Tom CampbellEmpowering students to “articulate” what matters

to them during the transition from college to

university

BACKGROUND

Method

A mixed-methods longitudinal approach with students followed from HNC to 4th year.

Data collection via: interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, post workshop evaluations.

In the later stages of the project students will be encouraged to become active as co-creators of transition support

Motivation Institution

Identity

MotivationChallenge

I just want it to be a wee bit more challenging and I want

to get a bit more involved with the work. I feel like

college is kind of like school so uni will feel more intense

and I’ll be a bit more focussed

It has sort of made me want to get to uni earlier because I was thinking that at uni they will give

you sort of tasks and you just get on with it and do a lot of

personal study time, so I think I would probably get on with that

a bit better, try and do that myself

I feel I need to be challenged a wee bit more academically, not that it’s not challenging the course, obviously different people find different things easier and harder

MotivationCareer

I thought it would create a sort of pathway for me to get a job in sport and I think uni will help with that in terms of giving me opportunities to work in sort of different areas

I just feel that if I don’t get that job and I have a degree I can still go down the coaching path in different leisure centres or in different private companies because like I would be able to show can hit that level.

I had applied for PE teaching at Edinburgh and….they said I could go on this course and it would still get me to where I wanted to go - PE teaching or physiotherapy

I heard of a sports development officer and that sounded quite interesting so I thought I would carry on down that path, because I thought it would be

quite good.

Motivation

I am excited/can’t wait to get to university

True False0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

I enjoy s

tudying

For t

he quali

fication

To ch

allen

ge m

yself a

cadem

ically

To pro

ve I c

an do it

It see

ms like

the r

ight th

ing for m

e

To im

prove

future

employm

ent p

rosp

ects

Other0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

If you plan to go on to university – why is this?

Institution (college)

I feel like college is kind of like school

Obviously college is similar

to school

it’s like being back at school again and that’s what I got away from.

I think it’s quite like

school in a way

It sort of, it feels a bit like school in a way, a lot of hand holding like with work they pretty much make it as easy as possible for you

because if you don’t meet deadlines here it’s a bit like school, it’s like

hand it in next week

Institution – (university) I think the workload will increase a little bit and obviously the range of knowledge or stuff that you need to learn for exams and stuff will be a bit broader and a bit more in depth

I think it’s more independent learning. I can’t imagine it being like small classes of like just now of about 20, I think it will be big massive lectures and you’re left with your own notes and you have to meet the deadlines.

my brother and sister are at uni and they seem to have a lot of work to do so whenever I’m chatting to my brother he’s like I’m just going to go to the library and do some work.

Just from people saying before that uni is more independent and there’s more work, well not more work but you’ve got to focus more and get the work done whereas in college you don’t.

I was in an environment with people who were at uni and they were balancing the uni with the football as well so obviously you could see it was quite demanding.

Institution

I understand the main differences between college and university

Strongly

Agree

Agree

Somew

hat Agre

e

Neutra

l

Somew

hat Disa

gree

Disagre

e

Strongly

Disagre

e0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

The level of work

The volume of work

Knowing how

things are

done

Fitting in Keeping up in

lectures

Finding my way around

Knowing where

to go for support

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Which of these do you think will be the most challenging?

IdentityI think it helps in a way, it

shows folk that you’re continuing with education…I

think for my own sort of identity it shows people that that I want to progress and better myself

I think that possibly, sort of the way people from my

school would think about me as sort of the majority went to university as I went to a

posh school

I just think they go out all the time. I

don’t know, I think it’s a different social

life

I don’t think I will feel any different about myself being a university student

Identity

I am proud to be a college student

Strongly

Agree

Agree

Somew

hat Agre

e

Neutra

l

Somew

hat Disa

gree

Disagre

e

Strongly

Disagre

e0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

Agree Disagree Some are, some aren’t.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

University students are no different from me

Implications

PRACTICE

EVALUATION