Some 100,000 students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are now studying for a foundation degree, with around 75% of this number being located in further education institutions (FEIs) (HEFCE, 2010). On completion of the short-cycle foundation degree in an FEI, a significant proportion of students will transfer to a different higher education institution (HEI) to complete a final year of bachelor level study. The transitional processes and experiences for such students are often complex and divide into a myriad of component parts, including meeting expectations, social and academic integration and the framing of new identities. Discourses on the roles played by 'perception' and lived 'reality' pervade the literature of student transitions, including the roles that expectations, motivations and task requirements play as key contributory factors leading to student withdrawal (Davies et al., 2004; Tinto, 1993). Such discourses also aid understanding of the impact of different approaches to teaching and to learning during educational transitions. However, for FEI-based foundation degree students, unlike their HEI-based counterparts, these approaches are defined across a dual institution divide.