Early warning systems for more effective student counselling in higher education: Evidence from a Dutch field experiment

Abstract Early Warning Systems (EWS) in higher education accommodate student counsellors by identifying at‐risk students and allow them to intervene in a timely manner to prevent student dropout. This study evaluates an EWS that shares student‐specific risk information with student counsellors, which was implemented at a large Dutch university. A randomised field experiment was conducted to estimate the effect of EWS‐assisted counselling on first‐year student dropout and academic performance. The results show that the EWS accurately predicts at‐risk students. Yet, EWS‐assisted counselling did... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Plak, Simone
Cornelisz, Ilja
Meeter, Martijn
van Klaveren, Chris
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
Reihe/Periodikum: Higher Education Quarterly ; volume 76, issue 1, page 131-152 ; ISSN 0951-5224 1468-2273
Verlag/Hrsg.: Wiley
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27467869
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12298

Abstract Early Warning Systems (EWS) in higher education accommodate student counsellors by identifying at‐risk students and allow them to intervene in a timely manner to prevent student dropout. This study evaluates an EWS that shares student‐specific risk information with student counsellors, which was implemented at a large Dutch university. A randomised field experiment was conducted to estimate the effect of EWS‐assisted counselling on first‐year student dropout and academic performance. The results show that the EWS accurately predicts at‐risk students. Yet, EWS‐assisted counselling did not reduce dropout, nor improved academic performance. Solving the underlying problem of poor academic performance might require additional actionable feedback and recommended counselling practices.