The majority of students in the study (53.6%) rated the overall quality of interactions at their institution as high, while only a small proportion (2.3%) rated this as low. 44.1% rated this as medium

Employing a series of binary logistic regression models to adjust for the role of factors such as gender, age group, field of study and institution type in the differences between the quality of interaction groups in the three outcomes, we found that

Those in the high quality of interaction group had a greater than 17 times higher odds, and those in the medium group had a 3.4 times higher odds, of having a positive overall evaluation compared to those in the low quality of interaction group.

For the outcome of reporting that they would choose the same institution again, those in the high quality of interaction group had a more than 11 times higher odds of reporting this, and those in the medium group had a 3.4 times higher odds of doing so, compared to those in low group.

Those in the high quality of interaction group had a 3.2 times higher odds of reporting that they had not seriously considering withdrawing from their programme compared to those in the low group, while those in the medium group had a 1.9 times higher odds compared to the low group.

The results suggest the quality of interactions that first year student report across a range of relationships at their Higher Education institution is an influencing factor of how they evaluate their institution, and is related to the likelihood of whether a student seriously considered withdrawal from their programme.