Partner with your students to build belonging on campus

Imagine starting your first year at university, brimming with excitement and nervousness. You scan the crowded cafeteria, common room or lecture hall longing for a friendly face but don’t find one. This feeling of isolation, unfortunately, is a reality for many students navigating higher education’s complex social landscape. With many universities primarily focusing on academic achievement, neglecting the fundamental human need for belonging can be detrimental to student success.

Understanding belonging

Belonging transcends simply being physically present on campus. It is about feeling seen, valued and connected to a community. It encompasses a sense of shared identity, purpose and support. When students feel they belong, they are more likely to thrive academically, socially and emotionally.

Research underscores the importance of student integration. Students with a strong sense of belonging demonstrate higher persistence rates, improved academic performance and greater satisfaction with their university experience. Conversely, feelings of isolation and exclusion can lead to academic disengagement, loneliness and even withdrawal.

Ultimately, fostering belonging hinges on building trust within the university community. When students trust academics, professional services staff and their peers, they feel safe, supported and empowered to connect meaningfully. By prioritising trust-building initiatives, universities and departments within them can create a foundation that cultivates belonging. Remember, though, that trust goes both ways; students need to trust you and you need to trust in them when it comes to building belonging through their education and student experience journeys.

Navigating the maze: challenges to belonging

Several factors contribute to a diminished sense of belonging in universities:

• Social structure: existing social groups can be difficult to crack, making it harder for newcomers to feel included.
• Large class sizes: a sense of anonymity in large lecture halls can make it harder for students to connect with faculty and peers.
• Competition: the pressure to succeed can foster a competitive environment that discourages collaboration and undermines feelings of shared purpose.
• Diversity: while diversity enriches the learning environment, it can also lead to feelings of alienation if not managed effectively. Students from different backgrounds may struggle to find common ground or feel their experiences are not valued.
• Internationalisation: international students face unique challenges in adapting to a new culture, language and academic system.

Providing stepping stones: actionable strategies for fostering belonging

Universities and departments can implement practical steps to build a more inclusive campus environment:

1. Integrate curricular, pastoral and extracurricular activities to provide a holistic experience: students are more than simply brains waiting to be filled; to learn they must be able to give themselves to a situation, not think about where their next meal will come from. We must support them to take risks and allow them to fail without damaging their chances of finishing their degree. Institutions and departments must go beyond simple commitments to belonging and inclusivity in mission statements and reflect on how belonging is built into open days, welcome week, module design and support. These include student-led orientation and induction sessions, creating a safe space for failure in assessment design and ensuring activities are inclusive for your student demographics by working with them to co-create modules and co-design student experience opportunities. Working and co-creating with students in this way means you don’t need to guess or assume what works for them and makes activities more authentic.

2. Undertake exit interviews with those who withdraw and set up regular feedback sessions: no one has all the answers and no two groups of students are the same. This is important to acknowledge when sharing best practice, because what works in one context will not work in another; instead, it is about empathising with your students and giving them spaces to create connections and give their feedback. This includes those who have withdrawn from study, which helps prevent feedback survivorship bias (getting feedback just from those who have successfully navigated university, overlooking those who do not). Some example questions include:

• Why did you leave the course, or what led to your decision to leave?
• What could we (the department) have done better to keep you here? 
• What were the best and worst parts of studying here? 

3. High-value, low fixed-cost, “by stealth” approach: students are reluctant to attend a well-being session that involves talking about their feelings with someone they don’t know. Instead, think about how else to get them into the room so you can build their trust and have more difficult discussions. This could involve peer-led workshops, creative well-being sessions (low-stakes sessions with free food, board games, watercolour paints and petting zoos where you can embed well-being by stealth) or student-designed feedback mechanisms. 

4. Think about feedback surveys. As staff, we also get sent lots of these by email, but never fill them in unless we feel passionately about something. The same applies to students. Focus on building trust and co-creating a non-judgemental environment where students feel comfortable seeking support and sharing their feedback. By focusing on building trust and co-creating a non-judgmental environment, we can encourage open communication. This means recognising students as the experts in their own experiences and working with them to co-create activities, events and opportunities that address their well-being needs. Some examples of what our students have used include social media polls, QR code stickers, student-led focus groups and suggestion boards.

5. Recruit students into meaningful roles: work with students to understand what support they would like if they could go back to the beginning of their degrees. Use their lived experience to co-create and drive action. If you’re feeling brave, don’t just create communication plans with students, but empower them to take control of your channels and see what they can come up with. If you’re feeling really brave, don’t define the student co-producer/intern/assistant role you will recruit for this summer but ask the applicants what changes they want and would like to work on (more on that below) and build the job around them.

6. Avoid “one-size fits all” student experience: it’s common to focus on readily engaged students and bombard them with opportunities. Be careful; this could lead to burnout. Instead, let’s move beyond this “go-getter” mentality and discover what truly interests each student by building rapport and trust in low-stakes contexts where they can open up. We can then support them in pursuing individual projects related to their passions alongside their academic pursuits.

• Resource collection: Cultivate a sense of belonging on campus
• Using the Snowflake Method to build belonging on campus
• How to initiate conversations about belonging

A practical example: the Warwick ‘We are Chemistry’ approach:

At the University of Warwick, the “We are Chemistry” programme exemplifies a practical and student-centred approach. Its core principles resonate with the broader strategies outlined above:

• Start small and focus on working and evaluating with students: small changes make a big difference. Begin with a pilot programme of activities involving students in the design and evaluation process.
• Be ready to be surprised: be open-minded and don’t second-guess what students suggest; the strangest things work.
• Pay (in food, money or skills development): recognise the time and effort students invest in fostering belonging. Offer incentives such as food vouchers, small stipends or workshops on skills development.
• No spamming and no running before walking: don’t overwhelm students with too many opportunities at once. Build a sturdy foundation with a few well-designed initiatives before expanding.

By actively fostering belonging through these practical strategies, universities can cultivate a more holistic and supportive environment where all students can thrive, both academically and personally. This shift towards student-centred belonging initiatives holds the key to unlocking long-term student success, retention and well-being.

Tom Ritchie is an assistant professor, and director of student experience at the University of Warwick. Adam Alcock is a student experience officer at the University of Warwick. 

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