Leaving school and entering university can be a scary transition for students. There isn’t just increased academic pressure at university but also social and psychological changes.
But is there anything we can do to help ease students through their transition to higher education? Some recent research may present a few suggestions and solutions.
Read on to find out:
- Top tips to assist students entering university
- What transitions to university usually entails
- What the latest research says about transitioning to university
What is the transition to university?
There are a lot of changes from school to higher education, including:
- Increased academic pressure
- Living away from home
- Meeting new people
- Finding new friends
- Attending lectures instead of lessons
- Navigating a big campus
As exciting as these experiences can be, they can also be a difficult adjustment for many students. Research has shown that up to 38.2% of students fail to return to university in their second year, suggesting many students struggle to adapt to university life. So is there anything that educators can do to help students during this difficult time?
What does the latest research say?
In an interesting paper, researchers looked at a variety of previous research on the transition to university and summarised the findings. More specifically, they looked at several groups of factors that affected students’ university grades.
The first group of factors they looked at were demographics. They found that certain types of students were less likely to achieve higher grades during their first year at university. These included:
- Men
- Ethnic minorities
- First-generation university students
- Students with a lower socio-economic status
- Students working over 16 hours a week
Secondly, they looked at whether being healthy had an effect on academic achievement. Unsurprisingly, good mental and physical health were associated with higher test scores. Additionally, students’ satisfaction with their lives was also associated with higher achievement.
They then looked at the impact of psychosocial factors. Some notable aspects linked to higher grades were:
- Introversion
- The ability to challenge self-views and delay judgements
- The habit of attributing success and failures to controllable forces, such as how much they studied, instead of how difficult a test was
Next, they examined the influence of academic skills. Unsurprisingly, the tendency to procrastinate was associated with poor test scores. However, perfectionism, time management, and organisation had a positive effect on grades. Finally, they also found that students who did not adequately research their university and course before attending university seemed to struggle to settle into university and achieved lower grades as a result.
Top tips to help ease students into university life
Although some of the factors above cannot be altered before students leave school, there are a few small changes teachers can make that may be able to help their university transition go a little easier.
1. Provide extra support to those who struggle with university transitions
As we saw earlier, students from certain backgrounds seem to struggle to settle into university, which then has an impact on their grades later on. Educators may be able to mitigate some of these effects by providing extra support. By working closely with students in these groups, educators may be able to ease their worries and provide them with the right resources to prepare them for what’s to come.
2. Encourage good mental and physical health
There are many opportunities to achieve good physical health at university, but many students do not utilise them. Teachers can encourage students to take advantage of sports societies and student gym memberships to try and rectify this. Additionally, teachers can support student mental health in a variety of ways; we highlight some of our favourite strategies to improve student mental health in this blog.
3. Encourage students to think about their study habits
As mentioned, attributing success to controllable factors such as how much you studied, instead of how difficult a test was, is associated with higher achievement. The good news is that, unlike some other personality factors, this belief is much more malleable. For example, emphasising how important effort is to success may be a simple way to help alter students’ mindsets and encourage them to attribute their own success to controllable factors. This also has the dual benefit of boosting their current study and exam performance.
4. Develop students’ independent study skills
As students get older, the impact of independent studying becomes more pronounced. By developing students’ independent study skills, such as time management and organisation, we may be able to better prepare them for this transition. You can find our guide to developing time management here.
5. Help students research their university and course beforehand.
Unfortunately, students who did not properly research their course and university before arriving found it much harder to integrate into university life, and suffered academically as a result. So, providing students with the ability and encouragement to research university courses and options could go some way towards mitigating this.
Final thoughts
University life can be a big shock for many students. Without adequate support, students may become overwhelmed and end up leaving higher education. However, if we are able to identify the factors that affect this transition, educators may be able to take meaningful action. Providing the right information and interventions before students leave for university could therefore help make a big difference.
To provide your students with further assistance in the transition to university, book them our Surviving University student workshop.
