Counting and Analysing Student Trends at Unisa

10 December 2009

Prof George SubotzkyExecutive Director: Information & Strategic Analysis

Acknowledgements

The following staff members of DISA provided invaluable help and support in preparing the models :

– Herman Visser– Hanlie Liebenberg– Lerato Tladi– Yuraisha Chetty– Esme Wiid– Herbert Zemann– Pamela Pistorius

Background and Context

• Counting and analysing student trends at Unisa is not as straightforward as might be assumed

• Accordingly, it is important to clarify:– The analytic needs of the various academic

and support stakeholders– The appropriate business rules in each case

• To this end, DISA has prepared models for counting and analysing student trends

• These will be presented for stakeholder consultations early in 2010 so that the analyses can be conducted and disseminated as part of DISA’s annual calendarised workplan

Models for Counting & Analysing Student Trends

• Applications• Enrolments• Assessment: Active Students & Exam Results• Graduations

Counting & Analysing Student Trends: 4 kinds of

counts• Headcount: – Unduplicated count of each individual

student –irrespective of how many qualifications or courses s/he is registered for

– This is the basic count of the number of students

• Qualification count:– Count of each individual students

according to qualifications for which s/he is registered

– This is useful and applicable for the colleges

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Counting & Analysing Student Trends: 4 kinds of

counts• Course count:– Count of how many students registered for each

course– This counts each student more than once according

to how many courses s/he is registered for and is therefore higher than the HC

– This is useful for the colleges, departments and operations

• FTE:– This calculates each student’s course load as a ratio

of a full-time load, thus indicating the extent of full-time study

– Eg: A student taking 5 modules in a qualification in which 10 modules per year is regarded as full-time, s/he counts as ,5 FTE

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Counting Students

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Registration

Temporary

Provisional HC, QC & CC Enrolments (“Registered”)

FormalRegistered Cancellations

Provisional

HEMIS Cancelled +Non-Active

HEMIS Active

CC, FTE, TIUQC, HC

Re-instatements

Provisional CC Enr

DoHETReporting &

Subsidy

Non-formal

Official HEMIS submissions of headcounts & FTEs to DoE based on

census days:1st Submission (31 Oct): Preliminary2nd Submission (30 Apr): Preliminary3rd Submission (31 July): Final Audited

• Provisional headcounts and coursecounts of registrations/enrolments from opening of registration in December on• Previous year’s figures are updated as a result of subsequent cancellations

Gross Enrolments

Admitted

CNon-Active

Nett Enrolments

CAbsentWrote

Results Out.

FailSup. AdmittedPass

CSASW

SRO SFSPDrop Out

Re-registration(Repeaters+

Stopouts)

Re-instatement

CNotAdmitted

Attrition

Course Attrition Rate= (CA + NA + Abs)/Gross Enrolments

“Attrition View”:Purpose – track attrition

Course Success Rate= Passed/Nett Enrolments

“Retention View”:Purpose – track success & retention

Exam Results Metrics

4 Key IndicatorsKey Counts

Exam Pass Rate= Passed/Wrote

“Sitting View”:Purpose – review assessment tool

Degree Credit Success Rate= WFTEs/Nett Enrolments

“Subsidy View”:Purpose – track subsidy income

Gross EnrolmentsCancellations & Non-Active Nett Enrolments

1 237 998 57 898 1 180 100100,00% 4,68% 95,32%

Active Cancellations Exam Not Admitted Exam Admitted1 180 100 10 422 3 451 1 166 227

100,00% 0,88% 0,29% 98,82%

Exam Absent Exam Cancellations Exam Absent (2nd opport) Exam Wrote Exam Survival Rate Exam Attrition Rate1 166 227 70 428 30 2 330 1 093 439

100,00% 6,04% 0,00% 0,20% 93,76% 92,66% 7,22%Exam Passed Exam Failed Exam Result Outstanding Suppl Exam Admitted

1 093 439 614 891 316 212 1 551 160 785100,00% 56,23% 28,92% 0,14% 14,70%

Suppl Cancelled Suppl Exam Absent Suppl Exam Absent (2nd opport) Suppl Exam Wrote 160 785 2 55 740 4 329 100 714100,00% 0,00% 34,67% 2,69% 62,64%

Suppl Exam Passed Suppl Exam Failed Suppl Exam Result Outstanding 100 714 50 151 50 537 26100,00% 49,80% 50,18% 0,03%

Exam Pass Rate Suppl Pass Rate Combined Pass Rate Course Success Rate Gross Survival RateDegree Credit Success Rate

56,23% 49,80% 55,69% 56,35% 53,72% 54,89%

Spreadsheet Model

Total Number Of Final Year Students Sitting For Exams

Gross Graduands

Confirmation of Completion: Not

admitted

Graduation Ceremony

Confirmation of completion: Admitted

Confirmation of Completion: Postal(non-ceremony)

AbsentAttend

NettGraduands

Attend(Conferred

)

Postal (Absentia

)

Non-Ceremony

Postal(Non-Ceremony)

Gross Applications Research Masters and Doctoral

S1, Y1, Honours, Btech, Structured

MastersS2

Nett ApplicationsStudent No Issued

Gross ApplicationsStudent No Issued

Unsuccessful

Applications Model