Why the Being, Belonging, Becoming survey now exists

Student belonging is very topical at the moment, and there’s a huge body of research that highlights the strong correlation between student belonging and student retention/success.

In 2018, Professor Harriet Dunbar-Morris worked with colleagues to identify three components of importance to students, which are being, belonging and becoming. During her time at University of Portsmouth, and now, these were used as framework to develop learning and teaching and enhance student success. A survey around these components was also used to evaluate how successful enhancements were in these three areas, as they were so important to students.

In years gone by, the National Student Survey (NSS) provided data on belonging through the statement “I feel part of a community of staff and students”, which allowed institutions to measure and benchmark belonging, taking action as appropriate. With that statement removed, and the benchmarking data now lost, Harriet called on her peers to participate in a pilot of a Being, Belonging, Becoming (BBB) survey to capture student sentiment around sense of belonging at university.

Partnering with evasys to provide the survey platform, sectoral knowledge and survey design, the call went out and 15 UK institutions signed up to the pilot programme.

Responses identified induction as a key theme in enabling students to settle in and understand what was expected of them, and a large majority of answers given identified that other people play an important role in the process of belonging.

Data gathered suggests that students place a high value on connections made with peers or with people who share similar lifestyles or goals. This included mature students with external stresses or people with care responsibilities, for example. Overall, 41% of respondents stated that friends and/or peers on the course had been crucial in helping them to settle in and 34% of respondents identified academic staffers as having played an important role.

First free-text question overall esponse rate

This data strongly indicates that building relationships is vital in supporting students to become accustomed to life at university and, as such, institutions should be investing time and resources into ensuring that this begins at induction, if not pre-arrival, and that it continues throughout the students’ programme of study.

It was also evident that extracurricular activity and university events contribute to social integration, as well as a supportive environment, inclusive practices and access to resources. All of these things help students with successful adaptation and continued motivation throughout the academic journey.

Responses to this question were much wider in scope than for the previous question, however, regardless of the programme of study response was fairly balanced across the whole university. Students identified friends and staff members as helping with a feeling of belonging, as well as the concept of inclusivity, community and the environment. Interestingly, 24% of respondents stated that their own confidence and drive was responsible for cementing their belonging at university, demonstrating that students feel positive about taking ownership of their own academic journey.

Although it was a low number, 8% responded “yes” to that question, triggering Faculty Academic Support Leads to contact each student and offer them direct support, signposting towards the appropriate university services and understanding more about the issues faced. The details of the individuals were then passed to programme leaders and academic tutors to enable additional support and the ability to monitor and track these students periodically.

Actionable insights are a critical component of survey data, and University of Sunderland moved quickly to help the at-risk students who responded “yes” to that final survey question. As of 1^st March 2024, 100% of these students were still on their programmes, showing the considerable impact of the survey and the resultant interventions on both student retention and academic success.

In fact, two of the students who had previously indicated that they wanted to withdraw have achieved seventies and eighties in all of their modules in their first semester. Both are now course reps for stage one students who might feel that things aren’t going well and might want to withdraw from their studies.

While there are no absolute guarantees that the interventions were what encouraged the students to stay, it’s clear that if they had not been surveyed, the institution would likely have been unaware of how they were feeling and the students may not have received the support that they needed.

100% of at-risk students who received support intervention remained at university

Overall, the institution is very happy with the survey and the insights gleaned from it. While the whole university wasn’t surveyed on this occasion, the analysis and in-depth understanding achieved from the pilot means that a proposal has gone to the Student Support and Retention Group that the Being, Belonging, Becoming survey should be rolled out across the full university for all stage one undergraduates in academic year 2024/25.