4.1 Introduction

Transition can be defined as the process or a period of transformation from one state or condition to another. Often, in the case of arrival at university, the transformation may be unfamiliar, different or new. Students undergo feelings similar to those in other ‘life events’ such as starting a new job, moving from one country to another or losing a family member (Schaetti 1996). Although students experience the transition into higher education in different ways, the change from a familiar environment into an unfamiliar one represents a period of disequilibrium (Jackson 2010). As Kift (2015) notes, ‘making a successful transition to university is never a given. While many students adjust relatively easily, thrive and survive—many do not and consider leaving’ (p. 52).

Entering university is a time of great stress for students. They are at risk of disengaging from university study, especially early on, for a number of reasons. They may experience financial hardship, did not begin tertiary study directly after finishing high school, struggle to make a connection to the university community—and do not engage with the resources made available to them by the university—or do not possess the necessary skills to become independent learners and the means of acquiring these skills (Lowe and Cook 2003; Cook and Leckey 1999; Kift and Nelson 2005; Menzies and Nelson 2012; Morrison and Brown 2006; Nelson et al. 2006; O’Brien et al. 2012). In terms of our study, a crucial factor that makes these students particularly vulnerable to either not succeeding academically or disengaging entirely with their studies is their status as a FiF student. A number of studies have discussed the ways in which FiF students manage their transitions into and across university (Ballantyne et al. 2009; Henderson et al. 2009; James et al. 2010; Johnston et al. 2013; O’Shea 2013). O’Shea (2015) observes how FiF students undertake ‘often invisible “work” in relation to university attendance’, such as reassuring parents, partners and children that they have made the right decision in attending university.

Australian rural and non-rural students’ experiences at university are also different as a result of moving (or not) to a new location (Henderson et al. 2009; James et al. 2010; Meuleman et al. 2014). These studies identify demographic differences across the cohorts of FiF students and consider how these differences impact on the student experience. We know from our previous research (Brinkworth et al. 2013) that university retention and progression rates often suffer when the reality of the student experience cannot be aligned with prior expectations and perceptions and that a diverse student cohort manages points of transition in multiple ways.

In this chapter, we look in more detail at the often tricky transition experiences of FiF students and reflect on the social, financial and emotional factors that they faced. We also touch upon the existing institutional support structures and mechanisms in place at our universities that assist in the transition process for the university entrance of diverse student cohorts. All students are different. It follows that the factors that impact their transition and their experience of transitioning to university will vary, and the diversity of these student cohorts needs to be acknowledged and accommodated (Nelson et al. 2011). Research in both an Australian context (McInnis et al. 2000) and an international one (Bridges 2000; Tinto 1994, 1998) suggests that many first year university students, especially those entering straight from secondary schools, find the transition into academic life hard, often feeling a lack of connection to the university context. Successfully, empowering students to quickly develop a sense of ‘belonging’ and connection to the university and their peers is vital—a ‘successful’ transition is linked to academic success, higher engagement in the chosen course of study and a more rounded healthier university experience. Moreover, successful transition is linked not only to success in assessment, but also to student demographic and psychological characteristics, student prior performance and social and institutional factors (Kift 2015; Longwell-Grice and Longwell-Grice 2008).

4.2 FiF Transition Experiences: The Same or Different?

A long-standing problem with the transition to university education is that students have unrealistic expectations about university life (Compas et al. 1986; Macdonald 2000; Pancer et al. 2000). They ‘imagine either that it will be just like school, or that it will be a harsh, uncaring place where they will be left to sink or swim on their own’ (Hagan and Macdonald 2000, p. 62). Transition to, and retention within, the university environment not only requires strong support from educational institutions, but also asks commencing university students to be able to adapt quickly to new pedagogical and academic requirements. Curriculum requires students to adjust to avoid the often-serious mismatch between their existing learning behaviours and the new student behaviours that are expected of students at university (McCarthy and Kuh 2006). Against this backdrop, where the mismatches between expectations and lack of preparation mean that many prospective ‘traditional’ students find the transition from secondary education to tertiary education problematic, research shows that FiF students experience an even more significant educational disadvantage. FiF students do not possess the requisite cultural and social capital required to navigate their way through higher education institutions (Luzeckyj et al. 2011). If students have little or no family history of university attendance or come from a community where attending university is not the norm transition problems are exacerbated.

Our research illustrates the diversity that exists within the FiF cohort. It is clear from the interviews we conducted that life experience has influenced the way in which FiF students manage their transition to university. In the case of Carl, it was not Carl’s parents but his school counsellor (also his teacher) who encouraged him to fulfil his academic capabilities and attend university. Carl had intended taking a technical route through school but his counsellor intervened by calling on Carl’s parents so they too realised he was capable of much more. However, despite being academically capable, Carl told us he struggled with independent learning as he transitioned from the school environment. His memories around trying to find resources in the library provide one example of his difficulties in transitioning to university:

Instead of giving people the things they need—they say ‘here’s the library—it’s in there—go and find it’. It’s still a big torment for today—having to go sit in a library and jump on the internet and spend hours finding nothing and then somebody else jumps on for five minutes and finds exactly what you need … I think the biggest thing for a lot of students, is that transition.

Devlin and O’Shea (2011), Leese (2010) and Askham (2008) all note that students from low SES areas regard tertiary education as an alien environment. Sue, who relocated seven hundred kilometres to Adelaide from country Victoria, indeed used this term in her interview with us to describe the experience of moving away to attend university: ‘We’re kind of like aliens who … go and create our own life’. FiF students may also perceive university as ‘foreign’, as they do not have older family members to discuss or share university practicalities with, or experienced support networks to help them prepare for the transition to this often radically different learning and teaching environment. One comment encapsulated this idea:

There was a little too much uni jargon that I had to have a friend translate for me—most of it was understandable but some things were a little overwhelming. (23-year-old female, continuing survey)

Our interviews suggest that FiF students’ experience of transition to university differs depending on a variety of demographic factors. These include whether they came from a rural or a metropolitan location and/or being non-school leavers. It is not one single factor but a combination that has a bearing on the way in which the participants felt they could manage their transition to university. Here are some responses to the question of whether anything was missing for preparations for university:

The high school I went to should have been more geared towards the idea that at least some of its students would go to uni. (37-year-old male, continuing survey)

Going to a secondary school that took university seriously, and not expected its graduates to simply become blue collar workers. (38-year-old male, continuing survey)

I think that during Year 12, there should have been a progress from the teaching as is, to a more independent type of learning, with a harsher marking system. Being in Year 12 compared to university is still like being spoon fed which makes the first year at uni more challenging that it really needs to be. (18-year-old female, continuing survey)

These comments are significant because they demonstrate the difficulty of not always being able to rely on high school knowledge or experience to assist in the transition to university.

4.3 Transitioning from High School

As all students are different so too are the factors that influence and inform them, including the individuals they might look to as mentors and role models. There were some common elements across student cohorts in relation to the pathway that they took to enter university. A range of people influenced students who transferred directly from high school as they made the decision to transition to university. Gail and Brendon both discussed the influence their parents had on their decision to attend university from an early age:

Since I was little I had always thought I would go to university … although they [Gail’s parents] haven’t been to university I guess they knew the importance of it. (Gail)

Even like when I was 12, or 13 I always knew I wanted to go to uni, part of it was a bit of influence from parents and part was just I guess determination just to go on and I guess have a successful career. So I think it was a couple of factors but I think because I come from a background where no one has been to university before, I think, my parents thought it would be a good change. (Brendon)

Despite wishing to attend university from a young age, Brendon suggested that he had not worked hard enough at school to get into the course he now enjoys. His transition into university involved a realisation that he needed to work harder to fulfil his academic and professional capabilities:

I probably didn’t put as much effort [into school] as I would have liked to, and I think going through uni and doing the hard work to get into law after management I realise maybe that’s something that’s changed dramatically because I should have hopefully been in law in the first place.

For Gail, her concerns were that she had not gained the right experiences at high school:

I was a bit worried because I thought well there’s so many people here and they’ve all been to better schools and yeah, it was just intimidating because I thought well, I’m just going to be the dumbest person here and I’m not going to know much at all.

Transition into university proved to be more challenging than Brendon anticipated, with first year proving to be one of the ‘hardest years of my life’. As a student commencing in a large cohort undergraduate degree in management, Brendon vividly recalls feeling like ‘a fish out of water’:

It can be isolating, because I do think I’m a bit foreign to it all and if I’m not in classes I’m just sitting there on my own or studying on my own. I see the cliques and I often feel like maybe I’m not suited to the environment. Sometimes I struggle and sometimes it gets you down a little but I don’t let it affect me too much.

It was Brendon’s self-determination and ability to adapt that enabled him to overcome feeling daunted by the increased size of his classes and the perceived cliques:

I think because your average class in lecture rooms would be about 300 students sometimes, so [it was] a little bit daunting but I guess I’ve always been a bit of a, not confident person as such, but I guess I’ve always just been pretty down to earth, determined kind of thing. So whatever I have to do, I’ll do it, so if it means going to a big lecture theatre, then so be it, I’ll adapt I suppose.

Our interviews with Gail and Brendon demonstrate how, despite the support of their families and/or teachers, their common desire to attend university from a young age and the advantage of having recent experience of studying at high school, their transitions were difficult.

4.4 Transitioning from a Rural/Interstate Location

Our students who moved to Adelaide to attend university expressed additional complications of needing to find somewhere to live and dealing with often prolonged feelings of loneliness and isolation. The three students we interviewed who had relocated from a rural or interstate setting to attend university were all entering as school leavers, although two had taken advantage of a gap year before commencing their studies.

Brian can be described as a high achiever, a trait evident in both his high school results and current achievements in his university studies. Yet this highly successful student reveals a transition period into university as a more difficult process than his academic achievements might suggest, describing the first month as ‘hell’:

On the first night I got here I was crying in my room because I was just so scared and worried … if you’re feeling upset on your first night, or if you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s really easy to forget the fact that most people go through that … when a friend of mine came to Adelaide the following year, she was also crying a lot in her first week because she was just completely overwhelmed and I said to her ‘Don’t feel bad, I did the same thing’; sometimes it’s good to just know that someone else understands it’s a difficult experience to go through.

Brian attributes what he describes as a ‘massive transition’ to university, as partly being a result of the requirement to relocate from a small rural town to a major capital city and partly due to being a FiF student. Two support factors that Brian identified as assisting him to navigate the transition are: living at the university residential college which provided valuable peer support and involvement in a program targeted at first year students to assist them to navigate university life. He acknowledges that if he had been able to talk with someone who had recently experienced university transition, this would have provided invaluable support:

Because from where I sit now everything I went through was all relatively easy, it was relatively simple, but at the time it can be completely overwhelming. You’ve got to apply, you’ve got to be accepted, you’ve got to move and it just seems like there is so much to do, but looking back it was all relatively easy.

Conversely, Sue’s initial experience was different. She had initially intended studying nearer her home in country Victoria, but after her gap year, which was spent travelling, she decided to move to the same university in Adelaide as a close friend. Sue said that she found transitioning interstate and to university easy because she had a friend to show her around and help her with accommodation:

It was just my easy option, I’ll just move straight in with her, it’s simple; I won’t have to apply for accommodation and all that sort of thing. So I always had that sort of support and she was at [names university] so she showed me around a little bit, and I kind of just slipped in and it was just easy.

Alison initially struggled with her transition to university. She does not regret her choice to attend university because of ‘the people I’ve met, what I’ve learnt and even just moving out of home and growing up’. Alison’s comment of ‘growing up’ relates to not only commencing university but predominantly the process of relocating from her rural home town and living independently, an experience that she describes as ‘scary’:

Especially coming from the country and having to move out, it might be uncomfortable at first but it’s going to help you in the long run as you learn so many life skills such as budgeting, and cooking for yourself. The little things that you take for granted at home are suddenly huge once you move out.

Academically, Alison felt prepared and considered that her creative skills and knowledge provided her with the basic principles for her course. Yet she found it difficult to make friends during her first year of study, particularly due to the absence of her partner, her high school friends and her support network. Alison admitted that she only really began to feel comfortable and part of the university community midway through her first year. She briefly considered leaving university at that point, but her experiences improved and she began to strengthen her university social networks during second year. Making friends and being part of a small and supportive cohort clearly assisted Alison’s transition. As a FiF student from a rural high school, transitioning to university involved a number of significant life changes.

4.5 The Mature Age Perspective

Our mature age students tended to reflect on the type of student they had been at high school by way of comparison to the type of student they felt they were at university. They indicate that they had not been ‘good students’ at school and were concerned that their school experiences and behaviours might hinder their success at university. Another complication some of the mature age students faced was the feeling that they were not supported by family or work colleagues who were initially sceptical about their desire to attend university. Trying to manage the negativity and lack of support from others added to the strain of transitioning into the strange new world of university. For some, concerns of being a ‘bad student’ assisted their transition as they were keen on showing that they were more capable than they had appeared while at school. Denise suggested that university was a way of compensating a difficult experience at high school: ‘I felt dumb at high school but now I feel like a smart adult’. Pete, who started university after retiring from 40 years of working, had not had the opportunity to complete his secondary education, while Kerry had always been a good student but did not always apply herself:

I have always liked study. I wasted high school, honestly. I really didn’t knuckle down like I should have at high school so then I was one of that lucky generation that when you left school there was a job for you so it didn’t really matter.

Like the other students we interviewed, the mature age participants described the emotions felt transitioning into university in quite negative terms. Marg and Roxie admitted as much:

I was very nervous and quite apprehensive … I hadn’t written an essay since I was in high school, which was a long time ago. (Marg)

I was terrified, I left high school in Year 10 and there was an 18 year gap between leaving high school and starting university. So it was a very, very long time between educational drinks. (Roxie)

The smoothness of transition to university was complicated by a sense that they had not been good students at school, so needed to develop ways of addressing bad study habits and concerns regarding their ability to study independently and under pressure.

However, a number of mature age students found transitioning easier. Pete was pragmatic about entering university, suggesting that if he treated it like moving to a new job, the ‘shift’ would not be as hard. Jen took a slightly different pragmatic approach, suggesting that it was ensuring she had done her research and asking many questions that helped her transition successfully:

The thing that helped me the most throughout all that was me mulling it through because I asked questions. I’m that annoying mature aged student that speaks in class.

For all, the transition into university was a nervous and apprehensive period, primarily due to the overwhelming nature of ‘the unknown’. Marg’s concluding comments about the help and support provided by two university lecturers are indicative as to how often, for mature age students, existing university networks are critical in the smooth transition into tertiary education life:

Both lecturers [would] offer huge amounts of encouragement. They were really good to bounce ideas off and talk to them about my academic career and what’s going to get me to where I wanted to be … helping me to filter out what I do and don’t need.

4.6 Managing Transition: The First Few Weeks

The FiF students who reported difficulties in transitioning admitted that the first few weeks were the most trying. They used different explanations for these difficulties. For some, finding their way around a new environment was challenging. Cory remembered ‘spending a lot of time trying to work out where buildings were’ and dealing with the differences from school:

It was just a little bit of a shock how different things were at uni; it was very like everyone’s just doing their own thing. It’s not like you’re with the same people all the time.

Another student made similar comments:

In Semester One, my first week or two was dedicated to making friends instead of studying because I didn’t know many people. I wish I had attended some of the activities that were provided in orientation week, so I could have got on top of my studies earlier in the semester instead of always feeling that little bit behind. (19-year-old female, continuing survey)

Others struggled with the university requirements and/or felt socially isolated. Marg said she was ‘a little overwhelmed’ because ‘reading academic literature is quite different from reading anything else’. Indeed, many students commented on the ‘gap’ between university academic literacies and the knowledge students were familiar with from high school:

At first I was scared to approach lecturers in fear of sounding ‘dumb’ for not understanding, but after some time I learnt that they’re all really friendly and happy to help. (19-year-old female, continuing survey)

I was quite shocked at how many university students there were at lectures, and that lecturers wouldn’t know who we were. I felt like a number and not important. (23-year-old female, continuing survey)

The jump from high school to university is too large. We should be better prepared right from the beginning of high school. (18-year-old male, continuing survey)

The information I got from the internet and from teachers at the adult re-entry high school where I completed year 12 was accurate, but I wish more information had been made available to me when I was first in high school, so that the prospect of going to university then might have been less alien and intimidating. (28-year-old female, continuing survey)

Carl struggled with the transition for the first few weeks but once he came to get more involved in his degree, it became easier for him: ‘I think the transition in—for the first couple of weeks, is the hardest … it becomes easier when your degree becomes more specific’. Roxie, though, thought it took about a semester to transition: ‘I’d say 12 weeks in I was feeling fantastic and I was doing really well’.

4.7 Transition Support Strategies

A number of writers have discussed the importance of developing strategies to support student transition (Benson et al 2012; Devlin et al. 2012; Kift et al. 2010). McInnis (2002) suggests that there are a number of enablers that assist with transition to university in the first year, including: the availability of student support services; accessibility to information technological services; the usefulness of the resources; the relevance of study material and study skills support. McInnis (2002) also highlights the need to focus on improving student life by creating a strong campus culture and atmosphere, while encouraging peer and academic learning communities to assist with transition.

Universities encourage students to participate in activities relating to orientation. However, as argued by Kift et al. (2010), supporting students goes beyond these initial add-on activities and requires a shift in pedagogical approach to ensure students learn the skills to learn at university seamlessly and painlessly. Students also need to have a sense of agency in supporting their own transition to university and need to identify ways in which they can help themselves in making the transition as easy as possible. Gail talked about the importance of quickly getting help as a result of attending transition days and, through her peer mentor, the help offered by the university:

There was also the peer networking program that helped a lot as well but apart from that if I didn’t find people quite quickly through those then I think I would’ve struggled a bit more.

Rowan said that while he found the ‘knowledge side’ easy to manage, it took him some time to understand that it was possible to ask for help from university counsellors and other staff when it was needed. He said:

The biggest challenge for me was understanding how uni works … so if you need help you just say ‘I need an extension’ and you can apply for one and you can go and talk to the counsellors and you can say ‘Look this is what’s going on’.

Following on from this, Jen suggested that students need to actually experience what is required of them in order to understand it:

You don’t know what you don’t know … it’s not so much just seeking the information but it’s you don’t know that you need those tools to write, to research, until it’s put right in front of you and you actually get to experience it.

This comment is also insightful:

[Uni is] different from high school, but it’s meant to be. You’re meant to be treated as an adult, told that you have to manage your assignments in your own time and not have teachers peering over your shoulder all the time to help—but these are the things I like most about uni, and I think a lot of people would agree, once they got used to it. (19-year-old female, continuing survey)

It demonstrates that once the FiF students gain confidence in how to navigate their university environments and understand what is expected of them, the transition becomes manageable.

4.8 Conclusion

For many of these students, staying the course despite the academic, social and emotional hurdles has been immensely empowering. Their broadly successful collective transition into university—both in academic and personal development terms—has allowed the FiF students to feel they could complete the degree and be part of university culture. This final point is important: attending university—let alone thriving once there—was often framed in their responses as something that for a long time was considered outside of their scope because other family members had not previously attended. By studying at university, these students have developed a robust belief in their abilities, and through their successful transition into university, they have gained greater confidence and a willingness to mentor students from similar backgrounds to navigate the often treacherous terrain of transition.

There are numerous elements to the transition process which require managing by universities and there are others that the students themselves need to address. Both our previous and current research show that managing student expectations by providing clear and consistent messages about what to expect and what is required to succeed will help all students to transition into and across their university studies. Orientation for commencing students has been shown to be most effective when conducted over an extended period of time, of up to a full year, rather than as a short one-off at the very start of a student’s academic studies (Larmar and Ingamells 2010; Padgett et al. 2013). Equally, orientation and transition initiatives have been shown to be most effective when embedded into students’ experience of engagement within the curriculum as part of their discipline or program of study, and when designed expressly to foster students’ sense of belonging to their discipline-based academic community.

The diverse factors impacting transition suggest that university staff need to realise how different students are and, as discussed by Brook and Michell (2014), that staff spend time getting to know their students. Marg eloquently reflected on the importance of appreciating that all students are different when responding to a question about the advice she would give to university managers and policymakers:

Be flexible and consider the needs of students. Appreciate how complicated life is and that it may not be possible to go to university and not work as well. Understand that everyone has a storey—and a complex set of reasons for being at university.

Many of the interviewed FiF students could arguably be seen as missing out on the knowledge of university life that is generally acquired through social networks, in this case, parents or older siblings (Smith 2011; Simmons 2013). To assist in their transition, students relied on sources of information such as previous learning contexts, university websites and recruiting information, which did not always explicitly explain ‘what university is really like’. They lacked information on how to navigate various university systems and procedures (Simmons 2013) and were often unaware of support services available to them. There was little induction or guidance on how to manage their time or adjust to the new learning environment and participants commented that they were ‘thrown in the deep end and expected to swim’ which led to feelings of being overwhelmed in the first weeks of study:

When I first started, I certainly felt like I was out of my depth, I did feel like I didn’t belong here. Because to be honest, I’ve never really seen myself as a uni student. (Travis)

This experience is consistent with other studies which have also shown that in most institutions, the expectation is placed on the new student to ‘adjust’ to university and ‘take responsibility’ for their own learning rather than on the institution to provide guidance and support (Scanlon et al. 2007; Van der Meer et al. 2010; Leese 2010). What is needed is greater recognition of what students have to say, particularly cohorts like FiF students who have heretofore been largely excluded and marginalised. Valuing their perspectives and standpoints helps to challenge entrenched institutional practices and leads to more inclusive practices for other underrepresented groups in higher education (McLeod 2011).