A learner’s psychological readiness is as much a determinant of educational progression as cognitive aptitude or the resources at an institution’s disposal; in fact, it is what will ultimately decide how well one is able to make the transition across academic landscapes. In this wide-ranging empirical study we have set out to measure the effect of such readiness on longitudinal patterns of progression, be it retention, attrition or whether a student graduates on schedule. We define psychological readiness to mean a combination of emotional resilience, self-efficacy, the ability to adapt cognitively and to manage transitions.
The triangulation of our results shows that where there is a want of psychological readiness, it often takes the form of a kind of cognitive paralysis at key junctures like the move from high school to university. In short, this paper makes the case that attrition is a psychological crisis at its core, not an intellectual one. For policymakers we offer a framework of some urgency and empirical soundness to argue for the making mandatory of pre-transitional scaffolding programmes. It is only by viewing educational progression in terms of psychological readiness that one can hope to produce cohorts that are truly resilient and successful.