Easing transitions to university - a student-led approach

This poster was presented at the Enhancing Student Learning Through Innovative Scholarship conference in September 2021. It is a collaboration between academic staff and undergraduate students and shares some of our work on supporting the student transition into Higher Education.

Abstract: Every year, universities welcome many students who are leaving home for the first time. This transition brings several challenges for students, both academic and pastoral which, without appropriate support, can persist throughout the first year of university and beyond. The 2021-22 academic year will see students arriving at university with a vastly different pre-university experience to those who came before them. They will be facing a whole range of new challenges, some known and some yet unknown to both academic staff and the students themselves. To begin to prepare for this, we surveyed our current Level 3 and 4 students, to identify what they struggled with during their transition to university. The survey was written in collaboration with three current Level 3 and 4 students (authors JH, JH and SV). Here, we present some of the key results from this survey. This student-led approach will identify areas where our current transitions support should be strengthened, allowing us to assemble a 'transitions toolkit', helping our students to get the most out of their university experience.