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Catrin Rutland
Catrin Rutland
ABSTRACT
The first year of university is critical in shaping persistence decisions (whether students continue with and
complete their degrees) and plays a formative role in influencing student attitudes and approaches to learning.
Previous educational experiences, especially previous university education, shape the students’ ability to adapt to
the university environment and the study approaches they require to perform well in highly demanding profes-
sional programs such as medicine and veterinary medicine. The aim of this research was to explore the support
mechanisms, academic achievements, and perception of students with different educational backgrounds in their
first year of veterinary school. Using questionnaire data and examination grades, the effects upon perceptions,
needs, and educational attainment in first-year students with and without prior university experience were
analyzed to enable an in-depth understanding of their needs. Our findings show that school leavers (successfully
completed secondary education, but no prior university experience) were outperformed in early exams by those
who had previously graduated from university (even from unrelated degrees). Large variations in student percep-
tions and support needs were discovered between the two groups: graduate students perceived the difficulty and
workload as less challenging and valued financial and IT support. Each student is an individual, but ensuring that
universities understand their students and provide both academic and non-academic support is essential. This
research explores the needs of veterinary students and offers insights into continued provision of support and
improvements that can be made to help students achieve their potential and allow informed ‘‘Best Practice.’’
Key words: veterinary students, assessment, student support, transition to university, graduate students,
school leavers
old.8 This was confirmed in the statistics for British veter- academic staff member. The numbers of prospective stu-
inary science degrees in 1995: 100% of students under 21 dents at each stage are shown in Table 1.
received a ‘‘good’’ degree (first-class honors or second- Student performance—In the first year of the program,
class honors, upper division), but this figure dropped to students performed summative assessments in all modules
76.6% in the 21–25 age group and increased again to within a systems-based teaching curriculum. Teaching
100% in the 26–30 year old group.9 Figures were not consisted of four block modules (Musculoskeletal [MSK],
available for veterinary medicine, however medicine and Lymphoreticular Cell Biology [LCB], Cardiorespiratory
dentistry showed that numbers attaining a ‘‘good’’ de- [CRS], Neuroscience [NEU]) and two long modules (Ani-
gree decreased with age: 89.5% for the under 21s, 88.4% mal Health and Welfare [AHW] and Personal and Pro-
in the 21–25 group, 63.6% for the 26–30 group, and fessional skills [PPS]). Except for PPS, all modules were
66.7% for those aged 31–40.9 In contrast, other general assessed online by multiple- and extended-choice ques-
studies have suggested an increase in attainment until tions (66%), short-answer examinations (spot tests, 33%),
36–40 years of age, with a decline thereafter.10 In the and assessment of practical skills through objective struc-
medical field, very few studies have compared the aca- tured practical examinations (OSPE, pass/fail). PPS was
demic performance of graduate students and school leavers assessed through coursework (100%), a portfolio (pass/
(defined as those who successfully completed secondary fail), and a skills diary (pass/fail). There were two assess-
and further education, but who had no prior university ment points: the first two modules, MSK and LCB, were
experience) in the same curriculum. Most studies focus assessed in January in the first week of the academic term,
on the accelerated graduate entry programs (GEP) in and the other modules, as well as all OSPEs, were
comparison to the traditional medical degree program, assessed at the end of the academic year (June). Prior to
where program type and admission selection rather than the summative assessments, students had the opportunity
graduate student attributes may explain differences.11–13 to participate in formative assessments covering all assess-
Staff often feel that graduate students may need less ment methodologies used.
assistance or guidance as they have already experienced Examination results were analyzed and the performance
the transition to university.8–10 However, the workload of graduate students was compared to the performance
and structure of medical or veterinary degree programs of school leavers: (1) overall year 1, (2) each module, (3)
might constitute a very different and still very challeng- computer-based assessment and spot test for all modules
ing experience, especially if students must work part- (except PPS), (4) number of re-sits (retaking an examina-
time to finance the program. Therefore it is important to tion after a failure), and (5) number of students who
understand the perceptions and needs of students with failed to progress after a re-sit. Admission into the uni-
degrees and also to understand whether they achieve versity was via one of three routes: preliminary year,
the same grades as school/college leavers. The aim of straight into first year, or ‘‘gateway’’ year. The university
this study is to investigate the impact of prior education ‘‘preliminary year’’ in veterinary studies required AAB
on students’ academic performance, perception of the first grades from any A-level subjects but was specifically for
year of the veterinary medicine and science program, and students who did not take A-level biology or chemistry.
support requirements. Students accepted into the first year had achieved A-level
grades including A for biology, A for chemistry, and at
MATERIALS AND METHODS least B in any other subject excluding general studies.
Student cohort—The student cohort in the 5-year BVMBVS The ‘‘gateway’’ further education college program required
with integrated BVMedSci at The University of Nottingham grades B, B, and C at A level and students were taught
consisted of 109 students. To gain entrance into the veter- in a different location from the veterinary school. The
inary school, all students applied through the British ‘‘preliminary year’’ students were taught within the
UCAS system and completed a questionnaire specific higher-education environment of the veterinary school
to this veterinary school. All students were either inter- and were grouped with the graduate students because
viewed in a three-part interview process (interview with they had experience with the university lifestyle and
academic and clinical staff, practical aptitude test, and education system before starting the veterinary degree.
team-working task) or in a telephone interview (for some School leavers were defined as those who had success-
international students) with a basic scientific and clinical fully completed secondary and further education, but had
no prior university experience. A-level grades achievable
are A * –E and unclassified (fail). A unified marking in general/subjects studied/previous degrees, etc.) pre-
scheme is used to compensate for examination paper dif- pared you for this year,’’ ‘‘What could be improved in
ficulty. The maximum points available are 600. A * repre- terms of the support given to students?’’ and ‘‘Please
sents 480 points or above plus over 90% of unified marks give any further comments regarding your experiences
in a set number of examination papers; A is 480 points or this year and the support systems in place.’’ The linear
above; B is 420–479 points; and C is 360–419 points. visual analogue scale responses were measured manually
Questionnaire—A voluntary questionnaire was given by ruler. The support systems that students evaluated are
to all students in the final term of the first year as part of shown in Table 3 and consisted of those offered by the
a PPS teaching session. The Human Subjects Institutional veterinary school, those offered through peer interactions,
Review Board approved the study and the questionnaire. and those offered as general services by the university.
All questions and the student responses are summarized Statistical analysis—Cronbach’s alpha was determined
in Tables 2 and 3. Students were asked (1) to evaluate to measure the internal consistency of the questionnaire,
a number of statements with regards to their first-year and thereby its reliability. Questionnaire responses and
experience (adapted from Powers et al.14 on a linear assessment results of graduates and non-graduates were
visual analogue scale from 0–100 mm, thus ensuring compared using the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U
that a continuum is provided rather than discrete jumps) test, two tailed with 95% confidence interval. P values of
from strongly agree to strongly disagree (the neutral mid- less than .05 were deemed significant.
point was marked); (2) to evaluate a range of support
services (peer, veterinary school, and university support) RESULTS
on a linear visual analogue scale (0–100 mm) from very
important to not important at all (the neutral midpoint was Impact of Admission Process on Student
marked); and (3) to complete a number of open questions Cohort
including ‘‘Please add any further comments you have Of the 1,366 applicants to the 5-year BVMBVS with in-
about how well your prior experience of education (school tegrated BVMedSci, 11% (155) were classified as graduates
and 89% (1,211) as school leavers. Of the 304 applicants able’’ and that they were ‘‘satisfied with [their] progress
invited to interview, 5% (14) were graduate students. Of in learning the knowledge and skills required for a veter-
the 133 offers made, 8% (10) were to graduate students. inary medicine degree.’’
The final BVMBVS cohort contained 23% (26) graduate School leavers were more likely to feel that the pro-
students from 111 students. In addition to the 10 graduate gram was too hard for their ability (median ¼ 72.5 for
students selected at interview, 16 students were admitted graduates vs. 56 for school leavers, p ¼ .01; medians cal-
from the preliminary program, located at University of culated from a visual analogue scale, 0–100 mm from
Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, 0 ¼ strongly agree to 100 ¼ strongly disagree; all ranges are
and were grouped together with the graduate students. shown in corresponding Tables 2 and 3). School leavers
Five students were admitted from the gateway program were less likely to agree that they had relatively little dif-
and were considered to have school/college leaver status. ficulty understanding course material (median ¼ 39.5 for
Two non-graduates deferred entry. These data are also school leavers vs. 50 for graduates, p < .001). Despite the
shown in Table 1. higher number of school leavers finding the work more
difficult, it was clear that school leavers felt that their
Perception of First-Year Experience According school experience had prepared them well for studying
at university in comparison to graduates (median ¼ 39
to Previous Education
for school leavers vs. 21 for graduates, p ¼ .01). There
The return rate for the questionnaires was 94% (103 out
were no comments pertaining to how the students felt
of 109 students), however not all students answered all
that school had prepared them, whether they were think-
questions. The estimated reliability (coefficient alpha) of
ing about academic, personal, organizational, or life skills
a composite score based on all 16 items was .62, which
(Table 2).
is higher than the acceptable values of .5.14,15 The cohort
Free-text answers illustrated that some students felt
responses regarding their first-year experience are sum-
strongly that school had not prepared them for university
marized in Table 2. The whole student cohort strongly
education. Student comments included the following:
agreed that they were ‘‘learning a lot,’’ felt ‘‘confident to
‘‘the sixth form way of teaching is different to university
participate in all tasks in practical teaching,’’ and ‘‘felt
and I don’t feel I was initially prepared by my sixth
overwhelmed by the workload.’’ They also strongly
form,’’ ‘‘school only scratched the surface of most topics
agreed that teaching was ‘‘usually clear and understand-
so I found a huge jump from what I knew to what I was
Tutor family 10 15
Senior tutors 11 * 11
Reception 5 3
Welfare officer 6 8
Welfare drop-in session 11 * 15
Extramural studies (EMS) placements office 1 1
Disability officer 11 * 14
Teaching, learning, and assessments (TLA) office 3 2
Peer support
Other students 2 6
Veterinary society (VetSoc) 9 12
University services
Academic support services 11 * 10
Counseling services 11 * 13
Financial support service 11 * 9
Student-IT helpdesk 8 4
Face-to-face IT support (library) 7 7
* These categories were ranked equally by the school-leaver group. Ranking data were extrapolated from the rating data given by the
students.
Numbers in bold indicate situations where school leaver and graduate ranking differed by four places or more.
DISCUSSION
First-Year Learning Experience and
Performance
Our study has clearly highlighted that in the first year of
a veterinary medicine degree, graduate students initially
perform better with significantly higher grades in the first
assessment point, leading to an overall grade for year
1 that is 10% (on average) higher than that of school
leavers. This supports the view that graduate students
are already familiar with the university environment and
with the study approaches required to perform well.
In the only study comparing academic performance of
gradate-entry medical students and school-leaver entry
medical students completing the same pre-clinical curric-
ulum and assessments, the study showed that graduate-
entry students performed significantly but only marginally
better than school leavers over all four bioscience knowl-
edge assessments.16 However, students were only included
in the study if they passed the subject on their first attempt,
with the reasoning that a fail may not reflect their academic
Figure 1: Examination grades in each of the modules in the ability but may be due to health or personal reasons.16 In
first year of study our study, all assessment performances were included,
*p < .05 (based on the Mann–Whitney U test, two tailed except for students with valid medical or personal exten-
with 95% confidence interval) uating circumstances who had their exam performance
annulled if failed. While a fail in first-year assessments
may not be a true reflection of the students’ knowledge,
had extenuating circumstances and their assessment re- if no extenuating circumstances are present, it very likely
sults were obtained from their first sit in the re-sit period reflects their difficulty in transitioning to the veterinary
(August). All students participated in the second assess- program, be it the difference in teaching delivery, inde-
ment point (June). pendent learning, workload, or the university environ-
We evaluated all examination grades (online and spot ment as a whole. Our data clearly show that graduate
test; Figure 1) from the six modules of the first year of students perform significantly better in the early assess-
the veterinary medicine degree program. The graduate ment point, but by the second assessment point, this
difference in assessment results is diminished. Some of factor. This is similar to the outcomes of a study compar-
this academic advantage may be due to prior obtained ing knowledge assessment outcomes between graduate
scientific knowledge but since this advantage is most students on a 4-year UK Graduate Entry Program (GEP)
likely at play in the early part of first year, it suggests for medicine with those of a conventional 5-year program,
that prior experience of tertiary education is an important showing that the GEP students performed significantly
cially important for graduate students who invest into a viders need to be aware of these differences to respond
very long secondary degree program with little opportu- and provide accordingly.
nity to work in lecture-free time due to work placements. Understanding the requirements and abilities of students
In a Finnish study of first-year student perceptions and who have prior university experience is very important.
performance in an macroscopic anatomy module (one Towards the end of first year, graduate students in our
of the first modules), prior university experience did study perceived transition into the highly demanding
not significantly improve performance but it did reduce veterinary degree program as easier with regards to course
stress levels.23 Even though many first-year students in material and prior knowledge. This difference between
countries such as the US already have degrees, their graduate students and school leavers was also reflected
experience of the university learning environment, the in assessment performance, with graduate students’ signif-
intensity of the course program, the time commitment, icantly better results in the early assessments leading to
and the large amount of information to learn and memo- significantly better grades at the end of year 1 even
rize can still be very challenging.24,25 The impact of this though the performance of both groups of students was
high workload may also reflect surface approaches to similar in the end-of-year assessments.
learning, which are negatively associated with grades
achieved in assessments.26
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A descriptive study like this one has some limitations
The authors would like to thank Debbie Coutts for collat-
that need to be acknowledged. This study was performed
ing information on cohort intake, the Teaching, Learning
in a UK university with the majority of students moving
and Assessment office for collating cohort examination
straight form secondary education to university, which is
grades, Mrs. Aziza Alibhai for assisting with ques-
common in European countries but different from coun-
tionnaire data, and Dr. Kate Cobb for intellectual input
tries such as the US, where students who enter veterinary
(University of Nottingham, School of Veterinary Medicine
medicine have already obtained an undergraduate degree.
and Science).
However, the recommendations for graduate students
will still be relevant. While there was a high return rate
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03559.x Catrin S. Rutland, BSc (hons), MSc, PhD, PGCHE, MMedSci,
Medline:20059678 SFHEA, FAS, is Assistant Professor in Anatomy and
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depression and anxiety in first-year veterinary students: Science, University of Nottingham, College Rd, Sutton Bonington
a preliminary report. J Vet Med Educ. 2006;33(3):432–40. Campus, Loughborough LE12 5PE, UK. Email:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/jvme.33.3.432 catrin.rutland@nottingham.ac.uk. Her research interests include
Medline:17035221 student welfare, support, and pedagogical experience, as well as
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Medline:18339964 College Rd, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough LE12 5PE,
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02680930210140257. Sabine Tötemeyer, Dipl Biol, PhD, PGCHE, SFHEA, MAHEd, is
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Innovation and Skills and Minister for Universities and Bonington Campus, Loughborough LE12 5PE, UK. Email:
Science; 2011 [cited 2016 May 4]. Available from: sabine.totemeyer@nottingham.ac.uk. Her research interests
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/ include admissions, the first-year experience, and student welfare.