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Investigating Students’ Experiences of Transition within the Algerian Higher Education Context

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Nedri, Hamid (2024) Investigating Students’ Experiences of Transition within the Algerian Higher Education Context. PhD thesis, University of Gloucestershire. doi:10.46289/7S5D9K7H

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Abstract

This study explored the subject of student transition in one of the Algerian universities [University X] during the first semester of the academic year 2019/2020. It investigated campus-based and off-campus students’ experiences of developing coherence with the new setting throughout the transition stages. In doing so, my original contribution to knowledge provides an understanding of how students can negotiate the transition to university in a context where institutional interventions are scarce in sustaining students’ passages. It provides insights into individualities in mitigating change and its challenges independently beyond institutional interventions. I used an auto/biographical narrative inquiry to research ten students’ transition experiences into higher education [HE] in Algeria. This involved exploring both campus-based and off-campus students’ perceptions, motivations, coping mechanisms and their experiences’ implications on their personal development. The aim of inquiring into students’ experiences was to contribute new knowledge to a field currently lacking in testimony centring on this area of inquiry. This consisted primarily of understanding the mechanisms students drew on to mitigate the transition to university within a context where little support (e.g., counselling) and activities (induction) are provided to assist students prior to and during their transition to university. The findings showed that transition was challenging for most participants, whether anticipated or non-event. This was further intensified for some participants regarding social factors, which rendered their experiences contrary to plan. To manage such challenges, participants used different modes of coping and meaning making throughout the transition stages. The appraisal was the initial stage of meaning making. This was followed by active engagement, avoidant behaviour or adaptation, adjustment and coping with stressors. Although these forms of coping were, to a varying degree, notable across stories, students’ responses to challenges appeared to have a contingency on the type of transition experienced, the severity of events, and the cultural and social capital students possessed. In this respect, the more resources at one’s disposal to draw on, the better for the integration process.

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Thesis (PhD)

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