Increasing student retention and success: Survey results and the success of initiatives to create an engineering student community

Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), New Zealand (NZ) offers open entry to its Bachelor of Engineering (BE) program. Advancement in this degree is dependent on the attaining of a B (65%) average over the required first year papers. The BE program currently has an unacceptable 60 percent attrition rate. This paper details our attempts to identify the barriers to successful student completion of the BE degree by surveying students in their first, third and fourth years of studies. Attempts have been made to address several of the barriers identified and then to quantify the effectiveness of these initiatives.