Student transition

A university education has the potential to bring about profound changes within the individual learner. There is quite extensive literature, particularly from the USA; see Pascarella and Terenzini (2005), which suggests a university education is a more powerful transformative experience than simply aging a few years. But, of course, this process is not problem-free. Most students at NTU do succeed: they graduate, by-and-large with the grades they were aiming for, having had a great personal experience. However, a small number fail to graduate, or only do so after several attempts. There is also a risk that a students will graduate, but without particularly engaging in the academic discourse, instead using their time at university as a route to employment only.

It is with these thoughts in mind that staff at NTU have become increasingly interested in the issues of student transition.

What is student transition?

Johnston (2010) describes transition as the:

• student experience of change involved in joining the University
• programmes of academic and other activities, which the University provides to support and enhance student transition.

Broadly, the problems with transitions can be categorised as follows.

Starting point
The post-16 curriculum, particularly A-levels, studied by new students is very different to the one that most lecturers did. Whilst the debate rages about whether or not modern A-levels are conceptually easier, they are often assessed in smaller elements, with more short answer questions and more hints as to the areas of knowledge being assessed. Students are also able to strategically resubmit assignments to improve grades and in NTU research Foster, Bell and Salzano (2008), cite having close and friendly relationships with tutors in relatively small groups. In many respects they are less well prepared for the independent study required in higher education when compared to previous generations. We would like to stress that this is not a widening participation problem per se, but a potential problem faced by all students.

Coping with a new environment
For most students, the first year at university will be spent studying in larger groups requiring some new learning approaches. Their fellow students' ages and backgrounds are likely to be more diverse too. There are also further transitions in later years for them to encounter.

Goals and outcomes
The Government sells higher education as a means to a better career and students tend to face higher levels of debt when they graduate. It's therefore understandable that students will concentrate on the outcome of higher education (namely the piece of paper). Whilst most students do by the final year enjoy their subject, some of the intrinsic values of scholarship can be harder to inculcate when students see higher education as a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Further Information

Research into transitions has arisen from two broad fields:

Retention - one of the most widely-used models for research into retention (Tinto, 1993) suggests that students withdraw after failing to make the transition into university. In the UK a significant amount of work has been carried out by Tony Cook and partners at the STAR Project at the University of Ulster.

Student engagement - although the UK performs well in student retention, there are also concerns that students may be failing to fully engage with the learning experience and that this leads to a range of different less meaningful engagements (Hand and Bryson, 2008).

Transition Conferences

• The UK National Transition Conference (hosted by UCL)
• The European First Year Experience Conference (likely to be in Manchester 2011)
• The International Conference on the First Year Experience (normally a very North American affair, likely to be hosted in Manchester, 2011)

Student Transition at NTU

Transition into the First Year
Staff from the Learning Development Team, LLR are actively conducting research into student transition, primarily from pre-university into the first year

Shadowing scheme
The Learning Development Team and SCCO are working jointly to improve staff understanding of the prior learning experience of our students by facilitating shadowing opportunities for colleagues to spend a day in a feeder post-16 institution, looking at learning and teaching.

Welcome Week
Welcome Week is intended to support the transition experiences of students. Its primary goal is to help students to start to make friends and feel part of the university community.

Programme inductions
Each year we gather feedback into the new student experience of undergraduate inductions and feed it back to the academic schools. We have developed a series of guidelines to support induction and resources for colleagues to use to increase the range of activities on offer during induction.

Transitions policies
The School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment have devised their own transitions policy. The LTC network has also developed a series of recommendations to support the experience of transition.

Further work

In many respects the challenge is no longer about induction and the initial point of contact (Purnell and Foster, 2007). In many respects, the focus needs to move to the wider issues of transition throughout the first year, the period Cook and Rushton (2008) describe as the 'extended induction'.

References

• COOK, A., and RUSHTON, B., 2008. Student Transition: Practices and policies to promote Retention. UK: Staff and Educational Development Association.
• FOSTER, E., BELL, R. and AND SALZANO, S., 2008. "What's a Journal?" - Research into the Prior Learning Experiences of Students Entering Higher Education. In: University of Wolverhampton, 7 - 9 May 2008.
• HAND, L., and BRYSON, C., 2008. Student Engagement: SEDA Special 22. England: Staff and Educational Development Association.
• JOHNSTON, B., 2010. The First Year at University: Teaching Students in Transition. Glasgow: McGraw-Hill.
• PURNELL, S., and FOSTER, E., 2008. Transition and Engagement. In: L. HAND, and C. BRYSON, eds., Student Engagement: SEDA Special 22. England: Staff and Educational Development Association, 2008.
• TINTO, V., 1987. Leaving college : rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago ; London: University of Chicago Press.