Margo Blythman

Joined Up Policy: A Strategic Approach to Improving Retention in the UK Context.

This article outlines the development of interest in retention studies in Britain arising from a concern about the appropriate use of public money. It then describes the strategies being used to improve retention within the London Institute, a federation of five art and design focused colleges. Strategies described include study support, tutorial and professional development, including awareness raising, with academic staff. Many of these strategies have been developed in recent years in FE (community) colleges in Britain but our particular concern is to develop an overarching and interlinking strategy across a whole college rather than individual or sectional initiatives. This is what the British New Labour government calls “joined up policy.”

An Analysis of the Discourse of Study Support at the London Institute

In this chapter, we describe two approaches that exist in the UK framing discussions of student writing development in higher education. The first one is known as the ‘academic literacies’ approach and the second one can be referred to, as the ‘standards are falling’ approach. Our own research locates within the former paradigm. We then describe the context within which we work at the London Institute and we problematise the discourse that subject lecturers use to describe study support. The final section identifies the implications of our research.