‘It’s like two different worlds’: the multifaceted nature of social support in students’ transition from high school to a problem-based learning undergraduate programme

ABSTRACT

The transition from high school to university often amounts to a muddled process, making it both an exciting and challenging time for many undergraduate students. Integrating both academically and socially is key in this respect. Social support from peers and teaching staff, but also from family and friends, can have a decisive impact. A learning environment in which one would expect social support to be more evident, is Problem-Based Learning (PBL). Here, learning revolves around small, collaborative groups, with closer ties between students and teaching staff. We explore the role of social support in a PBL environment by looking at students’ experiences in- and outside the classroom. Based on fourteen in-depth student interviews, we find that the requirements of a PBL environment – particularly in terms of self-regulated learning, workload, and pace – can be a source of stress. As such, students encounter familiar transition problems concerning the inter-related issues of independence, structure, and well-being, and family and friends play a key role in dealing with these issues. However, PBL can also stimulate social support and help students integrate, especially through its emphasis on work in smaller groups and the structure offered by regular meetings.

KEYWORDS:

• Problem-based learning
• social support
• transition to university
• undergraduate students
• internationalisation

Introduction

The first year at university is key to students’ persistence (Brahm, Jenert, and Wagner 2017; Coertjens et al. 2017). While this can be a stimulating time in some ways, it can be unsettling in others. For some students, the fundamental changes university brings to their life may result in feelings of anxiety, loneliness, loss, and depression (Alsubaie et al. 2019; Christie 2009; Thurber and Walton 2012). Indeed, as Gale and Parker (2014) explain, periods of transition in life are about the ‘capability to navigate change’ (737). They maintain that the transition to university is a process of ‘becoming’, which is experienced differently by different students.

In this context, it is well-established that adjusting to university does not just require academic integration, but also social integration (Tinto 1997; Wilcox, Winn, and Fyvie-Gauld 2005). That is, ‘activities and experiences that help students to connect or adjust to the social fabric of higher education and aid their psychosocial development and integration into a HEI [Higher Education Institution] environment’ (Gallagher and Gilmore 2013, 277). Related to this is social support, which is more specifically concerned with the kinds of support students receive and how they experience this. Social support is based on social relationships and networks that are likely to change over time, especially during periods of transition.

Active learning environments can offer a particularly supportive setting. They usually come with engaging learning activities and a greater sense of belonging due to closer relations with peers and with teaching staff (Thomas 2002; Tinto 1997). One example of active learning is Problem-Based Learning (PBL). In a PBL environment, teaching and learning predominantly takes place in small groups. There is ample research on how PBL works in class and what this means for the quality of learning (Maudsley, Williams, and Taylor 2008; Wijnen et al. 2017). However, these studies do not look at social aspects of PBL nor at social support outside scheduled classes (Gallagher and Gilmore 2013).

We explore the multifaceted nature of social support in students’ transition to and persistence in a PBL environment through fourteen in-depth interviews with students from a three-year international and interdisciplinary European Studies undergraduate programme at a Dutch university. During the interviews independence, structure, and well-being emerged as three key ‘resources’ to navigate change (Gale and Parker 2014). We find evidence that the requirements of an active learning environment, particularly in terms of workload and the relatively fast pace of studies, can be a source of stress. Moreover, and notwithstanding their different experiences, students still encounter familiar transition problems – be it at different times and due to different backgrounds and circumstances. Support outside of university, such as from family and friends, plays a key role in dealing with these issues. At the same time, an active learning environment can indeed foster social support through its emphasis on working in smaller groups and the structure offered by regular meetings.

The transition to university and the importance of social support

The transition from high school to university is important to students and the first year is often essential for their chances of completing their studies (Brahm, Jenert, and Wagner 2017; Coertjens et al. 2017). The literature suggests that this is not a straightforward process. Several students are confronted with problems related to academic, practical, and personal issues, including having to get used to a new learning environment (Alsubaie et al. 2019; Bosse 2015). Moreover, transition is not simply a matter of a change of environment. Students have different reasons for studying and their road to higher education may have varied substantially (De Clercq et al. 2018; Willems, Coertjens, and Donche 2022).

Transition is a multifaceted and often messy process in which students muddle through what is often a life-changing phase. Students’ own background and experiences play an important role in this process. We thus understand transition as a process of ‘becoming’ (Gale and Parker 2014). This perspective is sensitive towards how students’ diversity – their different backgrounds and their varying experiences – shapes their transition to university. As Gale and Parker (2014, 744) explain, it is important to consider ‘the ongoing changes, transformations, and the back-and-forward movements experienced by many people’.

The capability of students to navigate such changes includes the resources at their disposal (Gale and Parker 2014). These may be material as well as immaterial, and cognitive as well as non-cognitive (Willems et al. 2019). Apart from prior education, Willems, Coertjens, and Donche (2022) emphasise students’ motivation and learning strategies. Capability, however, also includes the ability of students to apply the resources at their disposal. Social support may prove critical in this respect. Not only can it improve students’ desire and ability to engage in certain behaviour, but it is also positively related to, for instance, well-being (Alsubaie et al. 2019; Xerri, Radford, and Shacklock 2018).

Seeing transition as becoming suggests that students engage with different forms of social support at different times (see also Willems, Coertjens, and Donche 2022). Here, we zoom in on four aspects of social support that reoccur in the literature. The first concerns students’ individual characteristics. Students often rely on previous experience to navigate their transition to university. Yet university comes with new academic norms and values, such as autonomy and independence, and with structural changes to the social context in which learning unfolds, such as daily routines, workload, and learning environment (Christie et al. 2008; Russell et al. 2022). Dealing with such issues is complicated as students also have to re-establish their identity, which can bring much insecurity (Briggs, Clark, and Hall 2012; Tinto 2017).

The second aspect concerns the home environment, including the pre-university environment of family and friends. Students’ experience in their new student life, including whether they are living at home or on their own, also matters. Several studies highlight the role that family can play in supporting students (Alsubaie et al. 2019; Ratelle, Simard, and Guay 2013). Harper, Zhu, and Marquez Kiyama (2020) note that parents themselves might transform from being guardians to acting as coaches ‘wanting to encourage independence and problem solving’ (17).

The third aspect of social support concerns students’ social environment, which refers to making friends, but also to for instance having a job or being a member of an association. Peer support is important for students’ autonomy and well-being (Räisänen et al. 2020; Ratelle, Simard, and Guay 2013). As relations with high school friends may decline (Oswald and Clark 2003), the quality of new friendships is significant to the transition and adjustment to university (Buote et al. 2007; Wilcox, Winn, and Fyvie-Gauld 2005). According to Thomas (2002), ‘students identify their friends as their new ‘family’’ (436), which can be particularly important for international students (Räisänen et al. 2020; Thurber and Walton 2012; Xerri, Radford, and Shacklock 2018).

The university environment is the last aspect of social support. Having a sense of belonging to and acceptance by this environment is important. Tinto (2017) explains how interaction in- and outside of the classroom setting can contribute to students’ experience of higher education. This concerns issues such as community feeling and relations with teaching staff, including their potential role in supporting new students (Wilcox, Winn, and Fyvie-Gauld 2005). The extent to which staff are actually able to support students is however uncertain (Gale and Parker 2014; Thomas 2002; Willems, Coertjens, and Donche 2022).

Social support in active learning environments

Active learning can provide new students with a particularly stimulating and supportive learning environment, facilitating their academic and social integration (Thomas 2002; Tinto 1997). As Park and Choi (2014) show, traditional, lecture-based settings facilitate relatively little interaction between teaching staff and students, as well as amongst students themselves. In contrast, small-scale, active learning classrooms foster more communication and interaction (see also, for instance, Willems, Coertjens, and Donche 2022). This gains further importance given the increasingly diverse and international student body, which creates new challenges concerning the exchange of knowledge. Indeed, students’ engagement in active learning environments can aid community building and exchanges between international students (Bijsmans et al. 2022).

One form of active learning is Problem-Based Leaning (PBL). In PBL students are at the centre of the learning environment and take the lead in shaping their learning process. Active construction of knowledge takes place in the context of specific problems, with students discussing problems and literature, and exchanging ideas and arguments. Teaching staff act as facilitators of this learning process (Bijsmans 2024; Wijnen et al. 2017). PBL is accredited for its closer interactions between students and staff, which can help to create a sense of community that contributes to students’ study success (Severiens and Schmidt 2009). Attending PBL tutorials even helps induce a feeling of community when not all students actively participate (Remedios, Clarke, and Hawthorne 2008).

At the same time, students new to PBL often report it to be a challenging environment. Variation between teaching staff and a degree of uncertainty and frustration about what it is exactly that they are learning, can result in students feeling uncomfortable and insecure (Maudsley, Williams, and Taylor 2008). Furthermore, PBL puts a strong emphasis on students’ ability to regulate their own learning process, which students may not have become acquainted with in high school (Wijnen et al. 2017). International students face additional challenges, for instance due to different expectations about staff-student relations, communication styles, and writing conventions (Frambach et al. 2014; Thurber and Walton 2012).

As such, research shows that students in a PBL environment encounter similar sources of stress to students in a traditional learning environment. Yet, learning and interaction in PBL tutorials is perceived as less stressful than learning and interaction in traditional classroom settings (Moffat et al. 2004). This raises the question what kind of social support students seek and receive in a PBL environment, and how they perceive that support.

Research approach

Taking the perspective of transition as becoming, we explore the way in which PBL fosters social support in Maastricht University’s Bachelor in European Studies (BA ES). Founded in 1976, Maastricht University was one of the first universities to introduce PBL to all programmes. The BA ES is an interdisciplinary programme, fully taught in English, with students from all over Europe. During their first year, students on average spend 10 h per week in class and are expected to study around 25 h outside of class. Course periods last 4–8 weeks, with the last week devoted to exams. A typical week in Year 1 consists of two 2-h interactive lectures and three 2-h tutorials. In tutorials students collaborate in groups of maximum 15 students, guided by a tutor. The group composition changes after each course period. Students’ work relies heavily on cooperation with their peers and requires the ability to manage time and stay on top of things.¹

To study social support in the transition to a PBL environment, we interviewed students about their first-year experience in- and outside the classroom. Initially, we approached second-year students for our interviews, given that they are well-placed to reflect on their transition to and first year at university. A few months into the project we also reached out to students in their first and third year to get a broader insight into the range of different experiences. We contacted all students in the programme via newsletters and the programme’s official Facebook page and reminded them about our call for participants during lectures.

Sixteen students contacted us and indicated that they were willing to be interviewed. Upon starting our research there were no specific requirements to obtain ethical approval at our faculty, but we followed general guidelines for research with human participants. Prior to the interviews we provided students with information about the project and asked them to complete a consent form. We also gave them the opportunity to ask questions and informed them that they could withdraw at any stage. Two students initially agreed to participate but eventually withdrew.

Our findings are based on fourteen semi-structured, in-depth interviews. This may appear to be a relatively low number. However, our aim was to acquire rich details to study the complexity of transition to university and the role of social support therein, which makes the quality of the interviews more important than their quantity (Daniel and Harland 2018). The in-depth nature of the interviews has also allowed us to learn from students’ stories about their everyday lives, which is key to understanding their actual experience in what is often a messy process of navigating change (Gale and Parker 2014). Some of the research discussed here is based on similar numbers of interviews (Awang, Kutty, and Ahmad 2014; Christie 2009; Raaper, Brown, and Llewellyn 2022). Importantly, interviewees represented students with different backgrounds and different experiences of studying during their first year.²

To guarantee their privacy, interviewees were pseudonymised (Table 1). Our interviewees came from six different countries, one of them having dual citizenship. Six interviewees were German, reflecting the overall percentage of German students in the programme (approximately 40%). Although the representation of genders is disproportionate (in reality, approximately 50/50), it reflects general tendencies in response rate in teaching and learning research (e.g. Alsubaie et al. 2019). Interviewees had also taken different routes to the BA ES. Some students had taken a gap year, dropped out of prior studies, attended an international high school or boarding school, retaken a year in high school, or had previously spent time abroad. While most interviewees had obtained all ECTS credits at the end of their first year, some had failed courses. At the time of the interview, Carola and Thara had obtained 12.5 ECTS, while Iris had obtained no ECTS yet.

Table 1. List of interviews.

Name (alias)	Gender	Year	ECTS at the end of year 1	Date of the interview
Amber	Female	2	47 ECTS	15/01/2019
Anita	Female	3	60 ECTS	22/03/2019
Anna	Female	2	22 ECTS	13/12/2018
Ben	Cis-Male	2	46 ECTS	20/12/2018
Carola	Female	1	60 ECTS*	17/01/2019
Christine	Female	2	60 ECTS	28/01/2019
Dennis	Male	2	60 ECTS	20/12/2018
Iris	Female	1	60 ECTS*	17/01/2019
Jeroen	Male	3	60 ECTS	22/03/2019
Sacha	Female	3	60 ECTS	29/03/2019
Sander	Male	4	60 ECTS	29/01/2019
Sophie	Female	2	60 ECTS	14/01/2019
Thara	Female	1	60 ECTS*	23/01/2019
Valerie	Female	2	56 ECTS	28/01/2019

*Information obtained via e-mail in July 2019.

Interviews were conducted between December 2018 and March 2019. Interviewees were asked to reflect upon their transition to and first-year experience in PBL. The semi-structured interviews were guided by a set of questions formulated following the four key areas of social support discussed above and focussing on social support within and outside university (Appendix 1). We conducted the interviews in pairs and were generally able to ensure that the two interviewers did not know the student. Transcripts have been saved on a secure server and are available upon reasonable request.

Findings

Three interrelated topics reappeared throughout the interviews. Within the framework of transition as becoming, these topics can best be understood as resources to navigate the transition to university (Gale and Parker 2014; Willems et al. 2019). From the interviews, it became clear that students in particular sought social support to apply or develop these three resources.

First, independence is an underestimated trademark of studying in higher education and something that many students need to get used to, while teaching staff may take it for granted. Bartram (2008) writes that Dutch higher education particularly is characterised by a ‘climate of self-reliance’ (664) and an educational tradition that ‘prioritises knowledge transmission over support and welfare concerns’ (666). Many interviewees referred to independence, on the one hand, as a quality that was expected from them by both others and themselves. On the other hand, interviewees referred to independence as something that they needed support for to develop.

The second topic that featured prominently in the interviews was structure. Bosse (2015) explains that upon entering university students are confronted with new demands and organisational requirements, as well as by the need to accommodate ‘different areas of life’ (cf. Christie et al. 2008). Students look for structure and routines to navigate the looser structure of the academic learning environment. Indeed, many interviewees indicated that their usual structures and routines had changed dramatically. Yet, PBL and the ensuing community also eventually offered a new structure.

Finally, the interviewees often referred to the importance of well-being in helping to become a successful student. Well-being may refer to several things, including academic performance, physical and mental health, and the atmosphere at university. Feeling well promotes independence and routine, social engagement and health, and performance (Alsubaie et al. 2019; Awang, Kutty, and Ahmad 2014; Räisänen et al. 2020; Ratelle, Simard, and Guay 2013). A PBL environment can be psychologically challenging for new students due to the importance of group work, limited interventions of tutors, and the need stay on top things to be prepared for lectures, tutorials, and exams. Interviewees regularly reported feeling uncomfortable or insecure about what and how they studied.

These three interrelated resources do not pose challenges that are exclusive to PBL (cf. Moffat et al. 2004), but how do students perceive that they are shaped by PBL? And what kind of social support does the PBL environment offer in return?

Independence

Students in the BA ES start their studies in September. During a two-day introduction a week prior to their first classes, they are introduced to PBL and the programme. They also meet the group for their first substantive course as well as their mentor – a member of the teaching staff who supports students during their first year. These first weeks can be an extremely confronting time. While the need for self-regulation in a PBL environment may stimulate more effective learning strategies (Wijnen et al. 2017), the emphasis on independency often was challenging for the interviewees. Anita, for example, said that:

Once we reach university, it feels like that we’re a real adult now. And that we’re supposed to have figured our things out. You’re supposed to be independent; you’re supposed to be smart enough perhaps, and capable enough. Or resourceful enough.

She continued to explain that this expectation about having to be independent may also be a barrier to asking for help from teaching staff.

Several interviewees described the first weeks as intense, a feeling that often only gradually disappeared. The start was referred to as being ‘overwhelming’ by Thara, ‘a shock’ by Valerie, and being about ‘striving for my survival’ by Sophie. Their new independence was a recurring reason for why the first weeks and months at university formed such a challenging time. Only Sacha, who had engaged in demanding voluntary work for two years, indicated that her previous experience helped her feel more at ease:

For me it was actually quite relaxing in the beginning because I didn’t have that much responsibility anymore … for so many different people, for so many different things. And the studying was fine and the first year I … I felt it was quite easy, the first courses.

Whereas the number of contact hours at high school was high and many tasks were planned on their behalf, students now only had about 10 contact hours per week and had to plan the rest of their studies themselves. Most interviewees had to plan their own time for the first time in their lives. In addition, most interviewees had also moved out of their family home and into a new city in a different country. This came with new domestic and financial responsibilities, as Christine explained:

Living on your own, first it was really cool. No one told me what to do, I could sleep until 1. But then I also realised, okay I also need to do my own laundry, I have to go food shopping, I have to clean the house … 

For some, the transition came with language barriers, but also with having to make all kinds of practical arrangements related to living on their own, such as health care. For others, there was the added pressure of having to provide for themselves. Valerie noted that her fellow students did not always respect that she had to work to be able to support herself. Carola even mentioned that she sometimes felt like ‘living different lives’. There was the university in the city centre where everyone spoke English, which she viewed as a ‘bubble’ that she constantly moved in and out of; and there was her demanding job in a restaurant where everyone spoke Dutch or even the local dialect.

Not having their family around was hard for some interviewees, even though from a distance, family members were still essential for emotional support and reassurance. Peers were generally seen as having been hugely important in becoming independent. Here, the first weeks were crucial. Despite all the stress, students met their first group, which was often referred to in the interviews. Most interviews made friends in their first group to whom they often turned for help later in their studies, even though group composition changed after each course period. Anna mentioned that she found support in peers who were all ‘quite similar people’ and who were ‘all in the same boat’. Dennis mentioned that seeing how others coped ‘very much released pressure’.

Structure

When talking about their first weeks at university, many interviewees brought up a lack of structure and routines to their daily lives – particularly when compared to high school. Jeroen, for example, referred to high school and university as ‘two different worlds’. Christine talked about how finding her way around university took a while, noting that ‘everything was somewhere else, and everything changed all the time’. Iris, who had taken a gap year, struggled getting used to studying again. Anna, however, mentioned that the international school she had attended, taught courses preparing students for university. For several of our interviewees, the absence of structure meant they delayed making new friends or engaging in new activities. Dennis said ‘I almost didn’t allow myself to do anything besides studying. Because I wasn’t sure about passing the exam’.

Whereas interviewees described independence as an individual trademark expected in PBL, PBL itself was seen as a potential source of organisational structure too. Sophie said that it offered her a general framework:

I didn’t really know what to expect, except for PBL. I came here for that, so I was really looking forward to it. […] Everything is clear: where you have to go, which room, during the intro days you have this student mentor who says ‘this is the library, this is this..’ […] I had this kind of ‘oh this is gonna be okay’. I’m not gonna be lost on my first day.

For many interviewees, PBL tutorials also played an important role in connecting to peers and in seeking their help to develop new routines. Sacha, for example, explained that ‘tutorials are really great in a way that you get to know people right away. You can form groups to study’. Studying with peers did not necessarily entail collaborating on study content. Rather, studying in the same space provided a social structure for learning. For instance, Sophie spent her days ‘with my friends outside tutorials and we study together, read together. But like, not the same stuff or something, but just being together in the same room and working’. Other interviewees preferred working on their own or at home. Jeroen described studying with others as a source of confusion; Sander as a source of stress.

Several interviewees referred to the faculty and university community as a source of support in getting organised and managing daily life. At university level, they for example referred to university websites, student psychologists and Facebook groups as sources of information. At faculty level, all but one interviewee described the atmosphere as being open and supportive. Amber noted that the faculty ‘really feels like home. I mean you go to Bandito [the faculty coffee bar], you get a coffee and then … It’s a warm atmosphere’. According to Sacha, people at the faculty were ‘willing to share’, with support extending beyond studies to ‘social life related things’. Even though Carola and Valerie sometimes experienced conflicting demands from work and fellow students, they too described the atmosphere as open and supportive, which they viewed as being made possible by the emphasis on small-group, active learning. Ben, however, mentioned the contrast between his high school, where there was ‘constant contact with everyone’, and the faculty, where contact was rather on and off.

Within this faculty community, interviewees had different experiences when it comes to the role of staff. For both Anna and Amber, teaching staff added to a friendly atmosphere – with Amber saying that friendly encounters with teaching staff made her ‘feel human’, as opposed to the atmosphere at her prior studies in higher education where she had ‘felt like a number, or a sheep’. A few interviewees rather emphasised the differences between teaching staff and students. Ben even referred to a strong ‘barrier’:

I never felt really excluded from any [social] circle. Other than just, I would say, the incompatibility with the tutors, having their coffee with each other. (…) You’re not really gonna go up to them to have a conversation. I would say there is this kind of format aspect. A barrier that you don’t want to cross.

Finally, when asked about the role of staff, some interviewees referred to specific staff members – often their mentor or the student advisor. Valerie explained that her mentor and the student advisor were ‘structuring me through’, with the student advisor specifically helping her to ‘simply have that structure that I can fall back on’.

Well-being

In the interviews, the importance of well-being appeared in many different guises, such as coping with homesickness and loneliness, as well as with insecurity and stress that came with getting used to a teaching and learning environment that usually was different and more demanding than what students were used to. Whereas university and university staff were important in offering structure, when it comes to well-being, interviewees by and large turned to their (new) friends and family for social support. Friends from before university played a relatively minor role in their daily lives.

While a few students had specific mental health issues for which they sought professional help, stress was a recurring topic in all interviews and was connected to the PBL environment. For instance, Sacha commented on her studies being ‘quite hard, in a way that we have exams often. So I think that’s a high stress environment for a lot of people’. One of the challenges of studying in Maastricht’s PBL environment is indeed that, while tutorials add structure to the week, students need to be well-prepared to engage in classroom discussions. In addition, they have exams every four to eight weeks. Students who re-sit exams, usually need to manage this on top of their regular workload. Indeed, interviewees regularly referred to exam anxiety and fear of failure.

In coping with stress, the interviewees described different strategies. Some successfully managed to deal with this on their own. Iris said that when she got stressed, she would no longer study with friends but rather on her own. Christine emphasised the importance of developing habits: ‘I clean and bring the trash out. It’s kind of a rhythm you have to get used to’. Others looked for help from their mentor or the student advisor. For instance, Dennis said that during the first months of his studies he ‘didn’t take a break to have lunch, I would just eat while studying’. His mentor gave him the confidence that he was doing well and provided useful tips on how to avoid stress.

Nevertheless, interviewees referred mostly to support from their parents and newly found friends in coping with stress. For instance, Anita and Sophie were in touch with their parents daily. They talked on the phone and sent messages, also to feel supported at difficult times. Besides parents, other family members supported some interviewees during their first year in Maastricht. For instance, Anna regularly FaceTimed with her grandmother in Belgium.

A particular case concerns Dennis and his close relationship with his twin brother, from whom he was separated for the first time. His transition to university, the change of environment, and a resulting feeling of loneliness meant that he ‘lost all my self-confidence in basically two months’. Comparing his brother’s studies in Engineering to European Studies sometimes made Dennis feel insecure about his choice for what he considered to be a comparatively abstract programme. Yet, talking to his twin brother also helped Dennis to become more relaxed:

Because I knew that we were equal in terms of intellectual capacities, seeing that my brother allowed himself some free time, meant that maybe I could also take some hours just for doing some sports or talking with friends.

Not everyone had an easy relationship with their family. Carola and Valerie barely were in touch with their parents, if at all. With parents and family often not being nearby, some interviewees used the word ‘family’ repeatedly when they talked about their new friends and housemates. Anita and Valerie talked about their housemates in terms of families, including the tensions, but very much also the support offered by them. Valerie said:

I have my house, we built ourselves a family there […] We always eat together, ‘how was your day?’ […]. No phones in the eating area and just everyone sits there and has conversation to calm down after a long day.

For Sophie too, sometimes friends became family, but she also emphasised that:

Family doesn’t put any conditions on what I’m doing and what I am. And that’s the difference, because with a friend, it’s always a relationship that begins and that transforms. And only with really close friends you can be yourself 100%, always.

Discussion and conclusion

The transition from high school to university is an exciting but challenging time for students, many of whom encounter problems related to academic, practical, and personal issues. Active learning environments are thought to be particularly effective in terms of new students’ academic and social integration by creating a stimulating and supportive setting (Thomas 2002; Tinto 1997). They facilitate more interaction and communication compared to traditional learning environments (Park and Choi 2014) and students in active learning environments experience such interaction to be less stressful (Moffat et al. 2004).

We explored these assumptions through the concept of social support. Based on fourteen in-depths with students in an international PBL environment, we focused on different facets of social support in students’ daily lives, in- and outside of university. From the perspective of transition as becoming (Gale and Parker 2014) it is no surprise that interviewees had had different prior experiences before embarking on their university studies and also experienced the process of transition differently.

In line with existing research that both highlights the challenges (Briggs, Clark, and Hall 2012; Maudsley, Williams, and Taylor 2008) and opportunities (Remedios, Clarke, and Hawthorne 2008; Severiens and Schmidt 2009) that come with transition to a PBL environment, we found that PBL is both experienced as a source of stress as well as a source of structure. Having to get used to PBL and the regular pace of exams, meant that interviewees had to be active and focused from day one. As such, they did not always get sufficient time to adjust to an environment that comes with fewer contact hours, less structure, and much more emphasis on independence than most students had experienced before. At the same time, interviewees commented on the importance of being in an environment in which they could meet peers and staff and build relationships that helped them getting used to their new life – particularly with their parents usually living quite far away.

Interviewees particularly noted the open atmosphere, with some specifically commenting on the ease with which they could talk to tutors and other members of staff. At the same time, engagement with staff was not of similar importance to the interviewees. Whereas some had regular meetings with their mentor or the student advisor, others mostly only encountered staff during tutorials. Teaching staff helped to create a good atmosphere but were not necessarily seen as offering specific social support.

Making new friends was where PBL really made a difference. Students emphasised new friends as a source of social support and in particular new friendships with peers from their very first tutorial group. This may be explained by the sense of urgency to make friends and the relative openness to do so when entering university (Buote et al. 2007; Oswald and Clark 2003). Students also highlighted the culture of sharing and support among students within the programme; something that was generally accredited to the short lines among students and between students and staff within the small-scale environment. For some, new friends were more important than their family, which may be explained by the relative distance to family and the relative proximity of their new friends and networks at university and in their new city (Alsubaie et al. 2019; Thomas 2002).

Our research provides a better insight into the multifaceted nature of social support in students’ transition from high school to a PBL undergraduate programme. The resources highlighted in this study – independence, structure, and well-being – may occur in other settings too, but a small-scale active learning environment does create a specific space in which to engage with related challenges. However, just as our interviewees recalled different experiences in their transition to university and their adjustment to student life, it is likely that there are differences between students’ experiences in different PBL environments. Indeed, some of interviewees commented on their friends’ experience at other faculties or universities, where the community feeling was considered stronger (Ben) or the atmosphere more competitive (Sacha). Further research may inquire into what explains such different experiences in PBL environments. In addition, while a focus on the first year of studying at university is perfectly valid, students go through further transitions as they continue their studies (Korhonen et al. 2017). In other words, focussing on students’ experience throughout their studies is an interesting research avenue too.

As our study is based on fourteen qualitative interviews that were the result of convenience sampling, we cannot generalise our findings to a larger student population. The students whom we interviewed may have had a special interest in the topic or may have felt more confident to discuss it. Triangulating our findings with previous research, however, shows that the main resources brought up by the interviewees overlap with those of other studies. Furthermore, regarding our sample size, a smaller number of in-depth qualitative interviews is widely seen as benefiting exploratory research (Christie 2009; Daniel and Harland 2018; Raaper, Brown, and Llewellyn 2022). Consequently, we offer an insightful and rich first account of how an active learning environment may foster academic and social integration of new students, as well as a better understanding of the social support that students seek to navigate the complex transition from high school to a PBL undergraduate programme.

Lastly, we conducted our research before the COVID-19 pandemic pushed teaching and learning online. While the advance of online teaching and learning may create opportunities for some students, existing worries about mental health and well-being among undergraduate students increased and social support became even more important (Pat-Horenczyk et al. 2022). As we have illustrated, interaction with family, friends, other students, and in quite a few cases also staff, can help students to navigate their first year in higher education and the accompanying challenges. In online teaching and learning environments, however, the casual encounters and informal interaction that usually takes place before, during, and after classes largely disappeared. This lack of interaction during the pandemic was particularly challenging for international students (Costa and Li 2022). Hence, given that online teaching and learning is likely to stay in one way or another, it is worth looking into how it affects social support and what supporting mechanisms need to be put in place.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the students who participated in our study for sharing their experience with us. Pia Harbers provided valuable feedback on our initial research ideas and participants in the 18th Biennial EARLI Conference on an early version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). This article has been published under the Journal's transparent peer review policy. Anonymised peer review reports of the submitted manuscript can be accessed under supplemental material online at https://doi.org/10.1080/21568235.2023.2289037.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Patrick Bijsmans

Patrick Bijsmans is Associate Professor in Teaching and Learning European Studies and Associate Dean for Education at Maastricht University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. His areas of research include active learning in the international classroom and curriculum design in European Studies, International Relations and Politics. Twitter: @PatrickBijsmans.

Jeanine de Bruin

Jeanine de Bruin is a former student of Maastricht University. She worked on this project as a research intern. Twitter: @Jeanideb.

Afke Groen

Afke Groen is director of the Mr. Hans van Mierlo Foundation in The Hague, the Netherlands. She completed her PhD in Political Science at Maastricht University. Her main research interests are European politics, democracy in the European Union, and teaching and learning in Higher Education. Twitter: @AfkeGroen.

Notes

1 For more information about the application of PBL at Maastricht University, see: https://edlab.nl/pbl-learning-principles/.

2 Originally, we intended to include students who had dropped out, but this group was difficult to reach – privacy regulations also prohibited us from using personal email addresses.

Appendix 1:

Interview questions

Introduction

• Why did you subscribe to participate in this interview?

• How did you experience your first weeks at university?

Terms/definitions

• What does social support mean to you? What kind of support did you expect?

• To what extent did you feel supported by others in your first weeks? And during the rest of the first academic year?

• Who are the people who support you most?

Transition and study results

• How did you experience your transition from high school to university?

• What was social support like in high school? What differences do you experience now that you are at university (if any)?

• What positive experiences did you have in your transition to university?

• And what did you find most difficult or challenging in your transition to university? How did you cope with this?

• To what extent had you anticipated these challenges?

• Can you explain how social support matters for your study success?

University environment

• How would you describe the atmosphere at FASoS?

• What sort of support from FASoS is most important to you?

• If applicable: In how far do you feel that the support at this faculty is different from the support you got at your former faculty or study programme?

Interaction with staff

• In how far do you feel that contact with university staff is supportive? In what ways?

• How often do you meet your tutor or mentor outside of scheduled meetings such as tutorials? In what settings you meet them? How important are these meetings to you?

• Can you give an example?

• How important is informal contact with staff members to you? What does that sort of contact look like for you?

Interaction with fellow students

• In how far do you feel that contact with your fellow students is supportive?

• In how far do you feel that the PBL tutorial group is supportive?

• And how often do you meet with peers outside of class? In what settings do you mostly meet them outside of class?

Home environment

• Can you describe your home situation? Where do you live?

• What is the role of your family in your studies and student life?

• How important do you find it to have their support during your studies? What sort of support from your family do you find most valuable?

• Do you have roommates? If yes, what is their role in your studies and student life?

• Do you have a partner? If yes, what is the role of your partner in your studies and student life?

Importance of friendships

• Who are your most important friends? Why are they important to you?

• What sort of support from your friends do you find most valuable?

• Are you a member of an association? If yes, what sort of association? And what is the role of the association for your studies and student life?

• Do you have a job next to university? If yes, what role does this play for your studies and student life?

• Do you do any sports? If yes, what role does this play for your studies and student life?

Outlook

• How would you describe the differences between these various forms of support? And are certain forms of support important at some moments in time, but not at other?

• What do you think is more important, and why: Support in the university environment or support in the home environment?

• Is there anything that we forgot to ask that you find important for us to know to understand the role of social support of students.