A study of student retention, financial support and successful student continuation in UK Higher Education in 2020 January 2021

Student retention is an ongoing problem for HE impacting both student and University. It has been a focus for research for over 100 years resulting in the identification of many factors that contribute to student withdrawal. Whilst finance has long been recognised as an issue, this research aimed to look at financial issues and specifically the role of hardship funds in helping students to persist. The research was conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews with ten students of varying ages, who were in the process of successfully completing their first year. The interviewer asked questions around financial support, their experiences at university, and the factors they feel have contributed towards them successfully progressing on their course. The interviews were then manually coded, and then based on these, several recommendations are presented, The recommendations proposed following analysis of the interviews are: Universities should have significant Hardship Funds available to help retain students, Universities should focus retention efforts on students leaving as well as students progressing, and there should be a collaborative relationship between Universities and students towards retention efforts. In addition to these, this research also proposes that institutions should understand the pressure lecturers are under, should provide students with sufficient opportunity to vent frustrations at any perceived minor issues, and also provide sufficient support for students with mental health issues

Teaching and Learning for Librarians: Course Outline

The Teaching and Learning for Librarians Course at Cambridge University Libraries runs annually. This document offers an outline of the contents of each month together with the assessment prompts used for self-reflection

Effects of herbaceous weed control on young Douglas-fir moisture stress and growth

Profitable, even-aged forest management depends on the early establishment and rapid growth of each new forest crop. These, in turn, require that the young trees have access to an adequate supply of native resources of moisture, nutrients and light. In Mediterranean-type climates, competition for soil moisture is the most serious adverse effect of weeds. Young trees respond with elevated moisture stress levels throughout most of the summer, with reduced net assimilation and potential for growth. If soil moisture depletion is severe enough, dehydration and death ensue. This dissertation explores the relationship between soil moisture availability, as influenced by several herbaceous cover types, and Douglas-fir [Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco.] response, mainly in terms of tree moisture stress TMS) and growth; it seeks to link herbicide treatment and tree response directly, and also indirectly, by its effect on soil moisture availability and tree moisture stress. Data for this study came mainly from field observation and experimentation during the summer of 1970, and from stem analyses performed in 1972 in a set of pm-existing herbicide trial plots. These were located in a bentgrass (Agrostis tenuis Sibth) dominated meadow situated about 18 miles west of Corvallis in the Oregon Coast Range. The diverse vegetative covers of the plots in 1970 reflected histories of up to three years herbicide. treatment. Four types of data were used: total available soil moisture content; climatological records; survival records; and height, diameter and volume measurements determined by stem analysis. An early attempt was made to apply a complicated regression model to individual tree TMS using various climatological, soil, and time variables. Although approximately 80% Of the variation in TMS could be explained by this, it was clear that this model had serious inadequacies. Study of plots of TMS against Pacific daylight time (PDT), air temperature, vapor pressure deficit VPD) and solar radiation led to the development of a conceptual model of TMS based largely on postulated light- and leaf temperature-triggered responses of the stomates, sensitized and modulated by the availability of soil moisture, degree of overnight recovery of tree turgor, and the atmospheric moisture demand. A possible explanation of the so-called "freeze" damage of Douglas-fir was suggested by this model. Although abnormally favorable soil moisture conditions in the summer of 1968 caused weed control that year to have no significant effect on first year survival or height growth, first-year devegetation did have significant or highly significant positive effects on height and diameter growth in each of the subsequent four years. Likewise, treatments in 1969 and 1970 also had the effect of setting the trees on advanced growth trajectories. Of the three single treatment schedules, treatment in the first year was chosen as the best because it combined good growth response (82% increase in tree volume over control in five years) with a normally highly positive influence on tree survival. The multiple treatment schedules demonstrated that responses (especially of height growth) to later treatments are maximized when preceded by treatments which promote the accumulation of photosynthetic reserves. Treatment in the first and second years was the optimum two treatment schedule. It resulted in a 115% increase in tree volume. The three-treatment schedule enhanced tree volume by 217% and was estimated to shorten a 70 year rotation by two years, compared with controls. Tree growth responses to chemical weed control were linked quantitatively through the latter's positive effect on available soil moisture. This in turn was shown to have a negative effect on tree moisture stress, which had a positive effect on tree growth. Art economic analysis based on projected treatment-induced height differentials at stand closure indicated that for high site II areas, even where weed control may not be necessary to obtain adequate survival, the first-year-only and the three-consecutive-years treatment schedules may be justifiable on the basis of the financial return from improved growth alone; hut only if coupled with other forest management practices designed to maximize yield, and stumpages of the order of $150 per mbf. The economics of weed control should be even more attractive on less favorable growing sites, especially when the higher yield and quality caused by better stocking are taken into account

Relaxed Molecular Clock Provides Evidence for Long-Distance Dispersal of Nothofagus (Southern Beech)

Nothofagus (southern beech), with an 80-million-year-old fossil record, has become iconic as a plant genus whose ancient Gondwanan relationships reach back into the Cretaceous era. Closely associated with Wegener's theory of “Kontinentaldrift”, Nothofagus has been regarded as the “key genus in plant biogeography”. This paradigm has the New Zealand species as passengers on a Moa's Ark that rafted away from other landmasses following the breakup of Gondwana. An alternative explanation for the current transoceanic distribution of species seems almost inconceivable given that Nothofagus seeds are generally thought to be poorly suited for dispersal across large distances or oceans. Here we test the Moa's Ark hypothesis using relaxed molecular clock methods in the analysis of a 7.2-kb fragment of the chloroplast genome. Our analyses provide the first unequivocal molecular clock evidence that, whilst some Nothofagus transoceanic distributions are consistent with vicariance, trans-Tasman Sea distributions can only be explained by long-distance dispersal. Thus, our analyses support the interpretation of an absence of Lophozonia and Fuscospora pollen types in the New Zealand Cretaceous fossil record as evidence for Tertiary dispersals of Nothofagus to New Zealand. Our findings contradict those from recent cladistic analyses of biogeographic data that have concluded transoceanic Nothofagus distributions can only be explained by vicariance events and subsequent extinction. They indicate that the biogeographic history of Nothofagus is more complex than envisaged under opposing polarised views expressed in the ongoing controversy over the relevance of dispersal and vicariance for explaining plant biodiversity. They provide motivation and justification for developing more complex hypotheses that seek to explain the origins of Southern Hemisphere biota

Summer soil moisture dynamics in a young Douglas-fir plantation as influenced by three herbaceous weed communities

The use of chemicals such as the triazines (especially atrazine) and mixtures of the triazines and 2,4-D or 2,4,5-T has become almost standard practice in some parts of the world for selectively controlling grasses and other herbaceous weeds to conserve moisture for and/or prevent the smothering of newly-planted conifers. In the Pacific Northwest, where application is mainly to control grasses in forest and Christmas tree plantations of Douglas-fir [Pseudotsua menziesii (Mirb.) Franco.], a single such treatment dramatically increases first year survival and growth of the trees mainly because of increased moisture availability. However, this predisposes the site for heavy infestations of forbs and forbs plus annual grasses in the second and subsequent several years. 'To what extent can these be justifiably ignored?', is a question which this dissertation attempts to answer in terms of the effects of vegetation manipulation on soil moisture. Data for this study came from observations and experimentation mainly during the summer of 1970 in a series of already existing herbicide trial plots located in a grassy meadow in the Oregon Coast Range about 18 miles west of Corvallis. The vegetative covers of the plots reflected histories of zero to three years herbicide treatment and could be classified into: (1) non- or lightly vegetated with forbs, (2) moderate to dense pure forbs, (3) deuse forbs plus annual grasses, (4) heavy bent grass (Agrostis tenuis Sibth.). An attempt was made to develop regression models to describe soil moisture use as a function of cumulative open-pan evaporation, soil depth, standing biomass of herbaceous vegetation, fresh weight of trees, root distribution of the herbaceous vegetation, and vegetation type. This was only partially successful. The models described the dynamic characteristics and interrelations of the soil moisture profiles under the four vegetation types in a general way only, and they lacked sufficient predictive accuracy to make them of practical use in their present form. Response surfaces were developed from the data which portrayed the changes in specific soil moisture content, specific soil moisture used, specific available soil moisture content, and cumulative available soil moisture content with changes in depth, cumulative open-pan evaporation, and vegetation type. They demonstrated that bent grass made heavy demands on the soil moisture in the upper profile early in the season but only moderate demands on the lower profile, a pattern consistent with its aestivating and rooting characteristics. Moderate to dense pure orbs made relatively light early season demands on the upper profile, but came on strongly later in the season with heavy moisture use at all levels in the profile. The forb/annual grass mixture was the most demanding of all. It caused heavy, early season, upper profile moisture withdrawal coupled with sustained lower profile moisture depletion. Again, this was a pattern consistent with the phenological and rooting habits of the vegetation. There was evidence that a substantial amount of water, which because of weed control was not transpired, was eventually lost, probably through increased surface evaporation and unsaturated flow. Nevertheless, although the overall effect of weed control may have been to make available to the trees only a small amount of the moisture saved from transpirational loss, this component is of major importance in the relief of tree moisture stress. Using the conventional 15 bar estimate of permanent wilting point it was shown that the average rate of descent of the permanent wilting point front was about 0.17 in and 0.14 in per day for the bent grass and mixed forb/annual grass types, respectively. The late season rate of descent under pure forbs was even faster. These are rates which the root growth of new transplants or natural seedlings cannot match under field conditions so that their roots are sooner or later deprived of access to available soil moisture. It is apparent that bent grass, forbs, and forb/annual grass mixtures represent hostile ecosystems for the establishment of Douglas-fir in areas characterised by Mediterranean type summers. Pure forbs and forb/annual grass mixtures additionally make heavy demands on the lower profile, presumably causing elevated moisture stresses, and reduced photosynthesis and growth even in well-established trees. It would therefore seem desirable (and perhaps economically justifiable) to prolong the period of complete or semi-complete herbaceous weed control in young conifer plantations being established under these conditions