Adaptation to University Level Academic Studies after Secondary School

Kursa darbs izstrādāts pēc HZF standartiem priekšmetā Intro into Studies and Research.IZMANTOJAMS TIKAI KĀ INFORMĀCIJAS AVOTS! Thousands of first year students in Latvia face the problem of adapting to a new educational establishment annually. Therefore, it is important to research the issues connected with this passage from a secondary school to a higher educational establishment. Although this problem is quite common, no major research has been carried out in Latvia to look at the causes and solutions for it. The aim of this report is to analyze whether students have any specific problems when starting academic studies and try to provide possible solutions by giving practical tips on how to adapt to the university lecture format. The hypothesis of this research is : the majority of students encounter problems when starting their academic studies. The main research questions to answer were : Do 1st year students encounter problems at university? What is the cause of these problems? Are there any solutions? To find answers an online questionnaire was designed; later on the results were carefully analyzed. One also had to study relevant scientific literature to design a proper questionnaire, draw adequate conclusions from the gained data and to provide possible solutions to the issues which were mentioned as the most common among first year students.