Studies indicate that minoritized students attending Predominantly White Institutions (PWI) may struggle with engagement and establishing a sense of belonging. Peer mentoring may play a role in enhancing these opportunities to foster academic performance and retention. The sense of belonging and engagement for minoritized students at a PWI is…

This study aimed to explore the relationship between social support and perceived stress, and identify barriers to accessing support among undergraduate freshman students (N = 203). Quantitative assessment was conducted using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), supplemented by…

This paper discusses the design of interactive gamified assessments for an introductory programming course based on the multimedia segmenting principle and gamification. The objective is to develop more engaging online programming assessments for low-achieving students. The general design follows Nielsen's design guidelines and incorporates…

This study investigates first-year undergraduates when starting their studies in a highly internationalised public university settled in a multicultural and multilingual European city. It focuses on to what extent individual differences as regards plurilingualism and previous intercultural experience are related to a higher or lower degree of…

Given the negative effects that anxiety and stress can have on university students' academic performance, work, and relationships, it is important to identify factors associated with intentions to seek personal counselling. We identified social self-concept, students' beliefs about their abilities and confidence in social situations, as a mediator…

Purpose: This study attempts to elucidate the role of key influencers impacting the student decision-making process of enrollment for higher education in India from the lenses of Stephen Covey's theory on circles of life. Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 556 students of Delhi NCR, India was selected based on a multi-staged sampling method.…

Contribution: A peer-mentoring plan designed to support engineering students during their transition from high school to university. This article addresses the adaptation challenges faced by first-year students in engineering programs. Background: The transition to university is a critical period for students, marked by significant lifestyle…

Academic Development Programmes (ADPs) are a distinct category of South African Higher Education that aims to provide alternative access to students who meet the minimum entry requirements for university but not necessarily for the particular academic programme of their choice. Although these programmes have existed for over 30 years, limited…

Teaching programming efficiently to students in the first year of computer science education is challenging. It is especially cumbersome to retain the interest of both groups, when the student group consists of novice (i.e., those who have never programmed before) and expert programmers in the same crowd. Thus, individualized teaching cannot be…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs)have been shown to result in increased science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) persistence, but such experiences are rarely available for first-year STEM students. This work outlines the development and integration of a CURE into a year-long honors general chemistry laboratory…

Prior research has shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted American college students; however, few studies have focused on first-year students and their experiences with attending college during unprecedented circumstances. To address this gap, first-year college students (N = 268) completed online questionnaires assessing their…

The student retention of freshman students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities as of recent has been comparably low which leads to low graduation rates. To understand this phenomenon, there is a need to investigate the factors that impact the enrollment and retention of freshman students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.…

Students in their first semester at university were asked to pose their own questions, known as quecture questions, for each learning topic. This was as part of their weekly preparation for flipped lectures on two parallel compulsory biology courses. Quecture questions are intended to engage students, particularly those with educational…

Stronger metacognitive regulation skills and higher self-efficacy are linked to increased academic achievement. Metacognition and self-efficacy have primarily been studied using retrospective methods, but these methods limit access to students' in-the-moment metacognition and self-efficacy. We investigated first-year life science students'…

This article examines the prevalence of receiving course registration sanctions (i.e., past due balance notification, stop registration hold, and cancel registration order) caused by past due financial balances. The longitudinal data set follows all first-time, first-year students at a public flagship university during their first 2 years of…