of figuresPage no.

Figure 1: The total number of students each month that have interacted with 4 The Link facility and the Northumbria University Engineering & Environment Placements team from 15th October 2015-March 23rd 2016.

Figure 2: The total number of student interactions by course that have used 6 The Link facility to engage with the Northumbria University Engineering & Environment Placements team

Figure 3: The total number of student interactions by purpose of visit that have 7 used The Link facility to engage with the Northumbria University Engineering & Environment Placements team

1. Introduction

The number of students studying within the Faculty of Engineering & Environment at Northumbria University who are currently on a sandwich year out placement for the academic year 2015/16 is 212. In comparison with the previous academic year 2014/15 (291) this was a decline. Therefore it became essential to find an alternate way to engage and re-connect with students to increase the number of students going on a sandwich year out placement for the academic year 2016/17. This lead to the creation of The Link as a facility. The Link aims to support the employability of our students through the delivery of high quality information and advice on work placements, other work related experience and study abroad. Its position at the end of Ellison Building, D/E Block provides a visible engagement centre, positioned next to the Zone with significant student footfall to maximise engagement. The target audience for The Link is enrolled 2nd year students within the Faculty of Engineering & Environment with the potential to do a sandwich year out placement during the 2016/17 academic year. However all students from the Faculty of Engineering & Environment will be engaged with.

Research on the number of students engaging with the Placements team via The Link has been captured over the last 5 months (15th October 2015-23rd March 2016). Data for engagement was recorded each day alongside with what course the student is enrolled on and what the student’s purpose for visiting was. This was categorised by CV & covering letter check, interview query, application form query, study abroad query, post graduate query or a general query about placements.

This report will outline the data for the total number of students which have engaged with The Link over the last 5 months. The report will then further break down the data into course categories and query categories to provide a clear focus on which students are engaging via The Link and how The Link is being used to engage with the students.

2. Research questions:

What is the total number of student interactions by course that have used The Link facility to engage with the Northumbria University Engineering & Environment Placements team?

What was the student’s purpose for visiting The Link?

3. Methodology

In order to record data for the total number of students by course that have used The Link facility to interact with the Northumbria University Engineering & Environment Placements team, the Placements team used a log book. Each visit by a student was recorded by date and purpose of visit via a hand written log kept within the entrance to The Link.

This data was then inputted into a spreadsheet after each month. The data was compiled within a table on the spreadsheet which highlights the total number of students on each course that had interacted with The Link facility for that month along with the purpose of visit. The data is visually presented using bar charts and line graphs clearly showing which courses are using and interacting with The Link. Each month new data was inputted into a new spreadsheet using the same process.

Tables were used to keep numerical counts on the total number of students which had interacted with The Link whilst also being able to break down the data into sub sections such as course and purpose of visit.

Bar charts were used in order to visually present the numerical data to highlight levels of interaction by course. The purpose of visually presenting data was to highlight courses with low levels of interaction in order for the Placements team to focus on providing more events within these course areas. Bar charts allow for the most common purposes of interactions to be highlighted. The purpose for this was for the Placements team to identify which topics to be most knowledgeable and qualified on. This in turn lead to members of the Placements team attending training courses such as post graduate funding training.

3.1 Limitations

During data collection there were limitations which may have impacted the final data collection to show a lower number of interactions than the actual number of interactions with The Link.

Semester and holiday breaks impact data collection. During semester breaks the probability of student interactions with The Link is low. This is because students may leave Newcastle upon Tyne to return to their home of residence. Students which are not in Newcastle upon Tyne will instead interact with the Placements team via email or social media to transcend physical space between them and The Link facility. Students which interact via email or social media are not recorded because they are not seen as physically interacting with The Link facility. During holiday breaks such as Christmas 2015 The Link was closed from the 24th December 2015– 4th January 2016. This would have impacted the results because students wanting to interact with The Link couldn’t.

The data is impacted also by Link closures. This could occur outside of office hours (9am-5pm Monday - Friday) in which the members of the Placement team do not work and The Link is physically shut. This limitation will further impact the data when members of the Placements team are off on annual or sick leave and The Link is left unattended. This may occur again if members of the Placements team are required to attend all staff briefings or faculty staff meetings. This in turn leads to the closure of The Link for a temporary period of time impacting negatively upon the data to produce a lower figure.

Data will be impacted by members of The Link having high workloads at certain times. A student interaction may not have not been recorded within the log due to forgetfulness and therefore are not represented on the final data count. Not all students who interact with The Link are asked which course they are enrolled on, this impacts the data results negatively because students from a course may have been interacting however it was not recorded. Upon visual presentation of the data this prompts the Placements team to focus on the incorrect course area.

The Link engages with external parties that are not students. This can range from external construction workers on campus, fellow colleagues within the university and external employers looking to recruit students. All parties that interact with The Link are not recorded unless they are students enrolled on a course with the Faculty of Engineering & Environment. When reviewing the data it is important to acknowledge the Placements team will have interacted with higher volumes of clients than presented.

Not all students who interact with The Link are recorded; this produces the final negative impact on the data collection. This is because students may interact with The Link in regards to something other than the actual purpose of The Link. Students often engage with The Link in regards to IT issues, lost or stolen property or for directions. The data produced therefore reveals a lower total number of student interactions because the data is strategically filtered so that the data represented is relevant.

4. Results and analysis

388 interactions were recorded, it was noted that the subject area that was most active is Geography & Environmental Management (113) 194 of the 388 interactions with The Link were for a CV and/or covering letter check, 169 interactions were general placement queries, 8 interactions were related to studying abroad, 8 interactions were to discuss interviews and 1 interaction was for advice on an application form.

4.1 The total number of student interactions with The Link facility

Figure 1 – The total number of students each month that have interacted with The Link facility and the Northumbria University Engineering & Environment Placements team from 15th October 2015-March 23rd 2016.

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The total number of student interactions with The Link

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Figure 1 reveals that the total number of student interactions started with a high level of interaction at 118 during the 15th October 2015- 15th November 2015. This began to decrease at a steady rate over the Christmas semester break, the figure reached as low as 19 student interactions over a month period. Post-Christmas semester break the total number of interactions began to rise again reaching a peak of 112 during January 19th 2016- February 24th 2016. Finally as the Easter semester break approached the total number of student interactions again began to decrease at a steady rate. It is currently undetermined as to how low this figure will be comparison with the Christmas semester break because the Easter semester break has just begun on the 18th March 2016.

Of the 388 total interactions, 118 took place from 15th October – 15th November 2015. This is the highest amount of interactions within a month period. Reasoning for this could be that upon the opening of The Link, the promotion of the facility appeared in various marketing publications, briefings, emails and adverts around campus. Students were encouraged by academics to visit the Placements team upon opening to organise placements from an early stage which would have resulted in higher amounts of interaction upon the opening of The Link.

From November 16th 2015-17th December 2015 there were 89 total interactions. The total number of interactions decreased at a steady rate during this month period. This is because the Christmas semester break began at the end of this month which represented a relatively high number of total interactions but failing to surpass the previous month because students had returned home for the break on the 11th December 2015. Therefore during data collection for this month there was a week of low total interactions impacted the results negatively. In addition to this, students have many assignment deadlines approach prior to the Christmas semester break and student interaction is predicted to be lower as students’ focus shifts to their academic studies.

From the 17th December 2015- 18th January 2016 the total number of interactions was 19. This is the lowest number of interactions during a month period since the beginning of the data collection. This is by reason of the Christmas semester break and so fewer students were on campus to interact with. Moreover The Link facility was closed from 24th December 2015– 4th January 2016 as a result of Christmas holiday breaks. This provided less interaction time for the students to engage with The Link facility which would have negatively impacted the final data representation.

During the time frame, 19th January 2016- 24th February 2016, the total number of student interactions increased swiftly to 112. This was a result of the beginning of semester 2 generating more students on campus, in addition to students prioritising their time on seeking placements because assessment deadlines had surpassed.

Finally from the 25th February 2016 – 23rd March 2016 there were a total of 50 student interactions with The Link. The data for this month is similar to the data from November 16th 2015-17th December 2015. This is a result of both month periods following a similar trend in regards to breaks in academic studies. As semester breaks approach the total number of interactions begins to decrease due to assignment deadlines and students returning home. Therefore the forecast prediction for the next month period will be that there will be a low total number of interactions.

4.2 The total number of student interactions by course that have interacted with The Link facility

Figure 2

The total number of student interactions by course that have used The Link facility to engage with the Northumbria University Engineering & Environment Placements team

Figure 2 shows the total number of student interactions with The Link broken down into course categories from the Faculty of Engineering & Environment. It is clear from the bar chart that there are a consistent total number of interactions across many of the course categories at around 13.

Geography & Environmental Management is clearly the category with the most student interactions. However this data isn’t completely relevant to the target audience. Many of the student interactions are from final year students studying the career development and work placement GE0358 module. This module is designed for students to attend a short term (70 hour) placement. The Link facility helped to advise on and provide placements to the students. It is acknowledged that a high amount of interactions will be repeat interactions.

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Total number of stuent interactions with The Link by course

Total number of interactions

There are 66 students on this module and the total number of interactions with Geography & Environmental Management nearly doubles this at 113.

Computing is another course category with a significantly higher amount of student interactions compared to the trend line of other courses. This could be explained by the fact that under the Computing course category there is 9 courses: Computer and Digital Forensics, Computer and Network Technology, Computer Animation and VFX, Computer Games Design and Production, Computer Games Programming, Computer Science, Digital and Computer Forensics, Ethical Hacking for Computer Security, Web Design and Development. Therefore this category has the potential to cover a lot more students than the others and could produce a high amount of data in comparison.

Finally the Other column has 39 total student interactions. This figure of data is calculated from student interactions whose course was not recorded or perhaps the student studied Architecture which, whilst in the Faculty Engineering & Environment, is not included in The Link facilities target audience because of it course structure.

4.3 The total number of student interactions with The Link by purpose of visit

Figure 3

The total number of student interactions by purpose of visit that have used The Link facility to engage with the Northumbria University Engineering & Environment Placements team

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The total number of student interactions with The Link by purpose of visit

Total number of interactions

Figure 3 represents the most common purposes of student interactions with The Link, which are CV & covering letter checks and also general placement queries. The total number of student interactions due to CV and covering letter checks is 194, this will be lower than its potential. This is because students are encouraged to either visit The Link or the library, to see the Careers department. Therefore the total number of student interactions for CV and covering letter checks is lower than its potential because students from Engineering & Environment will visit Careers to have their CV and covering letters checked instead of to The Link to interact with the Placements team.

There are a high number of general placement queries at 169. This is expected because not each purpose of visit or query can be separated into further sub sections as there were would be simply too many sub sections and thus any query regarding a placement is recorded in this subsection.

4.4 Impact of the link

The number of students who have secured a full-year placement or a study abroad opportunity for next academic year is up compared to the same time data recorded at the last year. In addition the number of students applying to engage in study abroad has increased by at least 50% already this year. The dedicated Link facility has had a positive impact on student engagement and participation with full-year and part-year placement, internship, study abroad and graduate recruitment. The dedicated space allows staff to be on hand to provide specialist support as required and provides a useful space for hosting events aimed at uniting students with employers and faculty specific drop-ins events.

One of the biggest challenges facing the Placements and Study Abroad Team is how to reach and engage students. Participation rates differ across programmes and there is concern about the lack of student engagement in certain areas as evidenced by attendance at company presentations, engagement with emails and ultimately application rates. The Link provides a focal point, a one stop shop that enhances client service. Students associate The Link with support for Placements and Study Abroad and have demonstrated its value by habitually using the facilities and resources. The fact that it is positioned next to the Zone and operates on a drop-in basis means that it can attract as many students as possible.

In order to engage with students, social media is being used to communicate with current students particularly Twitter and Facebook, and there is now a dedicated Faculty Placements page in operation. A dedicated Faculty wide E-Learning Portal exists for Placements and this is the main source of electronically available vacancies. Emails are sent from this platform and from the Faculty placement mailbox to Northumbria University accounts.

The plasma screens within The Link are also used to promote vacancies and events and posters and fliers are also used to advertise larger events e.g. the annual Employers Fair.

Placement staff also present to student groups during induction week, at placement awareness sessions and at outgoing briefing sessions. However the importance of academic staff in reaching students and endorsing the importance of Placements and Study Abroad is never underestimated.

5. Conclusion

The total number of student interactions that have used The Link facility to engage with the Northumbria University Engineering & Environment Placements team is 388 with the most interactive course category being Geography & Environmental Management with 113. The most common purpose of interaction with The Link was for CV and covering letter checks at 194 slowly followed by general placement queries at 169.

Overall there is a high number of interactions for The Link recorded, however there is the potential of some data not being recorded and it has been determined that over a 5 month period that there will have been around 50 student interactions not recorded in the data total, this further adds to the total number of student interactions to be predicted at 438.

To increase efficiency on recording data it is recommended the methodology change to avoid skewed data. The recommended change would be to use student card scanners each time a student interacts with The Link facility. This will input data electronically to spreadsheets quickly in order to increase efficiency and reliability of the data collection.

To summarise, The Link facility has been a success as it has currently helped 84 students secure a year out placement for the academic year 2016/17. In comparison with the previous academic year 2014/15 this is a higher figure. Last years recorded number of placements was at 55 at this time last year. The Link has also helped 61 final year Geography & Environmental Management students secure and approve of a 70 hour placement.