This keynote focuses on the academic, social, and emotional experiences of students in higher education. We reflect on the inclusive practices developed through our research projects, which aimed to better understand and support student experiences. We begin by sharing our research on the strategies of high-achieving students, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds. Then, we introduce the concept of the ‘ideal student’ to promote transparency in the expectations of students in higher education, which is particularly important in the transitional experiences of first-year university students. We conclude by sharing the resources developed from our research as we reflect on how these practices and materials can foster diversity and inclusivity and strengthen students’ positive experiences in higher education.

References

New international students who move to a new country for their studies usually tend to face Culture Shock. This can negatively influence their academic performance. But do they have a chance to prepare themselves and minimize the Culture Shock in this crucial moment of their studies?

This presentation is focused on a study that explores the transition to university and the first-year experience of Ethnic Minority Female students at a predominantly white American insitution located in Italy. The presenter will highlights the results of the study and offer insight on possible low-cost measures that any instituion could take to support this underrepresented student population during their first-year experience in college; including a detailed description of the First Year Seminar used at the Institution. 

From Consultation and involvement of students to real participation and partnership by students in Student services.  In this presentation, together (student representatives and colleagues from student services ), we will illustrate how the vision and priorities of the student associations and the new vision and organizational model and principles of Student services fit together.

This poster presentation is about the blended embedment of online study skills courses in the student services guidance initiatives and their use in faculties, both within and outside the curriculum. We also want to highlight how the project team actively promotes and encourages their blended use.

In organizing remedial activities, do we really reach the students who need the support most? And do students with the intention to remediate really follow through on that? And if they do, does this support their study success? We provide thought-provoking evidence from two different projects.

The Bachelor program at Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria has been revised to enhance students' experience and reduce dropout rates through the implementation of a STEM Introductory module. It consists of lectures, exercises, soft-skill courses, and a final project. This contribution focuses on the engineering mechanics part and how it supports students. 

We present the strengths and challenges faced by our three institutions in delivering supportive approaches to encourage self-reflection and self-awareness of skill sets.  Examples will be presented on how we enabled positive outcomes in personal development using collaborative learning technologies (e.g. Pebblepad, Career Pulse)  to ensure inclusive engagement to support student success.

The transition from secondary school to university is a major challenge. At ETH Zurich we offer so called “PrestudyEvents” to all freshly enrolled BSc-students with the objective to prepare for this transitional challenge. In 2019 we changed the event design and evaluated its effects on First Year Students.

Not only the transition from secondary school to university is a challenge, but also entering a university as a new MSc-student. At ETH Zurich we offer a so called "Check-in" to all freshly enrolled MSc-students. In this Show & Tell we discuss event design and its potential effects on student's academic success.

Our presentation will outline ongoing student-led projects researching online and hybrid learning experiences. We will describe the creative research methods adopted in this project, explore the first year student opinion of online and hybrid learning experiences, and showcase the effect of student-staff collaboration on strengthening the learning environment at university.

“Safe student” is a module-based game, where students can learn about different topics (e.g. Structure your day, Handle stress, Loneliness, First aid) through interactive learning. The game teaches students basic knowledge about the different themes and gives them helpful pointers on how to have a better student life.

What practices in FYE arose from the pivot to emergency remote and hybrid instruction during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic? Which have continued to stay in use? What practices went away? The poster will showcase how academic and student development units at a private American university answers these questions.

The EDGE framework is designed to recognise, incentivise, and reward student engagement. This poster, and demonstration of the bespoke digital platform, will show how students discover ways to get involved in university life, and reflect on their activities, that evidence their experiences in a personal and meaningful way.

Many of us offer coaching and advisory services to students, especially in the First Year. We love to empower them to be successful and make progress. But are we really furthering them in their personal development?

This presentation will give an overview of the 10-year growing pains and successes of a first-year seminar that launched in 2022.  It will be organized in a #1-10 approach describing specific classroom practices that were retained, replaced, or revised. Q & A will focus on sharing attendees’ practices and experiences.

The study progress dashboard helps first year students to better understand their personal academic situation through visualised information about their study progress, including insightful comparisons with actual and historical students’ trajectories, explanations and support messages, and signposting links. The poster will demonstrate the tool, its development process and first evaluation.

To support student understanding in assessment feedback literacy, an issue documented at both the University and nation level, we developed a formative Stage 1 peer review exercise using the digital resource Turnitin® PeerMark. This initiative positively supported the success of our student cohort to improve their assessment marks overall.

As opposed to a presumed generic approach in study coaching, this workshop gives an overview of an alternative, atypical approach with elements as ‘serendipitous listening’, idiosyncratic stories of students, sense making, overarching themes and ego reinforcement. After a general introduction, some rather provocative statements will be discussed in small groups.

This poster presents a literature review of the transition experience of non-traditional students. The review revealed a considerable gap in addressing the cognitive domain of the transition experience including academic literacy skills and the learning process. Therefore, the need for further exploratory research in this area is required to ensure student success.

The Skills Acquisition in Year 1 Psychology & Business Undergraduate Students study investigates how our first year students understand and prioritise their skill development, particularly in relation to their expectations of their course and previous educational experiences.

This presentation shares the methodology and early findings from the first year of a unique four-year longitudinal study at a UK university. The Student 2025 project follows 100 undergraduate students from a diversity of backgrounds with the aim of enhancing institutional understanding of factors that influence disparities in student outcomes.

Abertay’s Student Success Officers (SSO) are recent graduates who have first-hand experience of being a student, of Faculty and of the student facing processes of the University. The primary responsibility is to provide proactive, tailored interventions to students that encourage them to make positive learning decsions. We will share details of Abertay’s SSO model as well as feedback from its staff and students.

In this workshop the participants will deep dive into practical tools implemented at the University of Oulu, Finland, to support first year students’ transition into university studies and attaching to the community. In addition, we’ll present how to support students' self-leadership and development of study skills throughout the study path via online course.

Our Show & Tell will introduce the LEAPS Transitions Course - how we are supporting the successful transitions of  school students from South-East Scotland into first year study. We will outline core objectives, our partnerships, practise, and how we strive to support the development of positive academic identities.

Fear of failure is a main reason for students to seek help from a psychologist at VUB. The existing training did not always meet first-year student’s needs. Therefore a new program with a focus on both dealing with fear of failure and on social and academic integrations has been developed.

Students’ mindfulness of their own needs, self-compassion, and a low propensity to procrastinate have a strong impact on academic performance, student well-being, and student satisfaction. At UAS Upper Austria a specifically developed disposition survey supports students to reflect upon their strengths and challenges; on the basis of individual survey results, personalized and anonymously available support measures help students to enhance academic as well as life skills which form the basis for student success.

What is the impact of introducing a co-creation approach into the assessment of a first-year module? This presentation shares the practice of introducing co-creation into a first-year module, and the data generated from the process. This approach was undertaken with the intention of improving new students’ experience, engagement levels, and academic results.

An evaluation of the online adaptation of a learner-directed, universal support programme (Life Tools) for students’ personal development is presented. Students’ self-rated impact on key outcome areas and qualitative experiences of online delivery are reported. We reflect upon benefits associated with online support provision and practice points for effective delivery.

Developed through cross-sector collaboration and a survey of programme leaders in Scotland, this manifesto sets out what higher education institutions can do to support programme leaders, who have a pivotal role in the first year experience. Our session aims to solicit feedback from delegates across the world, with an interest in programme leadership support.

Wondering how to better serve students from under-represented groups/disadvantaged backgrounds in the transition to and first year of higher education? So are we. For the very first time, we share our initial findings of the Erasmus+ project SURFY. We present our process for system change, the database of collected practices and initial insights on transferability.

You will be introduced to Wellbeing tutoring in which students can find something meaningful to their life. In the presentation you will be introduced how we have created a functional and successful peer to peer project which has reduced loneliness among university students in Oulu.

This paper considers the first year experience by re-examining the concept of community of practice in relation to the first year experience by  drawing upon the later philosophical  work of  Ludwig Wittgenstein (1958/2010). I argue that the first year consists of an initiation of practices that can be acquired through training.

Teachers are bound by time and space. This paper aims to answer 'can chatbots offer new ways to extend a teacher’s presence and knowledge availability to learners?' The scope to use interactive resources such as chatbots within and beyond classrooms, shall be explored by taking an evidenced based approach.

This session will give participants insight into how Hasselt University creates an institution-wide collaboration between student support services and peers. We will discuss two practices (buddy programme and testimonials in seminars) and how we embed them in our mainstream activities.

To support new students in developing autonomy and competence during the first year, we set up an inclusive and university-wide buddy programme (i.e. peer support) to increase study success. A unique collaboration is established among all stakeholders (students, faculty, student unions and student support services) to create academic and social bonding.

This study explores students’ perceptions of peer and teacher interactions within First-year Learning Communities and characteristics explaining positive or negative experiences. Interactions are positively valued when students experience peers’ and teacher’s learning support, social connectedness, and active class participation. Active participation and learning support were promoted by students' positive social connections with peers and teacher.

How do you make 12000 adults fit for the first year of uni? Keep in mind that they have divergent life trajectories, and they are scattered across the country. In this presentation we show three digital interventions: workshops for budding legal eagles, language bridging courses and a peer-to-peer programme for developing academic writing skills.

The presentation describes how peer tutors and new students can get acquainted with the services of the university campuses using a game application. By gamifying the introduction to campus services, it has been possible to create a motivating and group-building way to get to know the university campuses and their services.

The presentation describes practices in the new students’ orientation and explains how orientation and peer tutoring support the collaborative start of studies at the University of Eastern Finland.

The implementation of the peer guidance service is based on student feedback and the Student2Student peer guidance service concept already in use at UEF. The aim is to provide a low-threshold service for new students with advice on questions related to starting studies, as well as a support service for academic subjects.

As an attempt to encrease the experience of coherency between pre-boarding and onboarding we have developed an online self-study pre-boarding program and a tutor training program build on and desinged to adress the same principples: sense of belonging, self-afficacy and perception of curriculum. The combination of the two initiatives create a much needed link between pre-boarding and onboarding.

The amount of information first-year students have to deal with at the start of their studies can be overwhelming. To provide an easy-to-consume, interactive info package with lots of guidance right from the start, we created the video-based and free available "SOS MOOC" for all TU Graz beginners.

This Show and Tell will share the University of Derby’s collaborative approach to supporting underrepresented students with the transition to university. The session will share the Widening Access and Student Engagement team’s theory of change, highlighting the post-16 activities underpinned by theory, designed to support pre-arrival transition skills.

Coffee with ADDed Conversation, bringing academic skills and staff of the Academic Development Department to life from behind a screen during a global pandemic. A new approach to teaching academic skills, through unscripted and at times funny chat show style conversations that replicated the natural academic and professional office-based conversations. The spelling of ‘ADDed’ conversation is a play on words in recognition of the Academic Development Departments, Acronym - ADD.