‘It was nothing to do with the university, it was just the people’: the role of social support in the first‐year experience of higher education

TLDR

To date, sociological research reflecting first‑year students’ perceptions of the processes involved in developing social lives at university is scarce. The article argues that understanding student retention requires equal emphasis on social integration as on academic integration, and uses the concept of social support to analyze interviews with 34 first‑year students to examine how social integration influences decisions to stay or leave. The study analyzes interviews with 34 first‑year students using the concept of social support to examine how social integration affects decisions to stay or leave university. The data show that forming compatible friends and having supportive living arrangements are essential to retention, with friends offering emotional and buffering support comparable to family, while course friendships and tutor relationships provide mainly instrumental and informational support.

Abstract

This article argues that to understand higher education student retention, equal emphasis needs to be placed on successful integration into the social world of the university as into the academic world. To date, sociological research reflecting first‐year students’ perceptions of the processes involved in developing social lives at university is scarce. Here the concept of ‘social support’ is used to analyse interviews with 34 first‐year students, investigating the processes through which social integration (or lack of it) influenced their decision as to whether or not to leave university. Our data support the claim that making compatible friends is essential to retention, and that students’ living arrangements are central to this process. Such friends provide direct emotional support, equivalent to family relationships, as well as buffering support in stressful situations. Course friendships and relationships with personal tutors are important but less significant, providing primarily instrumental, informational and appraisive support.