Guest editorial - Students experiencing and shaping the first year: Agency, belonging and participation

Abstract

It is perhaps not surprising that a key theme of this Special Issue is the role and agency of students in first-year experience across Europe. However, the articles in this part encourage us to conceptualise this in ways that are not singular, and not simple. We read of students as prospective entrants, first-year learners, peer leaders, ambassadors, mentors, student employees, co-designers, co-authors, users of digital systems, participants in evaluation, and narrators of their own experience.

Drawing on Felten et al.’s (2019) distinction between students as objects, consumers and actors, this section invites us to ask not only whether work is student-centred, but how students are positioned within it: as sources of evidence, recipients of provision, or contributors to the shaping of learning, belonging and transition.

Articles in this part also contribute to the research and practice on transition, persistence, belonging and participation. They invite us to consider the importance of supportive relationships between peers, and between staff and students; these varied relationships can contribute to developing confidence to become successful higher education learners (Thomas, 2012; Morgan, n.d.). It also reminds us that belonging is not a static outcome or a simple feeling of social connection, but is shaped in many ways (Thomas and Gilani, 2025). They encourage us to think of first-year experience as relational, developmental and situational.