I’m not supposed to be here: The unsettling transition to Higher Education

Across Australia, participation rates in higher education for disadvantaged students are low; most often associated with their low socioeconomic background, rurality, and lower aspirational levels. An alternate transition model, the Thriving Transition Cycle, designed to provide an innovative, staged and cyclic approach to the transition to tertiary study was applied to first year students in the faculties of Health Science at five Australian universities. The model provided a template for support that accounted for the stages of transition successfully negotiated. Results indicate an effective, proactive cycle of support that invites learning and growth, rather than being driven by procedure and triggered by crisis.