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Academic achievement can be thought of as the extent to which learning has been accomplished. Previous work suggests that students' self-esteem is impacted by academic achievement, though it is not entirely clear why this is. The current study therefore explored this through interviewing eight psychology students from a Scottish university, before using Braun and Clarke's (2006) six stage reflexive thematic analysis to analyse the resultant data. Two themes of Grades and feedback and Peer comparison were identified, highlighting two important conclusions. Firstly, self-esteem is positively impacted by strong performance, and negatively impacted by poor performance but that crucially, this is mediated by others' poor performance. That is to say, good grades and feedback make students feel good, and poor grades and feedback make students feel bad, but such 'badness' is appeased if peers perform equally poorly, which has potential consequences for peer relationships. Secondly, students value feedback in order to increase their chances of academic achievement, noting the negative impact on self-esteem when feedback is not constructive, just critical. This highlights the importance of 'mindful marking' in terms of taking care to provide useful feedback to students to improve their work; something that is reported to be hugely appreciated. Implications, limitations and future research suggestions are detailed.

Few studies have examined the contribution of individual psychological factors to long-term indicators of academic success. This study examines the influence of personality and individual difference factors in relation to retention. In this study, 290 Canadian undergraduate students completed measures of personality, resiliency, perfectionism, and trait Emotional Intelligence in the first semester of their first year, and enrolment status was collected at the end of each academic year for four years. Multinomial logistic regression analysis indicated that only high school grade point average (GPA) and being male predicted a higher likelihood of withdrawing from the program or delaying degree completion, compared to those who completed. The need for future studies with larger samples and consideration of more complex relationships between factors is highlighted.

It is known that first-year retention rates are a cause for concern within higher education. One way in which to tackle this is to consider how institutions can best prepare new students for the transition to university. The current paper details a project from the University of the West of Scotland where first year psychology students enrolled on a pre-entry academic skills induction course in order to support their transition to university. The course consisted of engagement with five interactive magazines to allow students to begin experiencing the digital environments, skills, and resources that they would need throughout their degree ('What is psychology?', 'How do I study?', 'The importance of critical thinking', 'What's involved in psychological research?' and 'Life after university'). Focus groups were conducted with students shortly after taking part in the course, and again four years later upon graduation, to explore its perceived value both as a new student, and across time at university. A deductive thematic analysis showed a positive reception to the materials, but that some topics were less relevant at the beginning of a degree course. We reflect upon these findings in the context of current HE practice.