Call for proposals - Enabling First Year Student Success in a Tertiary World

The European First Year Experience (EFYE) Conference series has been advancing and challenging debates
around student transitions and first year student success for nearly 20 years. It has grown from its origins
as a relatively small conference to a “movement for change in a range of European contexts “(Carey et al.,
2024 p. 129) regularly attracting approximately 400 delegates from 25+ countries. This special issue acknowledges and celebrate the work of colleges and universities in supporting student success in first year transitions as students’ progress through a tertiary world, and the educators, learners, policy makers, leaders, and researchers contributing to this success. The editors welcome proposals from practitioners and researchers across Europe that can evidence a successful first year student experience from a pedagogic, professional services or students’ organisation/students’ union perspective. We recognise the broad range of first year experience, one that applies in multiple settings and across a full life-cycle: first-year higher education experience in college, traditional first year at university, direct entrants who may enter at any year, and first year of postgraduate studies or research. 

Proposals for submissions could include, but need not be limited to, issues such as:

 Access, College and University Transitions
 Personalisation of Learning and new Student Expectations
 Preparing Students for Success (from AI to Wellbeing)
 Curriculum Design for First Year Success (including articulation)
 Student Development and Support through Mentors/Peer initiatives
 Student Voice, Expectations and Partnership for Success
 Leadership for the First Year Experience
 Sectoral and Institution wide approaches to First Year Experience (University or Networks)
 Staff Development to engage with the Tertiary challenge

References

Carey, W., Millard, L., Nutt, D., Bonne, P., & Sæthre, H. Å. (2024). European First Year Experience
Conference: Learning through a third space development community. Journal of Perspectives in Applied
Academic Practice, 12(3), 127–139.

Your proposal - four steps

1. Decide on the format for your paper: original research, a reflective analysis, a review paper, a case study, an 'on the horizon' piece, an opinion piece or a book review. Full guidance on formats is available at https://jpaap.ac.uk/JPAAP/information/authors

For this special issue we are also providing an alternative format of vignette or practical insights contribution. The editors for this special issue are seeking to capture the spirit of the community‘s work with first year learners, providing insights into the many perspectives that have supported first year student success over the last 20 years of the European First Year Experience community. Your vignette or practical insight contribution will tell the story of first year experience in your setting or in Europe. This could include anecdotes or experiences that tell the story of supporting first year experience as you live it, highlighting the aspects you think are most relevant in your work. We encourage responses that will enable us to gather thoughts, reflections, discoveries, dialogues, feelings - moments in time - that capture the spirit of our work across the globe from our various cultural and national perspectives as well as from the different positions we hold through our institutional practices and our personal professional identities. The contributions will create a fluid and flexible gathering place for expressions of the community’s work that will be a complementary approach to the other contributions in this special issue.

Vignette Contributions should be:

• 800 to 1500 words in length – we value short submissions in this category to enable a range of
  perspectives to be included
• clearly articulated from your own position and perspective (so very briefly tell readers who you
  are—context, identities/background, position)
• informal but substantive narratives in your own voice—they can be practical and/or provocative in
  nature, they can tell a story of your experiences or about the impact of your work that might
  reflect contentious and controversial or engaging and rewarding aspects of your work with first
  year student experiences.

Vignettes and practical insights acceptances will be based not only on the merits of the submission itself
but also on how it contrasts and complements the themes of the other vignettes submitted. As a scholarly piece of work, references are required, but they must be incorporated into, and contribute meaningfully to, your narrative.

2. Your proposal should be up to 300 words and include 5 keywords or terms.

3. You should include a short bio (of 50 words) for each author.

4. You should email your proposal directly to lajpaap@outlook.com by 20 July
2025 using this proposal form

Authors will be contacted by 1 August 2025.

If your proposal is accepted, your full paper must be submitted by 1 November 2025.

The anticipated date of publication for this special issue is May 2026.

Informal queries and questions can be sent to the special issue editors, via Diane Nutt (dianenutt@outlook.com).