AMOSSHE is 20: the role of Student Services and support in attaining commuter students

Aims and objectives

The purpose of this project at Kingston is to achieve the following, in partnership with students and staff from within different departments of the university:

• To create a visual map/representation of Kingston University students based on their home and term time location, which is easily accessible and interpretable. This will then allow the university to focus on particular areas and routes in the local/London area for continuous engagement. Creating an infographic will not only enhance Kingston’s ability to see patterns and trends, but it can easily be replicated by other universities and leave an impact on how the sector deals with recruitment, retention and engagement.
• To review the current literature that is available from both the UK and USA with regards to commuter students, in order to spot trends, identify synergies or differences and make recommendations for Kingston and the sector, on how to support, develop and engage this large group of students throughout their student journey. This will also feed into the work being undertaken on Kingston's student retention strategy.
• To create and develop materials that inform commuting students (and their parents, local colleges, and so on) about the support that is available from a university, from the point of thinking about applying to university to graduating.
• To research into and create a framework for a peer to peer commuter buddy scheme.

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Methodology

The driver behind this project is the Student Engagement and Enhancement team. They have recently embarked on project work relating to retention and commuter students. The project also provides a great opportunity for Kingston's Higher Education Graduate Trainee to lead on a project that will leave an impact both locally and nationally. Kingston aims to recruit students as paid interns to support the Graduate Trainee with activities such as:

• Carrying out Sound Board and Timeline Activities (Here Project/What works?) to inform further activities for engagement and the materials we need to create. These are interactive activities that promote open conversation between students and staff to gain insight, produce solutions to issues and problems and inform strategy.
• Supporting the literature review for both the buddy scheme and commuter literature.

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Intended outputs

The project aims to produce the following:

• An infographic (with support from the Student Management and Information team and Planning team).
• Interactive tools (such as videos, soundbites, website, social media platforms).
• Recommendations for the Retention Strategy and projected outcomes to take forward for when the project comes to an end.

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