Fuzzy-trace theory can help improve first-year students’ university experience

Courtney Geritz; Maria Raciti

It's a special time of the year. Early February marks the annual BEST Conference. At BEST 2023 we had the opportunity to present Getting the Gist of the University Experience and in this blog we unpack our presentation further. Late February is equally special as thousands of first-year students across Australia begin their university experience. In the coming days and weeks, these students' expectations of what they thought university would be like will be compared with the raw experience of what it actually is like. For some students, their expectations will match their experiences, but for most this will not be the case. In these instances, expectation-experience mismatches prompt a range of behavioural responses, with attrition data indicating that many regional and remote students will choose to abandon their university studies [i]. Expectation-experience mismatches may result from institutional and external factors. The Australian university experience today bears little resemblance to what it was pre-pandemic. The widespread adoption of blended learning delivery models has changed campus life from people-rich environments to digitally enhanced experiences. This change has been met with mixed responses. Many university marketing practitioners, when describing university life to potential students (and thus establishing expectations), experience frustration and a sense of being disingenuous as the persistent tinkering with delivery models fundamentally transforms the university experience [ii]. This is where fuzzy-trace theory (FTT) can help by providing a fresh perspective on how today's post-pandemic first-year students form expectations and how university marketers can begin to remedy expectation-experience mismatches. We offer three observations and three recommendations. Observation 1. Expectations about going to university are fuzzy The decision to go to university is complex and protracted [iii]. Potential students are exposed to a wide variety of information from an array of sources over many years [iv]. Much of this information is relegated to memory. FTT highlights the role that memory plays in decision-making. FTT purports that people form two types of recollections from memories of past information—exact, verbatim representations or fuzzy, 'gist' representations. Gist representations capture the essence of information (i.e., 'to get the gist') where individuals extract the essential meaning [v]. Gist representations shape expectations and have the potential to create imprecise or, in the case of post-pandemic university life, outdated expectations. Hence, starting university can be a confusing experience, lowering student satisfaction and increasing the risk of attrition [vi]. FTT's notion of gist offers a new perspective on how student expectations are formed and how university marketers can support the successful development of these gist representations.

Fuzzy-trace theory can help improve first-year students’ university experience

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