The Experiences of First-time Entering Students of the Faculty of Education at a Selected University, Eastern Cape, South Africa – An Exploration

The Experiences of First-time Entering Students of the Faculty of Education at a Selected University, Eastern Cape, South Africa – An Exploration

Sinazo Majola & Ntando Elliot Mpahla

Issue: Vol.6 No.15 Article 9 pp.4339 -4349
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20256159| Published online 30th December, 2025
© 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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ABSTRACT

A first-time entering student has never registered at any university in the system before and is entering the university at an undergraduate level for the first time and for the first undergraduate qualification. This experience is often a novel one, fraught with challenges. This study, therefore, explored the experiences of first-time entering students at a selected Eastern Cape university who are registered for the Bachelor of Education in 2024. The study used a qualitative research methodology that sought to study the lived experiences of the participants at the university. Participants were selected through purposive sampling as researchers had deemed them to be knowledgeable about the problem under study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews that were conducted face-to-face as a conversation to allow probing on the participants’ responses. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. The findings of the study revealed that first-time entering students encountered major challenges in transitioning from high school to a higher education institution. The study recommended that the university should have a system in place for how to include and adjust new students at the university to cope with the new environment. State the contribution of this study to scholarship.

Keywords: Experiences, First-Time Entering, Undergraduate, Transitioning

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ABOUT AUTHOR(S)

Ms Sinazo Majola holds a Bachelor of Education Honours degree, currently pursuing a Master of Education at WSU and working as an Administrator in the department of Continuing Professional Teacher Development (CPTD) at Walter Sisulu University.She provides comprehensive secretarial support, manages departmental operations, and assists with student recruitment and academic processes. She is an aspiring researcher with a strong passion for learning and growth in the field of research. As a novice researcher, she is highly motivated and eager to develop expertise and make meaningful contributions to the area of my interest. To achieve this ambitions, she has actively engaged in numerous research seminars, participated in research writing retreats, and attended various research conferences. She has published 2 papers through conference proceedings.

Dr. Ntando Elliot Mpahla is a PhD holder and Senior lecturer in the department of Adult & Education Foundations at the faculty of education at Walter Sisulu University. He has 10 years working experience at tertiary institution. He has supervised Honours, Masters and PhD students. He lectures both undergraduate and postgraduate students who aspire to be educators in South Africa. With the undergraduate students, he has a task to introduce research to them because when they are already employed as educators in schools, they will come across sections dealing with research in their syllabus. With the postgraduate students, supervision is the order of the day. He has already graduated 18 B Ed Honours students in the faculty of Education, two Master of Education students and currently supervising four (04) Masters students and one (01) PhD student. Generally, he is a novice researcher who is very much eager to become an experienced researcher. To fulfil such ambitions, he has undergone numerous research seminars and research writing retreats. Up to now, he has published 15 papers through conference proceedings and 05 journal articles. He is a Senior lecturer and Deputy Head of Department who is looking and monitoring the functioning of his department. His research interest is in the disciplines of professional teacher development and education policy imperatives. He is responsible for administration and curriculum development of all the modules he offers.

TO CITE ARTICLE

Majola, Sinazo, and Ntando Elliot Mpahla. “The Experiences of First-time Entering Students of the Faculty of Education at a Selected University, Eastern Cape, South Africa – An Exploration,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 6, no. 15 (2025): 4339 – 4349, https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20256159.