ABSTRACT

Through my experience in various pastoral and teaching roles, I would argue that many entering university are anxious about some aspect of their looming educational experience. These anxieties could centre on a range of areas including the student’s academic ability, balancing study and life demands, or ‘fitting’ in. Arguably, the key to reducing these anxieties is to identify incoming students’ concerns, stresses and fears in order to minimise any potentially debilitating problems and to manage students’ expectations. Sometimes managing the student experience can be a bit like fire-fighting. An issue arises and it has to be managed. However, due to the substantial amount of research undertaken and literature available, we now know that there are many areas of potential crisis that we can pre-empt. The ideal solution would be for students and institutions to work in close partnership from first contact to identify any potential issues; for example, declaring a disability or specific learning requirement; or responsibilities of caring for an elderly or unwell parent. For students from non-traditional or widening participation backgrounds such as lower social class and ethnic groups, these concerns can be exacerbated due to their group’s characteristics (Thomas and Quinn, 2006; Solomon, 2011). This chapter discusses some of the challenges that face staff who support students from diverse backgrounds in the pre-arrival stage. It also introduces four case studies that have been implemented to address some of the key issues.