Enhancing the first-year university experience: Linking university orientation and engagement strategies to student connectivity and capability

Abstract

Over the past decade in Australia there has been an increasing focus in higher education on identifying cogent approaches for assisting first-year university students in their transition into the university setting. In recent years, an emerging body of literature has given emphasis to the efficacy of a range of strategies for engaging first-year undergraduate students. This article reports on a range of effective school-based university orientation and engagement activities that have been informed by the current body of knowledge on student engagement in higher education. Discussion gives emphasis to the impacts of a range of strategies on the early learning environment experiences of first-year students within the School of Human Services and Social Work at Griffith University, Australia. Attention is also drawn to some of the implications for best practice in the orientation and engagement of first-year students at the levels of the institution, academics and students. Finally, the article identifies how the school-based initiated strategies suggest a broad set of possibilities for engagement and change.