In introducing the special issue on students’ transition into higher education, we emphasise the importance of expanding our understanding of students’ enculturation in higher education. Next to this, the editorial presents a working definition on transition and takes stock of the existing empirical lines of research on the subject of students’ transition into higher education. Further, we evidence that research primarily stems from Western countries and predominantly applies either a quantitative or a qualitative approach. We argue that a more international perspective and studies using different methodologies (including mixed-method approaches) are fruitful to advance this field further. Finally, we give an introduction on the nine empirical contributions in this special issue, stemming from an equal number of countries and applying quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods.