The demands and pressures during the first study year at university are likely to arouse a variety of emotions among students. Nevertheless, there are very few studies on the role of emotions in successful studying during the transition phase. The present study adopts a person-oriented and mixed-method approach to explore, first, the emotions…

This study examined advice Chinese internationals would give to incoming Chinese international first-year students to ease their US college transitions. While the study was limited to 18 students from private, well ranked, 4-year liberal arts colleges who all appeared to be coping with their transitions (struggling students may have shied from…

The idea that test anxiety hurts performance is deeply ingrained in American culture and schools. However, researchers have found that it is actually worry about performance and anxiety--not bodily feelings of anxiety (emotionality)--that impairs performance. Drawing on this insight, anxiety reappraisal interventions encourage the view that…

As individuals with disabilities attend postsecondary education in greater numbers, mentoring programs are being implemented more frequently. The research objective of our exploratory study was to examine outcomes for students with disabilities participating in a Student to Student Mentoring Program using a mixed methods approach. Mentors followed…

The transition from school to university can prove problematic for a number of academic and social reasons and first-year attrition rates are high. Research suggests that first-year students need help adjusting to a new phase of learning in a larger community of practice and that a student's decision to leave represents a negative combination of…

During the transition from school to higher education, young adults experience a substantial amount of change where they progress from the highly controlled setting of school to the autonomous and self-motivated environment of university. Time spent at university is considered a critical period during which young adults establish a clear sense of…

In view of recent changes in the higher education sector, such as increased tuition fees, a greater focus has been placed on widening participation initiatives and monitoring student satisfaction. The aims of the current study were twofold: (1) to explore whether pre-entry programmes foster successful transition to higher education, and (2) to…

This study examines different factors' relative importance for students' performance in the transition to university mathematics. Students' characteristics (motivation, actions and beliefs) were measured when entering the university and at the end of the first year. Principal component analysis revealed four important constructs:…

The academic year 2012/13 marked a major milestone in the history of Hong Kong higher education as it witnessed the admission of two markedly different cohorts of Cantonese-speaking freshmen to the city's English-medium universities: those embarking for the last time upon the traditional 3-year programme modelled on the British system of initial…

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…

Objective: Given the importance of developmental transitions on young adults' lives and the high rates of mental health issues among U.S. college students, first-year college students can be particularly vulnerable to stress and adversity. This pilot study evaluated the effectiveness and feasibility of mindfulness training aiming to promote…

The primary purpose of the study described here was to document the first author's experiences delivering a repertoire of evidence-based comprehension strategies in context of a first-year university course. We first provide an overview of the literature related to students' transition into the postsecondary environment, arguing for the need to…

Although mentoring has become increasingly popular within UK higher education, there is little evaluative research. The current longitudinal study aimed to evaluate the usage of a peer mentoring scheme during a first semester at university amongst 124 students. Results indicate that during the first week at university the majority accessed the…

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…

Universities frequently offer support programs to assist first-year students with the transition from school to the university. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of different mentoring styles on mentee academic performance after 1 year and 2 years of study. Participants consisted of 417 psychology students who started their…