Creating a Transitional Space for New Students Through Pre-Induction Social Networking

Abstract

Research has highlighted the importance of social integration and a sense of belonging for facilitating an effective transition into higher education. This paper reports a case study of entrants to two geography-related undergraduate programmes who were given the opportunity to use bespoke social networking sites in the three weeks before formal university induction. The findings highlight the role of social computing in encouraging familiarity with peers, tutors, place of study and the university academic experience. It is shown that social networks can act as an effective transitional space by bringing together aspects of the familiar and unfamiliar.

Keywords:

• Social networking
• pre-induction
• transition
• retention
• geography

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their focused and useful comments. Ruth Healey provided helpful feedback on an earlier draft of this paper. Thanks are also expressed to Kim Ross and Charlotte Morgan (née Davies) for their contributions to aspects of this paper and to Derek France, Mark Bendall and Sean Dunkin for useful discussions at points throughout this project.