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    Managing Academic Performance
    Managing Academic Performance
    Managing Academic Performance
    Ebook33 pages17 minutes

    Managing Academic Performance

    By Alasdair White

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    During their academic careers, students go through a series of major changes and entering university is one of the most significant. From primary school through to the end of secondary school, they have been in a ‘protected environment’ under the control of teachers; at home, they will have had parental guidance and support; and within their local community they will have developed friends and a social life. Going to university changes all this. From being in a controlled predetermined learning environment and living within a supportive social context, the student is suddenly faced with an academic environment that demands much greater independence and personal responsibility, while at the same time having to cope with a radically changed and possibly much less supportive social context. Ill-prepared and ill-equipped to manage the changes facing them, students struggle and it is not surprising, therefore, that universities find themselves faced with a significant ‘dropout rate’ in the first year that, in the UK, averages 22% and ranges up to and in excess of 40%. And the problem is repeated across Europe, North America and Australia.

    The author contends that the dropout rate is a symptom of the failure by universities to adequately manage the students’ transition between secondary and tertiary education, and to subsequently manage their academic performance. The author also contends that the current solutions are neither desirable nor effective and most are bound to fail. What is needed is a better understanding of the development phases that all students have to pass through and knowing how to manage their performance in each phase. Solutions are then needed that help university staff to deliver better performance management. To obtain this understanding it is necessary to make use of the tools and ideas that are found in the field of behavioural psychology and, particularly, those that are applied in the field of business where performance management is considered a core competence and a causation factor for competitive advantage.

    This paper seeks to take the established behavioural models relating to comfort zones, group and individual development, and managing change, and use them to create a methodology for understanding and managing the academic performance of students in a university environment. It seeks to provide a reliable approach to getting the best out of students that is firmly based on sound behavioural and psychological principles, backed up by observational data and practical field research. It is not, however, a ‘scientific’ paper full of detailed research data, complex theories and high-flown rhetoric, but rather it is a practical guide based on twenty years of consultancy in the field and years of teaching university students in a business school.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWhite & MacLean Publishing
    Release dateAug 22, 2011
    ISBN9782930583150
    Managing Academic Performance
    Author

    Alasdair White

    Alasdair White is a consultant and university lecturer specializing in performance management, managing people and leadership. He is based near Brussels in Belgium and has an international practice with clients throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Far East. He is on the Faculty of the United Business Institutes in Brussels and of the European Management Development Institute. He was a visiting faculty lecturer at Lotus University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for five years until December 2010 and is a guest lecturer at the University of Winchester in the United Kingdom. Alasdair White is the author of 'Managing for Performance' (1995), 'Continuous Quality Improvement' (1996) and 'The Essential Guide to Developing Your Staff' (1998), all published by Piatkus Books in London. Educated at King Alfred’s College (now the University of Winchester), Winchester, England, where he studied education and physical science, Alasdair White spent time teaching in Spain before becoming a business journalist and newspaper editor in the UK. He became a management consultant in 1984 and moved to The Netherlands in 1987 and then to Belgium in 1993. He is a Fellow of the International Napoleonic Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (UK). Details of some of Alasdair White’s recent work can be found on his consultancy website at http://www.pm-solutions.com

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      Book preview

      Managing Academic Performance - Alasdair White

      Managing Academic Performance

      Understanding development in an academic environment

      Alasdair White

      Copyright: Alasdair White, 2008

      The moral right of the author has been asserted.

      All rights reserved.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then

      please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Published by White & MacLean Publishing at Smashwords

      Smashwords edition: ISBN 978-2-930583-15-0

      Cover design: Arati Devasher

      www.aratidevasher.com

      White & MacLean Publishing

      La Houlette 3

      B-1470 Baisy-Thy

      Belgium

      http://www.whiteandmaclean.eu

      Table of Contents

      Managing Academic Performance

      Bibliography

      Biography of the author

      Appendix

      Introduction

      During their academic careers, students go through a series of major changes and entering university is one of the most significant. From primary school through to the end of secondary school, they have been in a ‘protected environment’ under the control of teachers; at home, they will have had parental guidance and support; and within their local community, they will have developed friends and a social life. Going to university changes all this. From being in a controlled predetermined learning environment and living within a supportive social context, the student is suddenly faced with an academic environment that demands much greater independence and personal responsibility, while at the same time having to cope with a radically changed and possibly much less supportive social context. Ill-prepared and ill-equipped to manage the changes facing them, students struggle and it is not surprising, therefore, that universities find themselves faced with a significant ‘dropout rate’ in the first year that, in the UK,

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