Review of Transition Experiences of Urban and Rural Learners into Rural Universities

This paper explored the transition experiences of students from urban and rural high schools to rural universities, and also identified some factors influencing first year rural university student experiences. Relevant literatures were reviewed on transition of students from high school to university. The findings of the study show that parent involvement, socio-economic background, learners exposure, among others influence the first year rural university students’ experiences. Also, while students in rural universities may easily acclimatize to the host community of their university, they tend to struggle trying to adjust to university life. On the contrary, while students in rural universities from urban based high schools may struggle to adjust to the host rural communities where their universities are situated, they tend to easily cope with university life, though sometimes negatively affected based on the level of quality university education provided. The study therefore recommends amongst others that the services of career counsellors who will assist learners should be employed, quality should be ensured in rural institutions of learning both at high school and university levels, high schools should be affiliated to universities who will be made to oversee certain activities of the high schools and guide the where necessary