Page 54 - Secondary school students’ university readiness and their transition to university Els van Rooij

3.1 Introduction
In the last decade, increasing enrolments in higher education in Western countries
have resulted in a higher diversity in the rst-year student population in terms of
ability, demographic factors, and prior education. Simultaneously, an increasing
number of incoming students experience di culties in meeting the academic requirements (Beerkens-Soo & Vossensteyn, 2009). e rst year is an important
transition phase in which many social and academic adaptations take place, as 3 well as the evaluation, and possibly further exploration, of study choice decisions
(e.g., Kyndt, Donche, Trigwell, & Lindblom-Ylänne, 2017). It is a well-known phenomenon that the dropout rates in the rst year are substantially higher than those in subsequent years, and students who do not perform well in the rst year are more likely to drop out later or to take more time to graduate (Beerkens-Soo & Vossensteyn, 2009; Flemish Government, 2014; McKenzie, Gow, & Schweitzer, 2004). As a consequence, more insight in factors that in uence academic success in the rst year of higher education is needed.
As in many Western countries, substantial numbers of dropout are prevalent in the Netherlands and Flanders, which are the countries we focus upon in this study. In the Netherlands, 30 to 40 per cent of rst-year students in higher education do not continue to the second year of the programme they had initially started (Dutch Inspectorate of Education, 2017). In Flanders, approximately 60 per cent of higher education students do not pass the rst year (Van Daal, Coertjens, Delvaux, Donche, & Van Petegem, 2013). Consequently, similar to other countries worldwide, understanding the explanatory base of student success represents an important public concern.
is review study provides an overview of student success correlates in the Netherlands and Flanders. e review rstly adds to the higher education literature because it provides a context-speci c overview of factors that explain student success. e ndings can be used by Dutch and Flemish researchers as an overview of existing research and input for new research. Secondly, the study shows how predictors of success may have di erential impact on student success depending on the country (the Netherlands or Flanders), the level of education (professional or university education), and the outcome measure that is used (grade point average (GPA), number of obtained credits (EC), or persistence).
Systematic review of rst-year success
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