How to become a university student? From a student perspective, this entails more than getting access, developing study techniques and finding the way on campus. It requires learning to enact the student role, including a new or adjusted understanding of yourself and your life course (e.g. O’Shea et al., 2024). It is a matter, also, of becoming someone in a new context.  

The process of becoming is acknowledged as a part of the transition process for students starting out at universities (Gale & Parker, 2014, Gravett, 2021). This is more demanding for categories of students that are underrepresented in universities, like first-generation students, students with a migration background or who have “special needs” in learning (e.g. Groves & O’Shea, 2019). However, the experiential process of becoming a student has received less attention compared to psychosocial and (meta)cognitive factors that clarify student behaviour and performance (cf. Coertjens et al., 2017; De Clercq et al., 2018; Willems et al., 2023). This is illustrated by the theoretical approaches taken in research on students’ transition to higher education that foreground group or person characteristics and ‘adjustment’ as ultimate aim, such as the person-environment fit approach (Torenbeek et al., 2010; van Rooij et al., 2017; Willems et al., 2021), rather than students’ dynamic, subjective practices. Moreover, where the experience of students is objectified in quantitative research designs, it is often neglected as a fund of knowledge. As such, the possible influence of students' own interpretations of their transition and on their performance is little addressed. 

In this study, we take a perspective on the transition as a matter not only of learning to learn and perform, but also of learning to be and do as a student – in short, as a process of becoming a student (Gale & Parker, 2014; Gravett, 2021?; Groves & O’Shea 2019, O’Shea et al. 2024). This includes developing new self-perceptions in interaction with the university context. We view the transition not as a linear process with a delineated start and a foreseeable end and outcome, but as a dynamic process that is part of an ongoing life story (e.g. Gravett & Winstone, 2021). Starting out at university can be considered a new chapter in that story, that nevertheless builds on previous experiences and identities in and beyond education. Transitioning to university inevitably involves a reinterpretation of these experiences in interaction with the university context, which in turn informs how students develop their (academic) abilities and aspirations.Contributing to theoretical development of the transition to higher education by taking a becoming perspective (Gale & Parker, 2014; Gravett, 2021, O’Shea et al, 2024), we consider the way students come to a meaningful understanding of themselves as higher education students and how this evolves over time. 

Using the lens of becoming, in our analysis we zoom in on storylines in the narratives that reveal the way that elements of belonging, self-efficacy or possible selves interact in students’ interpretations of their experiences in higher education. 

A longitudinal case study was conducted between August 2023 and January 2024. The leading research question in the case study was: How do first-year students experience the transition to higher education? The case study was part of a larger research project that assessed the impact of a summer bridge program for new students focused on first-generation but open to all. In our case study, twelve first-year students were interviewed three times; just before the start of their studies, one month later, and about three months later after the first exams. We thus collected 36 narratives. Students were selected via telephone recruitment, using a randomised list of the bridge program registrants plus students who had indicated first-generation status at central registration. Participants in the case study were both continuing and first-generation students. Participants in all interviews received a fee of €25 per interview. Narratives were collected through semi-structured, topical interviews based on the transition literature. The first interview covered schooling trajectory and background, choice and prior knowledge of going to university. Additionally, the first, second and third interview covered experiences so far, the self-evidence of studying (in relation to family familiarity with university), study achievements and support needs. We initially organized the resulting interview material around the pre-established subthemes, with two intercoder calibration sessions. In a second round of analysis, we explicitly used the lens of becoming, honing in on how students’ narratives on their sense of belonging, ways of navigating the new environment (practically and socially) and academic achievement (results and self-efficacy) evolved. We partly used a biographical approach (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) with a focus on ‘singularities and multiplicities’ in students' narratives (Gravett & Winstone 2021, p. 1581). This means that we selected excerpts from the interviews that show how biographical particularities influence how students interpret their experiences during transition, and how these interpretations then influence their self-perceptions as students (i.e. belonging, belief in one's own ability, and possible selves).

In the first interview, students’ narratives are grounded in their (schooling) lives thus far. In consecutive interviews, students compare their expectations with first experiences in class. The first exams are important benchmarks to assess their belonging and their opportunities in university. To illustrate, R. started university concerned about the level of difficulty given his migration background and his vocational (non-academic) pre-education. He said sports friends doubt he could do it, saying ‘but that's a real study, you know’. Yet, he also showed high motivation and confidence in his abilities: ‘I'm going to do it’. He explained this as a result of his parents' investment in his learning, as well as a personality trait. After the first exams, he found it easier than expected, and articulated feeling matched with the people at university better than at vocational school, because they were “smarter". R's narrative shows how family history, hierarchy in the education system and discourse on “migration” play a role in how R. assessed his chances in university. Comparing R's interviews reveals how he constructed an encouraging but precarious story about himself and his chances in university. We conclude that the theoretical lens of becoming conjures a dynamic understanding of how students transition to higher education. Students interpret their experiences actively, using pre-existing notions and plotlines about themselves and higher education, and retroactively change their tentative narratives based on grades and social feedback. This shows the experience of an (un)successful transition related to this practice of interpretation. Student success is situated success, with students' interpretive framework a factor of relevance. This lens thus challenges the notion of student success in higher education institutions as a linear development and may help to advance current theoretical approaches to the transition to higher education into a more rounded perspective (cf. Gravett, 2021).

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