Pre-Arrival Confidence and Perceived Importance Among UK and Australian First-Year Sport and Exercise Science Students: An Exploratory Comparison

Despite strong enrolment in sport and exercise science degrees in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK), little is known about the expectations of incoming students. Drawing on expectancy–value and self-efficacy perspectives, this exploratory study compared the pre-arrival confidence and perceived importance of first-year sport and exercise science students in the UK (n = 100) and Australia (n = 45) using the Pre-Arrival Survey (PAS), which assesses learning, community, employability and health and well-being. A mixed-design ANOVA showed that students rated importance higher than confidence in all four areas (ηp2 = 0.39), with the largest gaps for learning and community and the smallest for employability. Community was the lowest-rated area overall. The importance–confidence gap was larger among Australian students, reflecting lower confidence, with no evidence of a country difference in importance, and Australian students reported notably lower community confidence (ηp2 = 0.11). Gender differences were small, and no gender effect was significant at the multivariate level. Women rated importance modestly higher in a full-sample sensitivity analysis. Because the two national samples differed in recruitment method, timing and size, country differences should be regarded as indicative rather than as evidence of national-context effects. The findings suggest that pre-arrival and induction support that builds students’ confidence, particularly in forming community connections, may be valuable in both countries.