The first few months at university are undoubtedly some of the most challenging for new arrivals. Filled with timetables, uncertainty and often anxiety, adapting to the many changes that come with being a fresher is not easy. Those of us who have been through this often pass down stories of quickly making friends with neighbours; a lecturer who went the extra mile to make sure you settled in well; a keen coursemate who helped you find the lab. However, this is not always the experience shared by all students.
For many students, the transition is a daunting step. Beyond the challenge of navigating a new city, finding a new circle of friends, and getting lost in your own department, students have to adjust to demanding teaching strategies, higher expectations and pressure, and unfamiliar technologies.
Addressing this transition by offering targeted support to students is crucial in ensuring a successful transition and subsequent success, with many educators tackling this challenge head-on using projects that aim to ease certain issues, whether academic, social or technological. Within the most recent LearnSci Teaching Innovation Awards, there were a number of impressive examples of educators putting in the hard work to ease transitions for their students. Read on to be inspired!
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Reducing student anxiety and easing the transition into labs at the University of Glasgow
Laboratory practicals are a big part of a science degree or foundation year, and yet are an often-overlooked challenge for students. Many students won’t have experienced the scale of a university lab before, and alongside navigating their lectures, tutorials and assignments, must adapt quickly in order to succeed. Dr Smita Odedra and Dr Linnea Soler at the University of Glasgow observed just that: first-year chemistry students often struggled with various aspects of the lab, from larger class sizes to new equipment, protocols and even working with a lab partner they may not know.
To tackle this, Drs Odedra and Soler set out to alleviate these barriers for students and improve their transition into the lab with a series of e-resources. With a focus on reducing anxiety and cognitive load, the resources included interactive quizzes, virtual tours, simulations of typical lab noises and other e-learning resources that students could read through before entering the lab for the first time. The activities were incredibly well-received by students and had over 4500 interactions after being incorporated into a first-year synthesis lab.
With further funding from the university, the team at Glasgow are also developing resources to support students in lab safety and lecture learning. This holistic approach to student support and wellbeing is reflective of their passion for creating an inclusive learning environment that sets students up for success and helps them feel like they belong.
Pre-arrival support and skills development at the University of Kent
As well as helping students to transition once they’ve arrived at university, there is the opportunity to implement support before they even step foot on campus. Dr Alexandra Moores and Dr Emma Hargreaves at the University of Kent have taken advantage of this, developing a ‘pre-arrival hub’ that students can access before their first week. The hub includes video introductions from key staff, support materials and relevant guidance.
Using the LearnSci Direct platform for the hub means that students can access information before getting their university logins, ensuring support well before arrival. The hub also enables the early identification of gaps in cohort knowledge as well as students who may need extra support, allowing for more successful and timely intervention once they start studying.
To do this, Dr Moores and her colleagues use the insight from a numeracy Smart Worksheet that has been completed by students, to identify skills gaps and tailor the curriculum to suit the cohort’s needs. This includes targeted workshops which are delivered early on in the curriculum to build students’ numeracy skills.
Student feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive” and the success of the hub for the Division of Natural Science has led to the rollout of similar hubs across the entire institution, tailored to each division to ensure relevant support. Drs Moores and Hargreaves are now working with local schools and colleges to co-create more solutions to ease the transition to university, particularly for under-represented learners and foundation year studies.
Best practices for supporting student transition
There’s a lot to learn and take inspiration from in the projects we’ve discussed. The following best practices are a good place to start:
- Get students involved! That could be in reviewing and co-creating support offerings or checking in with them to learn what they struggle with the most.
- Utilise digital technology and collaborate with external partners to offer enhanced support.
- Think outside the box when addressing challenges that students might face.
- Adopt a holistic approach - focus on non-academic as well as academic challenges, and consider your students’ experiences as a whole.
Early support in a student's university journey is vital, and interventions such as pre-arrival or pre-lab resources can have a significant impact on belonging, confidence and long-term success at university. Adopting projects institution-wide further increases their impact and reach, helping to tackle issues across higher education like retention rates and student wellbeing.
Projects like these from the University of Glasgow and the University of Kent are a great example of the power of technology in improving and making a genuine impact on students’ first-year experiences and beyond. As Dr Linnea Soler said while presenting at the Teaching Innovation Awards day in April 2025, students often arrive “carrying a cloak of wounds” that educators cannot - and should not - ignore. Healing these “wounds” and working to make education accessible to all students, no matter their lived experiences, is truly transformational.
You can read more about both projects mentioned in this article, along with other inspiring work, on our Teaching Innovation Awards page.
