A brief idea of the topic this journal article displays factors that affect transition experiences from high school to university in Zimbabwe, such as academic factors, social factors, and emotional factors. This report delivers insight into a Zimbabwean university’s undergraduate students’ transition experiences and adjustment from high school. This study was centered around pupils in the first 3 semesters of university involving personal, emotional, social and academic issues. The faculty of social sciences conducted this study using a sample of 115 students who were selected using stratified random sampling. The report was qualitative and the descriptive research design using case study method was used. There were both structured and unstructured surveys used to assemble data. The demographic was made up of 56% of men. In total, 100 students responded to the survey. The respondents were asked if they have attended 100% of their lectures, but 60% of respondents claimed to have attended every single lecture, while 40% of respondents stated that they have not been able to attend all of their lectures. Socially, 56% of the students responding stated that they were satisfied with extracurricular activities provided by the university. Also, an equal amount of men and women were unsettled by the dorms provided by the university. 78% of the respondents indicated that they were satisfied with the friends they have acquired on campus. Male respondents were more social compared to the females. 88% of the responded showed a preference for group work, and that groups allow them to make more friends. When it comes to personal-emotional adjustment, 56% of the respondents stated that in campus, it has been difficult to take responsibility for themselves. The rest of the respondents (44%) stated that previously attending a boarding school allowed them to better adjust to university life. 68% of the respondents stated they had no problems coping with stress at college. Due to the lack of guidance and extra freedom, at times the students failed to have absolute boundaries on some behavior, like time management. 50% of the respondents stated that they felt moody often whole the other half did not. Females indicated moodier feelings in comparison to males. The respondents that stated that their friendships aided in their personal development were 80%. The rest stated that friendships did not affect their development. With group work, however, students experience social experience that develop their sense of independence. More than half of the respondents stated that being independent from their parents for the first time of their lives is difficult and that they still financially depend on their parents stated Julia, M., & Veni, B. (2012). Students’ inability to be financially autonomous is holding them back from being completely independent states Chickering (1993). The most important factor so far are friends when it comes to transitioning to university. The friends that the respondents acquired on campus were the main source of support for adjusting to university life. Friendships helped students make decisions stated Law (2007). Failure to adjust to university added onto moody feelings that students had, with females feeling moodier than men. Social support was the most important component of having a minimally stressful experience transitioning to university, with social support being an important factor in reducing negative effects of university life TAO 2000. This article is applicable to my topic, which is the significance of social support to students transitioning to university, however it does tackle economic issues present in Zimbabwe that are not present in the UAE.
Research emphasizes the significance of social support in minimizing the discomfort newly attending university students usually experience when they first enroll in their higher educational programs. There are five factors that emerged from the qualitative nature of the interviews, which are social support, expectation, time management, transition issues, and emotions. These are important factors that dictate how smoothly the transition from high school to university will be for undergraduate students socially, emotionally, and academically. The demographic of the respondents consisted of an Australian university’s first year undergraduates. Proposed by Moutsakas (1990), twelve partakers were recruited to contribute to the study. The respondents were composed of ten women and two men who were full-time undergraduates or part-time undergraduates. Their ages varied from seventeen years old to fourty-five years old. The respondents partook in an interview and were requested to describe their experience of commencing college and what alternations they have done in terms of the scholastic and social atmosphere. They were also requested to describe the expectations of their chosen majors and any negative or positive facets, feelings or occurrences they have had. Individually, interviews were logged, transcribed, then examined using the “constant comparative method”, which involves a permutation of inductive classification with an appraisal of all the attained “units of meaning”. So, as fresh units of meaning are learnt, they are compared with all the other units of meaning and then characterized with the comparable units of meaning. If there are no akin units of meaning, then a new classification is produced (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994). The results showed that social support is crucial in participants’ capacity to adapt to the social atmosphere within their university. One older respondent stated that she has made friends with others who allow her to feel better since they are in the same transitional period as she is. Her quote signifies the importance of interpersonal relationships at her university. Also, a critical factor to academic success derives from social support. For example, a participant stated that without her sister, she would have been unable to successfully adjust academically to her university. The participant’s quote represents the importance of social relationships in aiding academic adjustment. The realistic anticipations held by the majority of the participants aided in their capability on adapting to their new university environment. Also, many issues arose when participants first enrolled in their university which posed a challenge for them, such as adapting to the academic workload and altering their daily habits to be aligned with social and academic duties. In general, the most influential decider on whether participants have had a smooth adjusting period to university are social support networks stated Urquhart & Pooley (2007). In this study, there was a disproportionate amount of men and women, however, the results are still valid and applicable to daily life, as well as future reports citing this article as an effective source to support studies that would focus on how social support is vital to a successful integration of students to university . This article is valid and does display interesting and applicable points that affect student transitions to university, however there are a disproportionate amount of men and women present in this study, which may skew the results. Even though there are a disproportionate balance of genders in this study, the results are still effectively valid, in depth, and may be used as a great source for a similar research topic.
This study explores the experiences of first year students when it comes to social support and how that would impact their capability to adjust with university ethos. This report was conducted in a research university in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Social support influences on academic adaptation, social adaptation, and emotional adaptation which are related to student’s mental health. The research is qualitative in nature, with somewhat structured interviews to collect information from sixteen undergraduate students. Every respondent was interviewed twice to monitor alterations and developments in attaining social support from the university community, fellow classmates, and family. The data was logged using a tape recorder and then transcribed, then examined by using thematic approach. Then, the data was classified into groups. It has been evident that academic, social and emotional adjustments among newly enrolled pupils are relied on gaining socio-educational support from friends and families. Results have shown the powerful influence of students’ parents and the significance of socio-relationships for undergraduate’s mental health. The students’ independence skills are found to be critical for a successful and smooth transition to university life. The approach that was involved was a longitudinal method to examine the modifications that the transition consisted of, allowing the researchers to survey how the students adapt to this a university environment and how they react to these changes. To examine the atmosphere and varieties of support that the students have, the design of the study was decided to be qualitative. The interviews were semi-structured and were picked due to the fact that such interviews allow a profound understanding to the participants’ experiences transitioning to university (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003). Such interviews are known to be an effective method of collecting data full of detail from direct, personal experiences. By utilizing these participants’ experiences, researchers will be able to better identify factors associated with successful adaptation and well-being. The demographic of this study consisted of sixteen first year university students. The samples were picked to represent a diverse pool, in regards to gender, ethnicity, and programs within the university. The age range of the respondents varies from nineteen to twenty years old, with an equal amount of women and men. The diverse ethnicities shown by the sample consist of six Malay students, four Chinese students, and six students of Indian ethnic groups who attend varied university programs. To begin the sampling process, a transcribed letter was submitted by the university administration office for consent to begin the study. At each college, posters were pasted describing the research and eventually, sixteen students agreed to take part in the research. Information was gathered from these semi-structured, private interviews, conducted twice during the first and second semester of the respondents’ first year. The interviews were tape recorded and throughout the information gathering during the interviews, the participants were asked to clarify and confirm the researchers’ understanding of their statements, analyzed thematically. The results demonstrate that the three main resources highlighted by students were colleagues and seniors, as well as the social support attained from their relatives and school friends. Results from the report revealed that four main themes dictated undergraduates’ capabilities to adapt to university life, which are a supportive friendship, socio-educational support, family support, and adaptation. In conclusion, the results indicated that positive and higher levels of adaptation to university life were associated with higher levels of social support. Due to these findings, an important future emphasis should be placed on the advancement of constructive student group interaction in their first academic year. It is also crucial that students acquire informal social lives to guarantee a smooth transition from high school to university (Awang, M. M., Kutty, F.M., & Ahmad, A. R., 2014). The diverse range of applicants (ethnically and program-wise) as well as an equal amount of both genders makes the findings of this article as objective as possible. This study would be a wonderful source to support a similar topic one may research.
In conclusion, these articles would benefit my research due to the fact that they all tackle similar topics that I am planning on tackling as well. All of these articles display how social support is crucial for a successful and smooth transition to university and how lack thereof would be detrimental to one’s social, mental, personal-emotional, and academic experience. If first-year undergraduate students are unable to attain interpersonal or familial social-support, then they may have a difficult transition to university socially, academically, and personal-emotionally.