In the last twenty five years there has been a major expansion of higher education (HE) in Europe from a small élite sector to a greatly expanded system. Between 1995 and 1999, OECD reported in 2001 that, nearly all countries it represents showed increases in participation in higher education, the average increase being 15%. (Osborne, 2003). This trend opens the debate about the differences between ‘increasing’ and ‘widening’ participation’ and universities across Europe struggle to enrol and then keep first generation students. One of the strategies for increasing and widening participation to Higher Education in the UK, is the delivery of Foundation Degrees (FDs) in further education colleges (FECs). The wide diversity of students drawn in the UK to FECs in preference to the more traditional universities reflects the significant role that the FE sector contributes to the Widening Participation agenda: “the non-traditional students of HE are now considered the traditional students of FE” (Christofoli and Watts, 2006, p.62). However, this cultural shift is not without costs across Europe (Osborne, 2003). First-generation college students have been shown to be particularly vulnerable to academic failure (Francis and Miller, 2008) and those students from disadvantaged backgrounds have an increased likelihood of dropping-out or opting not to progress to more advanced levels of study caused in part by a conflict between academic study and their non-academic background creating a feeling of cultural isolation (Forsythe and Furlong, 2003). With this context in mind, this institutional case study seeks to chart the emotional reactions of new HE students to academic study during the first semester from pre induction to the first summative feedback. The aim was to look carefully at reactions of students to academic study. By using a variety of qualitative methods, the team uncovered some interesting issues relevant to any higher education institution engaging with a widening participation agenda.

Students were involved in 1:1, group and diary entry methods of data collection. Data was then transcribed and analysed. ‘Concept mapping’ (Simmons, 2009) was the fundamental approach to the interpretation of the data. The identification of key themes came from a process of coding and categorisation followed by a visual representation of the ’interrelationships and patterns’ (Simmons, 2009 123) of students’ comments.

The outcome of the study is a timeline on a DVD showing the first semester student life cycle from first information, advice and guidance (IAG) to the experience of summative feedback. The time line is in a multi-media format with hyperlinks to audio-visual student responses about how they felt as the course progressed. Part of this is in the form of a video diary. The intention is that the timeline can be used with new students in a range of institutions, so they can see and hear how others have overcome emotional hurdles and succeeded despite those challenges.