2Undergraduates' Personal Circumstances, Expectations and Reasons for Attending University Undergraduate students are likely to have a range of reasons for attending university and expectations about their education. The current study aimed to determine the most prevalent reasons and expectations among students, and how these differed based on their personal circumstances. First-year undergraduate psychology students completed a questionnaire on reasons for attending university and expectations of university regarding assessment, teaching, learning and organisational resources. Improving career prospects was found to be the most important reason for attending university. The most important aspect of assessment was receiving feedback clarifying things they did not understand.Being good at explaining things was the most important teaching quality.Reasons and expectations were also found to differ depending on students' gender, age group, caring responsibilities, application route, fee status and whether English is their first language. Implications for educators are discussed in terms of bringing student experiences more in-line with their expectations.

Naomi Winstone is a Reader in Higher Education at the University of Surrey. As a cognitive psychologist, her research focuses on the application of psychological theory to higher education research, particularly in the areas of assessment and feedback, and student transitions.Kieran Balloo is a Lecturer in the Department of Higher Education at the University of Surrey. His research broadly focuses on scrutinising the 'student experience' through examining: student transitions; how students regulate their own and others' learning; and assessment and feedback.

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In-text comments, in the form of annotations on students' work, are a form of feedback information that should guide students to take action. Both the focus of the in-text comments, and the ways in which they are linguistically communicated, have potential to impact upon the way in which they are perceived by students. This study reports on an analysis of 2101 in-text comments added by markers to 60 summative essays from two disciplines. The majority of comments, regardless of the grade awarded, were found to be directed at the task performance, rather than relating to the level of process or self-regulation. Work awarded higher grades received fewer annotations; these essays were found to include more feedback comments expressing a positive tone, with limited opportunities for informing further development. Work awarded lower grades mainly received corrective comments, as well as comments characterised by interrogative language and words expressing risk. It is argued that the linguistic style may influence engagement with in-text comments, impacting upon students' affective and emotional states, and their level of cognitive engagement with the feedback information. Recommendations for markers' practices are identified, to facilitate the opportunities for engagement and action that in-text comments might afford. Types of written feedback informationWithin higher education, written feedback has become the dominant form of feedback information (Agricola, Prins, and Sluijsmans 2020). Feedback is referred to as 'a process through which learners make sense of information from various sources and use it to enhance their work or learning strategies' Boud 2018, 1315). Carless (2015a) refers to this as the new paradigm of feedback, which is contrasted with the old paradigm where feedback merely serves to transfer information. Whilst feedback with characteristics of the new paradigm is identified by students as being of utmost importance (Winstone et al. 2017), it has been well established across the sector that student experience surveys frequently indicate dissatisfaction with assessment and feedback (Pitt and Norton 2017). Thus, there is a need to continue to review feedback practices and the quality of written feedback. The new paradigm advocates active participation by encouraging students to use feedback, which is essential for self-regulation