experience can have on a student. The first two quotes are an explanation of troubles faced at university. The student commutes to university from a local town. The student has had a number of issues and has considered leaving university.
‘My first semester wasn’t right good to be honest, I suffer a lot, and I’m quite an anxious person. You wouldn’t think it and I don’t come across like that, I come across quite confident. I don’t know, I just didn’t come to uni at all. I used to come up sometimes and id drive around the car park, if I couldn’t find anywhere to park
then instead of looking at Parkside or getting the shuttlebus from Morrison’s I would just go home and back to bed. I failed my first semester practical’s because
I didn’t go to them’
‘It’s been up and down, I’ve had to kick my arse into gear a few times. I’ve handled this semester better, I’ve met my deadlines before they were due except the last one. Whereas normally I’m like the night before its due in thinking I really need to do this assignment whereas this semester I’ve done them with a good week and even been able to look at the similarity report and change it if I need to
and things like that.’
She then moves on to talk about how she felt prior to the residential.
‘Really excited to be honest, really excited because I think it’s a great opportunity to bond and get to know everybody before you’re put in an academic situation
with them and have to do group tasks and things, you already know everybody on the course to speak to anyway.’
This was her thoughts following the residential
‘The residential really helped on that side of things and in the practical’s as well because when you’re in that classroom scenario it’s hard to get to know people but in that residential and practical environment it helps you bond with everyone,
everyone here is competitive that’s why they have chosen to do sport so it’s a laugh.’
She remembers specifically the activity where she made friends
‘I liked the night walk because everyone was helping each other and we were talking to everybody and I think that is where I made most of my friends actually
on the night walk. I knew a few of the lasses but all the lads because they were terrorising everyone and found it hilarious but it was fun.’
She formed a bond with roommates
‘The rooms wasn’t that bad because I was in with three other girls, one of them I was really good friends with, I started speaking to her on applicant day and then
the other two, Shannon has dropped out because she is having a baby it was easier to integrate with the other two in the room who I’m also quite good friends
with now but our room broke, a door came off the handle so we had to up and move rooms which was interesting to say the least. At like 4 in the morning the door frame fell off. Shannon had opened the door to go to the toilet and it just fell
off, the full frame, it was hilarious.’
And continued to develop that friendship with the girls.
‘The girls you roomed with are you still in touch with them?
Yeah I sit with them in lectures, they are both called Becky, and I’ve had quite a lot of group studies. I would say the residential really helped for me to get to know everyone because I don’t live on site and I didn’t really do fresher’s, I went
out a couple of times. One of my best friends who’s not on this course but she lives on trinity close so I go out with her for fresher’s and stuff but I didn’t get to know people on my course so the residential helped. I think the social side of the residential and the night time when we were all in the bar having a drink and
stuff it helped everyone to get to know each other.’
Bonded over shared experiences.
‘I just remember getting really drunk on the second night playing save the queen. The other night we came back from the night walk really late and we didn’t get
chance to go in the bar so we just showered and went to bed. Then the second night we had tea, I sat out front, there was ducks on the lake so me and Shannon were throwing bread in, running inside and nicking loads of bread then throwing it for the ducks, then we carried on drinking for the rest of the night. Everyone was talking, it wasn’t just certain groups it was everybody getting involved and
R – Did the activities help?
I’d say the activities helped you get to know the people then then the drinking on a night time made them your friends really, it’s just how you bond really.’
These friendships created through the residential are providing a good deal of academic and social support.
‘The residential or top up day helped because the more friends I’ve got the more I’ve realised that it doesn’t matter if I’m late, just get them to get my lecture
notes so I can carry on with my day I think that help a lot. For our research methods, me Gemma, Gemma and Becca and Carrie sat in the library, after id
seen you and we were there until about nine at night trying to do this one assignment, I didn’t think I’d get it done but because of that I managed to do it
for the morning, I got up at six and finished it, I did it though eventually Are you going to do anything different next year?
I’m just going to plan way ahead. Christmas was horrible, I had like seven things to hand in and did not even started them the week before and I was proper stressed. It got me right upset and I was down. I even had to take a week off work
to get the assignments done. I won’t be doing that again, not a chance, I will be more prepared.’ (Emma)
This is a great example of the role a social support network can influence a student’s time at university and provide a platform for success. Without such networks people can feel lost and isolated. This personal account demonstrates the power having a support network can provide for a struggling student, not just socially but academically. The story here shows a student who would be considered in Wardley and Belanger (2012) research to be most susceptible to poor transition and adaptation to university. Through the platform provided by the OOP the student has persisted at university. This account is in some ways more powerful than statistically significant effect on adaptation for OOP participating students vs the control group because it adds a picture of human experience to the statistical findings. In some ways it may also be more powerful than the themes and sub themes illustrated in the combined analysis because it demonstrates these themes in action in a succinct account.
Pictures of analysis process
Figure 6.3. Coding Figure 6.4. Sub theme development