European First Year Experience (EFYE)

EFYE is an anual Conference on the First Year Experience designed to share ideas, research, development and success of the onboarding process of first-year students. First held in Tesside (UK) in 2006, the conference has inspired about 200-300+ participants per conference for another 15 times. This is the result of the efforts of an international committee that strives to expand the network around the exchange on the onboarding process of first-year students at universities. At each venue, the host university provides its own local planning team. EFYEs host university in 2022 (April 20 – 22) is Graz University of Technology.

EFYE 2022: „Next stop: University“

Where freshmen come from, what learning experiences, language skills and motivations they have differs. The EFYE 2022 motto „Next Stop: University!“ refers to this incredible diversity, which has great potential and can be enriching for learning, teaching, research and the university as a whole.

Guided Start as Central Thread

Think of university life as a tramway line map. There are lines that originate within the university context, others that continue from previous educational life, such as the daily routine. Each line has its own challenge for first-year students, such as finding a suitable study-life balance, building up a network or adjusting with student duties. In this context, the role of teachers is also crucial in terms of how they communicate with their students and what strategies they use to foster interaction within their course.

Each line offers many possibilities and chances to develop, to network, to warm up bit by bit and finally to arrive as a university student. It’s up to a successful guided start as a central thread to support first-year students on their way to this goal.

EFYE 2022 takes all of these issues and groups them into three conference topics, focusing on prospective students, beginners and teaching professionals.

Conference Topics

• Road to University: Focus on prospective students
• Transition Station: Focus on beginners
• Learners square: Focus on teaching staff