Student Support Center
Preamble
We have an obligation to provide every student with the opportunity to get the maximum benefits possible from their KIMEP learning experience. A key objective of the CSS is to make continuous improvements in the quality of the KIMEP student learning experience. To achieve this ambition, our students need to be:
- challenged to achieve at their highest possible academic level; and
- supported if they fall behind, or are at risk of so doing.
Learning Support and Mentoring
Student Learning Support and mentoring is a crucial determinant of the success of our students. We need to understand how best to provide this support. This requires us to:
- Audit the existing student mentoring arrangements to ascertain usage.
- Survey majors in all CSS programs to ascertain their mentoring needs and preferences.
Now that Enrolment Management will provide an on-line course registration system that does not necessitate any prior student engagement with a faculty or professional advisor, CSS can concentrate its limited Learning Support and mentoring resources on:
- students who consider themselves to be in need of advice or mentoring;
- students who wish to withdraw from, and transfer into, a CSS program;
- students who are at risk of academic withdrawal;
- students who have special needs (such as physical disabilities or learning disorders); and
- students who are high academic achievers.
Students requesting advice or mentoring
We need to be able to provide timely program, major, minor and course advise prior to course registration deadlines to students who consider themselves to be in need of advice.
We also need to be able to indentify and assess the mentoring needs students who consider themselves to be in need of academic and other (perhaps linguistic, medical and social) support to enhance their ability to gain maximum benefit from their KIMEP learning experience.
Students wishing to withdraw from, and into, a CSS program
We need to be able to understand why students withdraw from, and transfer into, CSS programs. Thus we need to interview all students wishing to transfer from, or into, a CSS program. This will enable us to address the reasons for students their program transfer, so as to minimize transfer from, and maximize transfer to, CSS programs.
Students at risk of Academic Withdrawal
We need to identify and support, as appropriate, students who are considered to be at risk of Academic Withdrawal. Thus we must:
- review students’ GPA data, by program on a semester basis, to identify high-risk students;
- develop an “early alert” system that enables faculty to identify and gain support for students they consider to be at risk;
- interview all students identified to be at risk to ascertain the cause of their poor academic performance, so as to be able to a Personal Development Plan that involves encouraging them to seek out appropriate sources of support (perhaps, academic, linguistic, medical and social) to enhance their ability to improve their academic performance; and
- monitor the academic performance of at-risk students against their agreed Personal Development Plan.
We need to provide nominated faculty with training on how to mentor for high-risk students.
Students with special needs
We need to identify and support, as appropriate, students who have been classified by KIMEP as having special needs because of a physical disability or learning disorder. Thus we must:
- identify with the assistance of Enrolment Management and the Medical Center, a students with physical disability or learning disorder;
- interview all students so identified, in order to ascertain the specific learning support they need and to develop an appropriate Personal Development Plan that involves appropriate sources of support (perhaps, academic, linguistic, medical and social) to enhance their ability to gain maximum benefit from their KIMEP learning experience; and
- monitor the academic performance of at-risk students against their agreed Personal Development Plan.
High academic achievers
We need to identify and support, as appropriate, students who are high academic achievers, so as to ensure that they gain maximum benefit from their KIMEP learning experience in terms of their postgraduate and career expectations. Thus we must:
- review students’ GPA data, by program on a semester basis, to identify students performing at a high academic level;
- develop an “early alert” system that enables faculty to identify and gain support for students they consider to be performing at a high academic level;
- interview all students identified to be performing at a high academic level, so as to be able to a Personal Development Plan that involves (i) encouraging them undertake (a) undergraduate study abroad and (b) a master level course in their senior year; and (ii) prepare them, if they choose, for masters-level study at KIMEP leading to further study abroad, all of which will enhance the achievement of their postgraduate and career expectations; and
- monitor the academic performance of high-achieving students against their agreed Personal Development Plan.
Resourcing
To achieve this vision, CSS will require two staff to be assigned from the disbanded KIMEP Learning Support, Internship and Career unit. They would report directly to the Dean and work closely with the CSS Director of Student Recruitment and Retention.
9 March 2011
