This study examines the effectiveness of a new approach for a university transition program that uses a location-based game to familiarize first-year students with the university environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved 775 university students from 15 faculties, 9 from Human and Social Sciences and 6 from Technology and…

Student retention is a priority in universities, as drop-out rates among university students within 12 months of starting continue to rise, according to UK figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/performance-indicators/non-continuation, accessed February 2022), and with…

Purpose: An increasing number of autistic students are pursuing higher education to enhance career opportunities, achieve personal growth, and increase independence. Nonetheless, many encounter difficulties in transitioning to and thriving in this environment, despite the support offered by universities. Here, we review the preliminary data from a…

The transition from secondary education to the first year of higher education is a phase in which students are faced with many challenges. First-year students may lack the academic capital that is needed to understand explicit and implicit rules of higher education. We investigated students' participation in a preacademic program and the…

Although more students with disabilities are attending university than ever before, many still have difficulties with the transition from high school. Transition research has extensively examined the factors and barriers that support or hinder successful transitions for students with disabilities. However, there has been little explicit focus on…

Peer mentors in learning communities for first-year students aid new students in their transition to college. However, little is known about how these peer mentors address concerning student behaviors, particularly those that may suggest a psychiatric/psychological disability. This research addressed the issue by asking peer mentors how they were…

Early entrance to college, a form of academic acceleration, is an educational alternative that opens pathways for advanced students to have challenging, stimulating, and relevant learning experiences. Children who choose this option enter the adult world several years earlier than most of their age peers. This involves extra growth, adaptation,…

To stimulate a flexible lifelong learning system students can enter university via lateral entry. Unlike traditional first-year students, lateral entrance students are not well-studied. Therefore this study focuses on comparing first-year students with a specific group of lateral entrants, namely bridging students at the Faculty of Engineering…

Retention of students in university or other postsecondary education programs is a common problem for many institutions, with retention from first year to second year of study being particularly problematic in Canada and the United States. A number of factors are known to affect retention, and a number of measures have been identified which can…

The transition from high school to post-secondary education is often difficult for students. The literature examining factors that foster a successful transition generally focuses on previous academic achievement and/or individual differences that enable students to navigate the culture of university. Through interviews with first year university…

There is a large population of students who enter postsecondary institutions underprepared in the area of writing, which can negatively affect their academic success in various disciplines. Lack of alignment between secondary and postsecondary education writing curricula is a common cause of why students are underprepared in writing. Identifying…

An online support distance-learning program in Mathematics was developed to aid first year engineering students for their transition from the secondary to the tertiary education in order to reinforce deficiencies they may have in mathematical knowledge. The aim of the present study is to examine, firstly, to what extent the attendance of such a…

Student attrition from colleges in the United States is a widespread phenomenon, posing real stresses to students, their families, and to universities. We examined the causes of poor academic performance in students' first semester through interviews and questionnaires and administered a small intervention course to freshmen on academic probation…

This study involved a one-time survey of first-year undergraduate students at a Canadian University to determine their expectations when beginning a writing intensive course (i.e., the so-called "W" course, which is required of all first-year undergraduates at the University of Manitoba.) In this study, we focused on the University's…

In the fall of 1993, Quebec's Heritage College implemented a reception and integration (i.e., "d'accueil") session to help first term incoming students identified as "at-risk" and "undecided" succeed in their collegiate studies. This report describes the development and implementation of the project, focusing on…