The expectations of first-year students are becoming more widely researched and understood. How to realign perceptions and prepare students for the transition from secondary school to tertiary education is less well considered. This paper presents an account of a pre-university preparation programme embedded in the senior years of secondary…

Over the past decade in Australia there has been an increasing focus in higher education on identifying cogent approaches for assisting first-year university students in their transition into the university setting. In recent years, an emerging body of literature has given emphasis to the efficacy of a range of strategies for engaging first-year…

Pre-school children with special needs face a complex transition to school, requiring additional administrative, social and educational support. In this study, parents of 40 children with special needs reported on the transition to school experience of their 4-6-year-old child. They completed a measure of impact of the child's disability on their…

These proceedings contain 68 author-prepared abstracts of presentations given at the Seventh International Conference on the First-Year Experience, a 5-day conference that focused on the foundations for improving the undergraduate experience. The majority of the one- to two-page abstracts report on specific programs undertaken by colleges or…

This report explores the status and experiences of 388 students with disabilities who have benefited from transition improvement efforts in Minnesota over the last decade. Improvements in transition services have included establishment of a state transition interagency committee and an interagency office on transition services, development of an…