A Preliminary Study on the Effectiveness of New Students’ Adjustment to University
Keywords:
Adjustments to university, new students, academic excellenceAbstract
Adjustment among new students at the university plays an important role in determining their success
at university. This study showed one of the reasons students fail to complete their study is due to
adjustment problems. Students found to be unable to deal with the challenges and demands on campus
and experience a variety of problems that some of them failed to proceed to the next semester. The
population of the study consist of 143 First Semester Diploma students in the Faculty of Business and
Management studies at Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang Raub Campus. The instrument used is
questionnaires. There are four subscales designed to measure the effectiveness of student adjustment
to university that are academic adjustment, social adjustment, personal (emotional) adjustment and
institutional commitment. The study shows that adaptability on campus has a relationship with
psychosocial abilities possessed by the students. Among the psychosocial abilities have a positive and
significant impact on student adjustment is emotional intelligence, coping, and social support. All
three of these psychosocial capabilities found to play an important role in helping students adjust at
the university. Thus, the university must take proactive steps to develop emotional intelligence,
coping and social support among new students to improve their adaptability.
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