Becoming a Successful First Year Undergraduate: When Expectations and Reality Collide

The purpose of this paper is to explore how expectations of university life, examined through a tertiary studies session, can be better aligned with the reality of tertiary studies so as to increase successful transition for commencing students entering university from secondary school. Qualitative survey data were collected and analysed using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. The results of the study showed that students had similar expectations before the tertiary study session; however these did not match reality. The contrast was mainly in perceptions concerning independent learning and the differences between the learning experiences of school and university. Having completed the tertiary studies session the students altered their expectations. The findings of this study will assist in addressing retention of first year students and provide an innovative program for aligning expectations.