School or service provider

How first-year university students position themselves to their studies

Authors

• Hanna Koivisto Itä-Suomen yliopisto, YTHS
• Katri Komulainen Itä-Suomen yliopisto
• Hannu Räty Itä-Suomen yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.89073

Keywords:

first-year university students, university studies, small stories, positioning

Abstract

In this study we were interested in how first-year university students experience the beginning of their university life as they enter the modern university. We examined how first-year students construct their view of themselves in their small stories, how the beginning of the university studies appears from their viewpoint and what kind of meanings they attach to the university and its social environment. Our research data consisted of 64 new students’ written responses to our semi-structured questionnaire. We treated our research material as small stories, and in our analysis, we utilised the concepts of category, dimensions of identity, and positioning. We found several types of positioning in the students’ small stories and named those positions Traditional Academic, Pupil, Customer and Visitor. In addition, we found several categories. The so-called “good student” category was constructed in a similar way in both Traditional Academic and Pupil newcomer narratives, but the students’ relationship to it varied. The narratives of Customers constructed an instrumental “project” relationship towards studies. The Visitors’ position to studies and university manifested ambivalence. Furthermore, tutors, student associations and the university in general appeared very different depending on the position from which they were viewed. We reflect on the meaning of our results in enhancing the understanding of the transition to university studies and what our findings could bring into the new student orientation.