'If I Had Missed It I Would Have Been the Lost Little Sheep': Exploring Student Narratives on Orientation to First Year

This qualitative study reports on an on-entry orientation intervention designed to support and retain students transitioning to higher education at an Irish private higher education institution. Following the intervention, a qualitative study was conducted with the aim of exploring new undergraduate student experiences of transitioning to higher education and their narratives of participating in the orientation. Six themes emerged during the analytical process: academic anxieties, expectations of higher education, the impact of studying on students' lives, finding our way: orientation, fitting in and making friends, and the transition from secondary school. Findings indicate that orientation interventions which focus on the on-entry phase of the study lifecycle can have a positive impact on new higher education students.