While all students are affected by the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first-year student population remains a special category of vulnerability for higher education. This is on account of the way the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted their transition into university and complicated the nature of their entry into and through the formal academic cycle. This article uses the notion of a 'double transition' as a framework for positioning and locating the first-year student transition within the context of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic. 'Double transition' refers to an additional transition coupled with that of the first-year transition, with regard to the extraordinary situation of students navigating their entry into the unfamiliar terrain of academia while simultaneously navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. The article provides a circumscribed summary of the effects of COVID-19 on university students and looks to describe and explain the nature and shape of first-year transitions in relation to the transition necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It concludes with four key strategies for supporting first-year students as the pandemic continues.