Graduate Transition:: Experiences of Recent Graduates from University Intothe Real World

There are more students than ever before enrolled inUniversity, however, research focusing on thetransition out of university is very limited. Thisstudy begins to tell the story of students'experience of transition from university into thereal world. This study uses a phenomenologicalapproach to explore the transition of three men andthree women in the year following their graduation. Narratives and individual interviews were used tocapture participant experiences and identify commonthemes. Results highlighted the loss ofparticipants' student role as a significant featureof the transition experience, touching variousaspects of their experience post-graduation. Severaltheme emerged, including: mixed emotions, first Fallout, planfulness, moving on, growing up, gainingmeaningful employment, reality check, financialconcerns, changing social network, and the need forvalidation. One of the most pronounced themes wasparticipants' negative reflections on their degreeand it's value in the real world.