The first year of university is a challenging period of academic and personal development for students. Through phenomenographic analysis of 27 interviews with students who had just completed their first year at university, this study provides valuable insight into students' perceptions of adapting to learning in a university environment. Four…

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…

Given how China has been the top source of international students worldwide, there has been growing media and research interest in Chinese international students. However, much of the narratives tend to focus on their struggles. In this commentary, I draw upon insights from my personal experience as an international student and, consequently,…

The student body in many higher education institutions (HEIs) has become more international, although student services are often offered in a generic one-size fits all approach. Traditionally, student services served as a key indicator of student satisfaction and influenced the mobility of international students' choices regarding study programme,…

Previous research that evaluated first year students' transition into university found that the values of 'being, belonging and becoming' were important in particular within the first few months and within the first year of university. From our previous work, we reported that three things matter to students: the academic staff they work with, the…

very nation depends on its knowledge framework and value system in order to survive. For this reason, this study was focused on identifying a proposed strategy for managing the change in the value system and the knowledge structure of private university students in Jordan. Also, to point out the need for students to own their procedures, the…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the different factors that empower young adults that were in foster care to be successful in a college environment. It has been documented that foster youth have significant challenges during secondary education (Conger & Rebeck, 2001; Geenen & Powers, 2006). Due to these challenges,…

Our study examines how negative and positive diversity interactions influence students' psychological well-being. Specifically, we explore how diversity interactions influence students' psychological well-being at the end of their first year of college and how these experiences vary by race. Our findings suggest that while negative diversity…

Institutions of higher education must include policy-informing research into their long-term retention planning to improve institutional practices regarding student support and persistence (Bean, 2001; Kuh, 2006; Brown, 2015). This information is needed to make institutions of higher education aware of how student characteristics interact with the…

College is one of the most formative times in an individual's life. Its intense living-learning environment can promote students' extreme self-confidence and positive development, or alternatively, can result in low levels of well-being. The first year in college is an opportunity for faculty and staff to engage with students to help them build…

Community college engineering transfer students are a critical student population of engineering degree recipients and technical workforce in the United States. Focusing on this group of students, we adopted Rendón's (1994) validation theory to explore the students' experiences in community colleges prior to transferring to a four-year…

There is much debate in academic advising practitioner literature and in the popular media over the influence exerted by involved parents on students and colleges. There is a broad consensus that parental involvement has increased to levels not previously witnessed on college campuses (Cutright, 2008; Shoup, Gonyea, & Kuh, 2009; Wartman &…

This study examined the effects of on-campus residence, in comparison with commuter status, on academic performance, vocational commitment, self-efficacy, and perceptions of the college environment among female and male Iranian students at Shiraz University, Iran. The study sought to extend previous work investigating the effects of college…

The growth in technology and the global nature of business and work have created new challenges for higher education. Administrators from institutions around the country desire more international study by their faculty and students as well as more visitors and residents to the campus from countries abroad. Are college students prepared for the…

The struggles and achievements of today's college students are thrown into stark relief in this fascinating account of how such students make meaning of their lives. Author Mary Grigsby uses the voices of students themselves to discuss how they view, adjust to, and participate in the college student culture of a large midwestern university and to…