Conference theme: Transition and Adjustment

Title: A map, a bicycle and good weather: The transition to undergraduate study.

Sue Purnell

Abstract

The research described in this paper originated in a concern that there is a dearth of published literature that describes the first year experience in New Zealand. Is our experience unique, or does it reflect that of students in Australia or the USA, about whom much has been written? Nicholson (1990), describing people in transition, suggests that they need:
A map, a bicycle and good weather: The good weather is a climate of psychological safety and support, and the bicycle is the psychological freedom to explore and pathfind in the new environment; but the maps which organisations are usually able to give people are totally inadequate (1990:94).
The study aimed to answer the question What are students' perceptions of their experience of the first undergraduate year at one university in New Zealand and what are the implications for the university? This paper uses Nicholson’s (1990) Transition Cycle as a framework for exploring aspects of the student transition experience.

Full paper