As students transition from high school to university, they must navigate new academic learning environments, develop new social networks, manage multiple new responsibilities, explore and regulate independence, and deal with the stressors that they will encounter. Successful transitioning to university often involves sources of support as well as…

Background: Low-income students face cultural and social challenges navigating college environments that privilege middle- and upper-class norms, knowledge, and values; these challenges lead to difficulty transitioning to college and disparities in student success for low-income students relative to their higher-income counterparts. Peer…

Undergraduate research experiences offer a range of positive academic and affective student outcomes. However, these benefits often do not reach all students, as research experiences are often selective, favor high-achieving students, focus on STEM fields, and typically target students in their third or fourth year of undergraduate studies. To…

The future of individual and societal progress is largely dependent on students' success following completion of K-12 education. For most traditionally aged students, this entails a journey into higher education at colleges and universities. This transition is rife with pitfalls that may lead students to stop out, fail out, or make inadequate…

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…

Summer bridge programs (SBPs) are intended to promote student learning, academic achievement, and persistence to graduation. They are also a viable vehicle for supporting diverse minoritized student constituencies. Our study, guided by a student-centered assessment approach, examined the experiences of incoming first-year students. Findings…

Benefits of summer bridge and early arrival experiences include the academic and social integration of incoming first-year students into their chosen institutions. The unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic created opportunities to re-imagine delivery of activities and engagement of incoming first-year students in summer bridge and early…

Starting university studies, students must experience the transition from the familiar to the unfamiliar, encountering cognitive and social challenges. Universities need to be aware of this transition and provide an appropriate support mechanism that should be adapted to both first year students and senior year students. The aim of the study is:…

The personal, social, and academic challenges during the transition from high school to college contribute to lower retention rates and lower GPAs. These challenges are even more pronounced for historically underserved populations. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, students face new challenges and a lack of access to the typical resources and…

This paper examines students' perspectives on the main transitional challenges experienced when commencing higher education. It explores which students are most affected by the transition and is the first paper to provide an overview of student recommendations to help improve the transition in an Irish context. The study involves large-scale…

Change is an inevitable part of life, more so for gender non-conforming students who have to confront prejudice and hostile environments as they transition from school to university. An understanding of the issues faced by first year students with diverse sexual and gender identities is important to ameliorate many of the challenges presented…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore how students experience the New Student Orientation Experience (NSOE) and how they perceived it prepared them for their 1st semester of college at a large public university in the United States, Arizona State University (ASU). Institutions of higher education are under pressure to operate more…

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…

This applied dissertation is a mixed-methods study designed to collect student perspectives of an online First-Year Experience (FE) course and to determine the overall value of the FE course. The researcher sought to identify what is the value of the FE course to the students enrolled in this online course. In the study's survey, students will be…

The ability to think and write critically is a core outcome in higher education. Many universities provide writing programs for undergraduates to develop sound argumentation skills and build the foundation to engage in academic conversations. Still many students struggle with academic writing. This paper argues that teaching using instructional…