Transitions into and through university: stories of ducks and fish

Yesterday, I presented a talk on transitions into and through higher education from a psychological perspective at the Australian Centre for Applied Psychology (ACAP), in Sydney. Preparing and presenting the talk provoked some reflections on transitions, which I share here.

Early in my teaching career, I recognised two key issues that seemed to affect how students approached a transition to university. Both were related to skills – partly, it was about whether students had the skills they needed to navigate university study, but given the right support, students could (and did) learn skills. The second issue was how confident students felt about those skills. Developing confidence, it seemed to me, seemed almost as important as developing the skills themselves. And both issues could relate to where students came from, as well as the university experience itself.

Let’s pause for a moment – what does transition mean to you? Thinking back to starting university myself, I remember feeling like a ‘fish out of water’. I was the first in my family to get a degree, I was extremely nervous, I might not be ‘bright’ enough, I might not be ‘posh’ enough. On my first day, I wore a smart skirt and blouse, because I had no idea what university students wore. I also made the mistake of wearing court shoes, on a rainy day, and slipped on a shiny tarmac surface, falling flat on my backside. I was mortified, and very nearly went home. I still hadn’t set foot in a classroom.

This concept of transition as a struggle, a problematic experience filled with self-doubt and steep learning curves is prevalent in the literature. Yesterday, at ACAP, I asked colleagues to share their transition experiences. People talked about fear, but also about being excited. The importance of social support echoed through everyone’s stories – leaving behind friends and family, making new friends, or going to university with friends from school. Transition is not just an academic experience, it’s a social process too.

At the HEA, I led a project called ‘Tackling Transitions’. We held a series of events, with school teachers, university lecturers, and students, and explored their views of transition through thematic analysis. A common theme was that there was a skills gap for students starting uni; students didn’t know what they were supposed to be adjusting to, including different teaching and assessment styles, and a different learning environment. School and college education were not seen as good preparation for university study, but there was a real enthusiasm from all delegates to collaborate to support students through the transitional experience.

Later, I wrote a paper with my BPS DART-P colleagues, Andy Holliman and Kevin Wilson-Smith, with input from Charlotte Taylor. We synthesised four different perspectives on transition. From Andy, we learned that students can develop adaptability, to improve their engagement and academic success. I noted from the tackling transitions project that the university environment is part of the challenge. Students who struggle are not ‘deficient’ in adaptability; we need to identify systemic factors that influence transition. Charlotte talked about her experiences of making the transition from psychology undergraduate student, to PhD student, to an early career academic supporting other PhD students. Throughout her account, the importance of social support from mentors, colleagues, tutors, and friends, was evident. Finally, Kevin told us about research he had conducted on kindness in academic contexts, and the ways in which kind peers can promote wellbeing.

That social support is a buffer that supports transitions isn’t surprising. We know that social support is protective, reducing the probability that people will experience or relapse into mental ill health. Facilitating students’ adjustment at university means helping them to integrate socially, and develop a sense of belonging.

However, there is a hidden discourse here: we are framing transition as a problem with which students need help. According to Gale & Parker (2014): “…the normative and the universal discourses of transition do not capture the diversity of student lives, their experiences of university, or of universities themselves”. For some students, transition is exciting, filled with opportunities: it is an adventure!

Indeed, challenges can be valuable. We learn from uncertainty, and we are transformed by it (as per Meyer & Land’s 2005 threshold concepts). According to Ecclestone, Biesta, & Hughes (2010, p. 2) “…transitions can lead to profound change and be an impetus for new learning, or they can be unsettling, difficult and unproductive. Yet, while certain transitions are unsettling and difficult for some people, risk, challenge and even difficulty might also be important factors in successful transitions for others.” Transition might be both a challenge AND an adventure. Students might feel like ‘fish out of water’, or they might take to university like ‘ducks to water’ – or they might combine these experiences.

This resonates with my experience of starting university – I learned that I have strong academic competences and capabilities, and that I can adapt to changing social environments. I did well, and in the end, despite the self-doubt, I thrived.

Naomi Winstone and I have just published a book chapter that attempts to capture these diverse experiences. Students at the University of Surrey reported on their perceptions of their own skills at the start and end of their first year at university. For some skills, such as note-taking, and avoiding plagiarism, students grew in confidence. For others, such as managing their reading, the students experienced a decline in confidence. We suggest that these changes are evidence of an expectation-reality gap; skills demanded for university study are different than the students expected, and it takes time to master them.

Students also reported that there were similarities between the transition from GCSE to A level, and transition to university. Workload, level of academic difficulty, and level of independent learning increased at both transition points. Most interestingly, they told us that they learned from this earlier transition: they knew that they could improve their skills, and that they could navigate transitional experiences successfully.

These findings reminded us that student transitional experiences are diverse. There is no single “student voice” at university. Each student has their own unique experience of navigating the academic environment, the learning environment, and their own personal identity during transition. Encouraging students to reflect on their own personal journey through education may help them to navigate the transition to university. This can also help with transitions into second and third year, into postgraduate study, and employability.

There is a tendency to target groups who may be at risk of ‘challenging’ transitions for intervention. International students, students from different demographic backgrounds – all have received special attention from universities. This is well intentioned, but it problematises the transition experience, telling students that they WILL find transition difficult. As a student from a low socioeconomic status background, telling me I was going to find university tough, and that I needed to be resilient, wasn’t the way to help me. Instead, I remember another student, a year ahead of me, sharing her experience. I can’t now remember her name, but she helped me to stay at university at a time when I was at risk of dropping out.

We need to encourage students to talk to each other, to share their stories, and to develop those relationships that are so important to feeling like we belong. Mentoring schemes can help, as can interactive teaching methods in class, helping students to get to know each other within the curriculum. This allows students to drive the conversations, to share their successes, as well as their problems, in a way that is meaningful to each student – that fits with their own social identity, rather than assuming that they will have the same experience as another student who shares a random demographic characteristic with them. Let’s start asking our students to help us to understand the transitions experience, by involving them in research, talking to them about what they think, and drawing on their expertise in being students to help other students. Maybe, then, we can all work together to help the fish to find their pond, and to learn to swim like the ducks.