The

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The Otago ExperienceInsights Gained from the
Otago Millennium Graduate Project

• Rachel Spronken-Smith, Nell Buissink-Smith,
  Gabrielle Grigg and Tony Harland
• Higher Education Development Centre
• University of Otago

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Outline

• Aims and rationale
• Research methods
• Background
• Otago as a positive experience
• Views on the purpose
• of higher education
• The Otago Package
• Implications
• Conclusion

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The Otago Millennium Graduate Project

• Aims - to explore
• Views on the purpose of higher education
• Educational experiences at the University of
  Otago
• The impact of a higher education

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The Otago Millennium Graduate Project

• Rationale
• Graduates today experience a new kind of higher
  education and come and go into a new kind of
  society, and the expectations students have of
  higher education are undergoing radical change
  (Scott, 199744)
• Paucity of qualitative research into the
  perceptions of graduates on their higher
  education experience and its impact on their life
  post-university
• What is the Otago experience?

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Quality learning at UO(Teaching and Learning
Plan 1996)

• The University of Otago is committed to
  scholarship through excellence in teaching,
  research and service to local, regional, national
  and international communities and to providing a
  stimulating campus environment in which students
  students from all sections of the community may
  develop lifelong learning skills (Mission
  Statement, Annual Report 1996)
• Four dimensions of quality learning for a rounded
  educational experience
• Disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge,
  skills and attitudes
• Understanding
• Ethical and social implications
• Lifelong learning

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Research Methods

• Cohort - Science and Humanities graduates in year
  2000 Millennium Graduates
• Mixed methods
• Surveys
• In-depth interviews
• Longitudinal study
• Re-contact every 5 years

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Surveys

• Would you recommend the UO experience to others?
• Please discuss what experiences you found
  positive or negative while at UO
• Please describe and explain the UO learning
  experiences that impact on your life now
• Overall, did you find attending UO worthwhile?
• Using hindsight, if you could go back to UO and
  do your degree again, what would you do
  differently?

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Interviews

• What do you think is the purpose of a university
  education?
• What were your experiences at Otago?
• What aspects of teaching and learning stand out
  for you?
• Can you give me a specific example of a classroom
  experience?
• Did your experiences meet your expectations?
• How do you think your university experience has
  equipped you for work and life?

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Demographics of survey respondents and
interviewees
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Types of degrees
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Background to the Millennium Graduates
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Survey results Otago as a positive experience

• Almost unanimous in positive view of Otago
• 96 would recommend Otago (same as Graduate
  Opinion Survey, 2001)
• 92 thought their education was worthwhile
• Education gained (32)
• Friendships made (23)
• Life experiences (17)
• Student lifestyle and campus (14)
• Qualification gained or resulting career (14)

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What graduates chose to say
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Areas identified by graduates to describe the
impact of their University education
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What would they do differently?

• Only 9 were happy with their choices and would
  make no changes
• Of the others
• Study different subjects (26)
• Do a different degree (15)
• Study harder (20)
• Socialise more (8)
• Seek better careers guidance (7)

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Interviews Views on the purpose of higher
education
LEARNING- ORIENTATED Credentialism Transferable
skills plus liberal values More
self-fulfilled Wider benefits to society
Degree as internal
JOB- ORIENTATED Credentialism Transferable
skills (e.g. communication) Less
self-fulfilled Narrow benefits to society
Degree as external
Sam
Nick
Craig
Steve
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Purpose of higher education - job-orientated

• The night I got my degree I dropped it down
  the back of the fireplace, and I was distraught,
  so I really did love that piece of paper. So I
  pulled this fireplace out and luckily it had
  slipped back down, and I got it. Along with a
  button that said vote for Nixon. Which was kind
  of cool. Craig

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• Craig I think basically a degree should just be
  physical evidence that youve done these courses
  and youve obtained this knowledge and youd be a
  useful person to employ
• Julie
• nowdays the purpose of a university education
  its a big foot in the door to get a job in the
  back of my mind a degree meant you got a job at
  the end of it.

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Purpose job? learning-orientated

• Sam
• So at 18 it was purely a bit of paper. Everyone
  else was doing it and Id get a job When I was
  24, it was well Im here to learn so I should
  actually apply myselfand hey, Ive got some
  pretty good skills now that I can cross over
  into, anything specific.

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Purpose learning? job-orientated

• Nick
• - initially thought that higher education
• should exist to serve some higher understanding
  and knowledge and the outcomes that come from
  that should be self-fulfilling.
• - But now sees the purpose of higher education
  as
• keeping up with the pack because nowdays an
  undergraduate degree is a commodityemployers
  would expect that.

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Purpose - learning-orientated

• Steve
• (university is about) growing as an individual,
  the way a person thinks and how they process
  information and look at the outside worldThe
  breadth of knowledge instilled by the Arts
  department truly prepared me for anything. More
  importantly, they taught me to think, to question
  and to criticise those are some of the most
  important aspects of my professional life

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• Barbara
• - to open up new worlds of ideas and study to
  show people how studying can actually be
  rewarding in itself and for its own reasons, not
  for any particular job or anything like that it
  will prepare me for being a lifelong student.
• Kiri
• - has two distinct views on the purpose of higher
  education to gain a qualification that is
  relevant to obtaining a job and to give
  something back to society.
• She related a Maori saying He mana e
  matauranga, with education, youre able to have
  prestige and some may say, power, but you also
  have a duty, perhaps, to give back as well, to
  use your education for the benefit of other
  people.

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Why the variation in views?
Of the 24 interviewees 6
11
7
Job-orientated
Learning-orientated
Parental cultural capital
none moderate
high
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Socio-cultural context
Cultural capital (parental)
Expectations of a university education
Sam, Craig
Nick, Steve
Curriculum learning experiences
Sam
Nick
Job-orientated Learning-orientated
Craig
Steve
Nick, Sam
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Positive educational outcomes
Strong Otago identity loyalty
Social experience can outweigh short-comings
in curriculum
Positive experience
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The Otago Package

• Jamie
• Its unbelievable how good it is. Its just
  an automatic interest as soon as you mention that
  youre an Otago University graduate and theres
  an automatic warmth towards you that I just
  experience all the time. Its sort of on the
  same level as you experience about being a New
  Zealander overseas. People tend to like New
  Zealanders and I get exactly the same experience
  from people in New Zealand about Otago.

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Implications for teaching staff and management
Best aspects

• UO can provide a quality education and social
  experience that is highly valued
• Student lifestyle
• Halls of Residence
• Town and gown relationship
• Quality of teaching

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Implications for teaching staff and management
Areas of concern

• Differing views on the purposes of a higher
  education (meeting needs or changing
  expectations)
• Not all graduates are exhibiting evidence of the
  four dimensions of quality learning - loss of
  liberal values
• Lack of quality guidance
• Fees and burgeoning student debt
• Town and gown issues

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Conclusions

• Otago offers an educational package that is
  highly valued.
• However, the situation is extremely complex
• Surveys - showed satisfaction
• Interviews - showed the individual nature of the
  experience
• Broadly, graduates were orientated along a
  continuum from a job-focused to a
  learning-focused orientation. These views were
  based on experiences at Otago and five years of
  life post-university.
• Are we happy that we are producing some graduates
  with a very narrow educational experience? What
  are academics views?
• What do we do about cultural capital?
• Need for improvement in quality guidance so
  students are clear about what a university degree
  can offer them
• Need to provide extra-curricula activities and
  peer support
• How can we ensure curricula embrace both liberal
  values and develop transferable skills?