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Students’ transition into higher education from an international perspective

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Abstract

In introducing the special issue on students’ transition into higher education, we emphasise the importance of expanding our understanding of students’ enculturation in higher education. Next to this, the editorial presents a working definition on transition and takes stock of the existing empirical lines of research on the subject of students’ transition into higher education. Further, we evidence that research primarily stems from Western countries and predominantly applies either a quantitative or a qualitative approach. We argue that a more international perspective and studies using different methodologies (including mixed-method approaches) are fruitful to advance this field further. Finally, we give an introduction on the nine empirical contributions in this special issue, stemming from an equal number of countries and applying quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, IPSY–Place Cardinal Mercier 10 bte L3.05.01, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Liesje Coertjens

  2. Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Liesje Coertjens

  3. Chair for Economic Education, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

    Taiga Brahm

  4. Faculty of Education, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Caroline Trautwein

  5. Centre for Research and Development of Higher Education, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Sari Lindblom-Ylänne

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  1. Liesje Coertjens
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  2. Taiga Brahm
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  3. Caroline Trautwein
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  4. Sari Lindblom-Ylänne
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Correspondence to Liesje Coertjens.

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Liesje Coertjens and Taiga Brahm contributed equally to this article.

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Coertjens, L., Brahm, T., Trautwein, C. et al. Students’ transition into higher education from an international perspective. High Educ 73, 357–369 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016-0092-y

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