Published: June 13, 2022
Written by: Sarah Lonbay
By Dr. Helen Williams and Dr. Nicola Roberts
Dr Helen Williams and Dr Nicola Roberts have published an article based on research into how Criminology students transition to higher education – ‘I just think it’s really awkward’ : transitioning to higher education and the implications for student retention, published with @SpringerNature in the international journal, Higher Education: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00881-1. Our paper identifies three different kinds of awkwardness experienced by new students – physical or geographical, academic and social. We note that these affect students’ engagement and enjoyment of their course and can be a factor in student attrition, even when students are very interested in their studies or very motivated to get a degree. We look at the strategies that could be employed to help ease the awkwardness of starting a new course and argue that these should be subject specific rather than more general, institutional approaches.