•
Not qualified to A level standard (other non-advanced, mature student or no formal qualifications)
The number of students falling into each of these grouped categories is shown in the table below: Table 1: Grouped Qualifications Qualifications
Number/Percentage of Students
Above A level standard A level or GNVQ level 3 Equivalent to A level standard Not qualified to A level standard Information not available
28 (7.4%) 303 (80.2%) 34 (9.0%) 5 (1.3%) 8 (2.1%)
Students were asked about the occupational background that they came from; the answers they gave were placed in one of seven standard categories. As can be seen from the table below, there was a substantial amount of missing data. Where data was available, approximately half of the students were from professional and managerial categories: Table 2: Occupational Categories of Students Occupational Category
Number/Percentage of Students
Higher managerial and professional occupation Lower managerial and professional occupations Intermediate occupations Small employers and own account workers Lower supervisory and technical occupations Semi-routine occupations Routine occupations Missing
60 (15.9%) 86 (22.8%) 40 (10.6%) 31 (8.2%) 11 (2.9%) 39 (10.3%) 17 (4.5%) 94 (24.9%)
Impact of Dispositions to Learn on Retention and Marks 11 first year students had a mean mark of 0 recorded – it was assumed that they had left the programme. These students were of particular interest to the research so were compared to the 345 first years who had marks of greater than 0 recorded. Although none of the differences were statistically significant, comparisons between the two groups showed that students who were assumed to have withdrawn had mean ‘scores’ on the dimensions that were: 5.1 lower in the case of critical curiosity 9