Living off-campus : academic, emotional, social, and financial experiences of first year students at the University of Pretoria

Abstract

Students’ transition to academia comes with challenges which, if inadequately addressed, may negatively affect their academic performance and psychological well-being. Investigating these factors and their impact on the experiences of first year students will aid in the understanding of issues or reasons why these experiences differ among first year students considering whether one stays on campus or off-campus. One critical issue to note is the gap between students’ prior expectations and the realities of university life, which cause significant distress, poor academic expectations as well as increased attrition rates if not managed effectively. It is salient to note that, contextual factors such as accommodation or housing issues (in this case off-campus residences), financial concerns, social and emotional experiences, external work pressures, and experiences of stress from heavy assessment demands, are some examples of likely contributors to perceptions of student satisfaction in transitioning to university. This research study investigated the academic, emotional, social, and financial experiences of first year students at the University of Pretoria (UP) who reside in off-campus accommodation. UP’s main campus is in the suburb of Hatfield, Pretoria. It is one of Africa’s top universities and it is also the largest contact university in South Africa, with a total number of 53 430 registered students by 2020. However, with 10 000 students in UP accommodation spaces, the university can only cater for a minority of the student population and most UP students live in off-campus residences and private accommodation. This study focuses on the factors that have an influence on first year students’ experiences of transitioning into university, particularly those that are residing off campus. Using a qualitative approach to capture rich data about the participants’ experiences, overall, the study’s findings indicate that first year students experience academic as well as social challenges when compared to their counterparts. Thus, the institution(s) should address the needs of these diverse student bodies. Furthermore, institutions should promote student learning and support students striving to accomplish their educational goals through student engagement initiatives. Moreover, the study’s findings may be of importance to current university policies and practices that use measures of student satisfaction at the end of the academic year and the important aspect of this is that such measures will be capturing a time-specific concept of satisfaction.