First year experience in higher education in the UK: report on phase 1 of a project by the Higher Education Academy

The present project is based on first-year full-time students in a number of contrasting institutions with an original intention (not quite achieved) of having at least two institutions in any sub-group in order to preserve anonymity in reporting. The focus is on first-year students since the fi rst year has to date been the most critical for discontinuation. While the sample of institutions spans a variety of types care was taken to include a number of institutions which have substantial proportions of disadvantaged students since this would respond to the policy emphasis on widening participation.