“…In explaining student academic adaptation to higher education (HE), research in the field has highlighted a wide range of personal and institutional variables among which expectations play a significant role (Balloo, Pauli, & Worrell, 2017;Fernández, Araújo, Vacas, Almeida, & Gonzalez, 2017;Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). In combining cognition and motivation, academic expectations reflect student aspirations or what they intend to achieve in attending HE, and how they can overcome the challenges posed by the HE experience (Krammer, Sommer, & Arendasy, 2016;Kuh, Gonyea, & Williams, 2005;Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005).…”