Introduction
The first year at the university is a highly significant time for students. This is the time when students are most vulnerable to academic failure, as well as most likely to experience social, emotional and financial problems. “The process of entering university has been likened to moving from one community to another, in that student must leave the known familiar and join the unfamiliar environment”. (Timothy et al. p, 2).
The process of beginning studies at the university moves through separation transition and incorporation. In the separation stage, the students must disassociate themselves from their membership of prior communities which is so stressful to them. In transition, students begin to interact with others in their new environment and begin to make new connections. This is a “period of passage”, the students have not separated themselves from the past and have not acquired the norms of social and academic interaction in the new context in which they are operating. (Timothy et al. p, 2)
These are the greatest risky moments when students can easily withdraw from their studies. In incorporation, a student faces the problem of finding and adopting norms that are appropriate to the university setting and establishing competent membership in the social and intellectual communities
Reasons for First-year Stress among students
The reason why first-year students get stressed up is that they fear who to confront and become friends with as this is a new environment and there is no one they know. Also, each one has his/her own choices and how they weigh others. Competition makes friends break up thus causes stress among the students because finding the right friend takes a lot of time. Also, competition causes tension to those students who do not talk much since they feel inferior when they cannot be given time to give their views. Others miss their families’ old friends at home and even others become so worried about breaking up with their boyfriends or girlfriends who stay far from them.
There are worries about money and this is the reality of student life. They fear the increased responsibility that comes with independence. They are mostly unsure about the adult decisions to make since they are all alone with enough freedom from their parents. They also do not know how to cook and how to use laundry machines. Most of them are afraid due to changes in front of them thus they are daunted by the whole experience. There is a lot of information during the first week: ‘hard to take it in’, “brain overload”. They are overwhelmed when they will start to settle down and when they will feel relaxed. (C. Beard et al. 2005: 244)
Academically the first-year students are troubled because of the newness of the course, the lectures, essay writing, presentations, course work, workload, placements and failures. They fear that they are failures and they will let their parents down. They also sometimes feel that they have made the wrong choices of courses and university and worry if what they choose to do will be good enough for them after the four years of stay at the university. They simply do not know what to expect.
Some students have low self-esteem and find it hard to make friends because they feel that they are old and cannot socialize with other new people hence they tend to be more attached to their older friends. Others start drinking a lot and go out often because of freedom. Others are not comfortable with the people they stay with at their hostels so they tend to worry each time about where they will be placed to stay the next year (C.Beard et al. 2005:245).
Relationships with lecturers are also frustrating to other students. This can be due to personality clashes where some students are used to interact with lecturers and others are not.
Another reason for stress is that students have unrealistic expectations of the amount of work and time involved in the university study (Timothy et al. p,3) which can lead to over-commitment to activities such as employment thus juggling work and study commitments reduces engagement in other aspects of university culture leading to stress.
How to deal with Stress
One way to deal with stress is to join clubs and societies so that the students can easily mingle with others to form friendships. Also, it is important to go for tutorials and other group projects so as to mingle with other students since this is an important opportunity. Also in some faculties, there are students who find themselves in the same cohorts that have the same lecture theatres share the same workloads in campuses for long hours and libraries. These students can easily share with others hence do not become lonely. (Game and Metcalfe, 2003: 82).
The tutorials should have minimized competition so that all students are capable of giving out their ideas freely. The students should help each other to understand rather than rely on tutorials.
There should be an orientation where all first-year students are shown around their specific campuses and trained on what is expected of them before they start their semester. (Contrell 2003: 76).
On the issue of employment, the students should be advised not to look for employment before they get trained because this makes them shift their attention from study to work.
Recommendations
The students should be well prepared emotionally before they join the university. This should be done by encouraging them to have self-esteem. (Contrell 2003: 76).
The first-year students should be helped on how to choose the right friends whose interests march theirs’.
The first-year students should be advised on the various choices of courses. They should be encouraged to take the courses they are comfortable with so as to prevent any future regrets.
References
C. Beard et al, 2005, Emotion in higher learning education.
Cottrell, 2003, Successful self-management.
Dr. Timothy Moss, Dr. Sharon Pittway & Robyn McCarthy: The first-year experience: Transition and integration into teacher education. Web.
Game and Metcalfe, 2003, the first-year experience- students.