1
Running head: TRANSITIONING TO UNIVERSITY
1 Method
2 Design
3 In order to explore the nature of college to university transitions, a qualitative design
4 was utilized, undertaking a semi-structured interview method for data collection. The
5 qualitative design was chosen due its extensive use in literature regarding transition to
6 university (Baber, 2012; Hernandez, 2002; Smith, 2004) as qualitative is concerned with
7 experiences rather than cause and effect (Howitt, 2010) which is fundamental to the present
8 study. Furthermore, qualitative design encourages participants to respond in their own words
9 allowing in depth and genuine descriptions (Glesne, 2007) which is beneficial as it provides
10 rich explanatory data for analysis (Creswell, 2007).
11 A semi-structured interview was chosen due to research documenting the richness of
12 data this method delivers when exploring students’ transitional experiences to university
13 (Liston & O’Donoghue, 2010; Scanlon, Rowling, & Weber, 2007). While still being flexible,
14 this interview has structure and the ability to narrow down and pursue topics around
15 transition for more detail (Gill, Stewart, Treasure, & Chadwick, 2008) which is beneficial
16 when discussing sensitive topics. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews are able to induce
17 responses that are culturally relevant to the participant’s transition, potentially unforeseen by
18 the researcher (Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest, & Namey, 2005). Face to face
19 interviews were chosen to enable the researcher to detect social cues which can be utilised to
20 the interviewer’s strength, by probing further about a topic or comforting participants in
21 sensitive areas like homesickness (Wilson, 2012).
22 Participants
23 One 20- year old male student, studying mechanical engineering at Level 5, originally
24 from Cornwall was interviewed. A homogeneous purposive sampling technique (Solorzano,
25 Ceja, & Yosso, 2000) was chosen as the interview focused on college to university
Running head: TRANSITIONING TO UNIVERSITY
1 Method
2 Design
3 In order to explore the nature of college to university transitions, a qualitative design
4 was utilized, undertaking a semi-structured interview method for data collection. The
5 qualitative design was chosen due its extensive use in literature regarding transition to
6 university (Baber, 2012; Hernandez, 2002; Smith, 2004) as qualitative is concerned with
7 experiences rather than cause and effect (Howitt, 2010) which is fundamental to the present
8 study. Furthermore, qualitative design encourages participants to respond in their own words
9 allowing in depth and genuine descriptions (Glesne, 2007) which is beneficial as it provides
10 rich explanatory data for analysis (Creswell, 2007).
11 A semi-structured interview was chosen due to research documenting the richness of
12 data this method delivers when exploring students’ transitional experiences to university
13 (Liston & O’Donoghue, 2010; Scanlon, Rowling, & Weber, 2007). While still being flexible,
14 this interview has structure and the ability to narrow down and pursue topics around
15 transition for more detail (Gill, Stewart, Treasure, & Chadwick, 2008) which is beneficial
16 when discussing sensitive topics. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews are able to induce
17 responses that are culturally relevant to the participant’s transition, potentially unforeseen by
18 the researcher (Mack, Woodsong, MacQueen, Guest, & Namey, 2005). Face to face
19 interviews were chosen to enable the researcher to detect social cues which can be utilised to
20 the interviewer’s strength, by probing further about a topic or comforting participants in
21 sensitive areas like homesickness (Wilson, 2012).
22 Participants
23 One 20- year old male student, studying mechanical engineering at Level 5, originally
24 from Cornwall was interviewed. A homogeneous purposive sampling technique (Solorzano,
25 Ceja, & Yosso, 2000) was chosen as the interview focused on college to university
