Engineering students struggle with mathematics particularly in the first year of university studies. A result of students’ difficulties are high drop-out rates of engineering students. There are different supporting measures such as preparatory courses or bridging courses aiming to overcome first-year engineering students’ difficulties with mathematics. The contribution of this research is to investigate factors that impact on engineering students’ success in their first year of studies in a supportive environment including a preparatory course, tutorials, a bridging course and a drop-in centre. Questions are how the students’ use of supporting measures impact the students success and which cognitive, affective and motivational factors impact on the students’ success in mathematics. Further, our aim is to investigate relationships among factors that impact on students’ access. We regard possible factors during the first year of studies.
