Limited research has been conducted on community college (CC) transfer students' (TS) experiences in four-year universities, particularly in Asian contexts. To fill this research gap, in this qualitative study, 124 TS from various disciplines in a Hong Kong university participated in 39 focus groups and seven individual interviews. Unlike their Western counterparts, our TS were relatively better prepared and more academically adaptive. Nevertheless, their social integration was restricted by a lack of time for extra-curricular activities, a sense of inferiority and incompetence, and restricted social circles that did not enable interaction with non-TS. These challenges and their implications are discussed. In particular, this study has highlighted differences between the special education systems for CC transfer in Hong Kong and those in Western CC models. The study has also highlighted the study-induced stress, and poor self-perceptions that TS experience, despite their academic abilities. Copyright ©2021 MDPI.

The academic year 2012/13 marked a major milestone in the history of Hong Kong higher education as it witnessed the admission of two markedly different cohorts of Cantonese-speaking freshmen to the city's English-medium universities: those embarking for the last time upon the traditional 3-year programme modelled on the British system of initial disciplinary specialisation and those commencing the new 4-year programme featuring an American-influenced first year of general education. This article presents the findings of a study which sought to compare the perceptions and experiences of the two cohorts on the challenging process of adjusting to the demands of university study. It was hypothesised that students in the 3-year cohort (3YC) would experience fewer difficulties adjusting to university learning and teaching than the 4-year cohort (4YC) as it was assumed that their A-level programme (years 12–13) placed greater emphasis on university-related skills, practices and habits of mind than the new senior-secondary curriculum (years 10–12). This hypothesis was tested by means of a survey completed by 1480 students at Hong Kong Polytechnic University towards the end of the academic year. The results largely support this hypothesis, although the evidence suggests that both cohorts had adjusted moderately well to university study by the end of the year. The results indicate that the principal difference between the two cohorts and the key to the 3YC's smoother transition was their greater confidence and competence in English, which presumably stemmed from their extra year at school and the greater depth of the traditional sixth-form curriculum.
[Copyright of Journal of Further & Higher Education is the property of Routledge.]

The transition into university life is crucial to the future achievements of the students. However, the experience of the transition may be different between male and female students, but this has not been empirically investigated in previous research. The purpose of this study is to examine the gender differences in the perception of university support. This research is based on a survey of 265 students from five universities in Hong Kong. The findings show that (i) more female students perceive the university as being supportive in their academic adjustment than male students; (ii) more male than female students perceive the university as being supportive in their social adjustment; and (iii) more male than female students perceive the university as being supportive in their psychological adjustment. Finally, the implications of the study are explored and discussed.
[Copyright of Journal of Further and Higher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2011.645460]

Students' adjustment to the university environment is an important factor in predicting university outcomes and is crucial to their future achievements. University support to students' transition to university life can be divided into three dimensions: academic adjustment, social adjustment and psychological adjustment. However, these relationships have not been studied simultaneously in previous studies. The purpose of this study is to examine the students' perception on the relationships between two of the three dimensions. The study is based on a survey of 265 students from five Hong Kong universities. The findings show that students perceive that: social adjustment has a positive impact on academic adjustment; psychological adjustment has a positive impact on academic adjustment; and social adjustment has a positive impact on psychological adjustment. The implications are explored and discussed.
[Copyright of Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2012.642328 ]