Key insights
- Belonging, i.e. students’ acceptance in their university community, influences their success and mental wellbeing.
- Unaffordable housing, part-time work, and long commutes block students from attending university, let alone belonging to their universities.
- Irish university staff recommended structural interventions to mitigate belonging blockers, including cost-free “sticky spaces,” flexible timetabling, and expanded hardship resources.
- Resourced peer mentor programmes and meaningful student partnership in universities can also directly foster belonging, including through curriculums that students feel seen in.
- Regular evaluation is needed to refine and scale up effective belonging initiatives.
Background
Belonging refers to the inherent human need to feel “respected, accepted and liked” by others (Strayhorn, 2019, p. 4). In a university context, students who belong tend to engage more in their studies and extracurricular activities, and tend to complete their courses, gain higher grades, and have greater mental and physical wellbeing (Allen et al., 2024; Crawford et al., 2024; Maunder, 2018). This paper examines why belonging matters in a university context, outlines research findings analysing staff views on improving students’ belonging, and concludes with key policy recommendations.
Initiated by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) (2025), UCD Professor Barbara Dooley formed a project team that included myself and student-research partners including Daniella Deshko, Alana Powell, Iris-Annabel Metsik, Aundria Cameron and Niall Hogan. Together we assessed staff views via interviews (n = 14) and surveys (n = 15) on improving student belonging from 9 different Irish universities over the summer in 2025. We also gleaned belonging insights from prior evidence and case studies promoting students’ health (n = 39) and partnership (n = 23).
Belonging Results
Our findings indicated that belonging is both personal and social, naturally fluctuating but requiring consistent opportunities throughout a student’s course. It is influenced by a range of academic, personal, social, and environmental factors, including educational quality, friendships, and secure living spaces. This expanded conceptualisation of belonging emphasizes, for example, that it is as social as it is personal. It is built through friendships, peer mentors and positive friendly staff relationships. These social factors allow students to see their place in the university and to connect with the support on offer.
A key finding underpinning all others was how profoundly constrained students’ belonging is in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. As a university chaplain summed up: “[they] can’t pay their rent, can’t pay their fees, can’t pay their way in the bus“. Specifically, students are increasingly having to work part-time, share private rooms and/ or commute long distances which makes physically attending university, let alone feeling they can belong to it, challenging. These economic issues also preoccupy students (see Jahangir (2025), for discussion on international students in Ireland). Students can feel burdened by having to avoid professional housing scammers, navigate crowded accommodation and long working hours just to afford rent. Consequently, students may be forced into a transactional mindset, prioritizing assessed academic work over holistic university experiences, such as non-assessed learning and socialising. For example, one staff member indicated students who live far from their universities will weigh up whether a single “tutorial for 1 h[our]” is worth the “travel for 5 h[ours]” (Orientation Staff 1).
The cost-of-living crisis does not constrain belonging for all students in the same manner. An additional finding is that first-generation and disadvantaged students’ belonging can be particularly impaired (Allen et al., 2024; Crawford et al., 2024; Taff & Clifton, 2022). This includes the “hidden curriculum” (Taff & Clifton, 2022), unspoken rules or resources that facilitate education, for which some students’ backgrounds have not prepared them. For example, one staff member noted that some first-generation students may avoid seeking support in extenuating circumstances, fearing they would “get in trouble” for missed assignment work. Relatedly, for some participants engaging in belonging initiatives in-person, may be an impossibility. For example, students who have caring responsibilities may only be able to go “to get their degree, go to class, [and then] go [straight] home“. Students who have disabilities may not be able to access events that are physically inaccessible (Taff & Clifton, 2022). Whilst international students can be blocked from belonging through delayed starts due to visa barriers, through interpersonal microaggressions and through curricula that represents only a narrow sample of the global population (Ogoro et al., 2022; Taff & Clifton, 2022). Belonging initiatives need to account for all these aspects.
Beyond this project’s findings, the work of Ó Maonaigh et al. (2025) on PublicPolicy.ie offers an important broader consideration. They warned about the harm that businesses pose to universities. Specifically, the researchers have conservatively recorded an increase of €96 million in business sponsorship of universities . An increase of 40% since 2007. Such companies include Facebook owner Meta. Arguably, one consequence of this funding is that institutions will need to meet profit-driven agendas and move away from agendas that promote students’ wellbeing, attainment and belonging (Gao, 2021; Kezar & Bernstein-Sierra, 2024; Ó Maonaigh et al., 2025; Taylor Bunce, 2022). Hypothetically, Meta-funded university research may be swayed to present social media as a tool that readily fosters belonging, even if the actual data indicates social media facilitates division, polarisation, and isolation (Zsila & Reyes, 2023). A further harm that business sponsorships pose is undermining the respect that students have for their universities if they feel it is unethically collaborating with a business (Kezar & Bernstein-Sierra, 2024). To counter commercial biases on universities, Ó Maonaigh et al. (2025) advocate for robust public investment from independent bodies like the HEA. This is particularly important since governmental funding in universities has reduced (Ó Maonaigh et al., 2025). This project, on belonging, was gratefully funded by the HEA and further funding opportunities around student inclusion and belonging initiatives have also been recently announced (HEA, 2025).
Policy Recommendations
Universities play a key role in helping to improve students’ belonging. Our project found innovative, creative, and impactful steps that universities had taken to improve belonging that others can adopt. We also identified other strategies that would help to improve students’ belonging and wellbeing. Both the existing support and potential future activities are outlined below.
University and sector leadership can foster belonging meaningfully through top-down changes that have wider impact and sustained longevity (Allen et al., 2024; Crawford, et al., 2024; Taff & Clifton, 2022). These changes mitigate the barriers posed by the cost-of-living crisis. Cost-free “Sticky Spaces”, areas where students can study, socialise, and relax without the pressure to purchase food or coffee, are essential (Ahn & Davis, 2020). Food pantries, hardship funds and period poverty resources that are universally available can support students without requiring them to “declare as other”. Furthermore, institutions can create flexible timetabling and hybrid events to mitigate exclusion caused by students’ long commutes, caring responsibilities, and part-time work (Keogh et al., 2022, p. 2). Universities can also better resource societies, clubs and diverse events, including for students to socialise with those they live with (if on campus), to promote positive interpersonal relationships. Sector leadership can help ensure that universities have the funding to empirically assess student enhancement initiatives and resist the potential harms of commercial influences.
We also recommend resourcing peer and partnership roles. Supported peer mentoring and peer-facilitated learning programmes strongly help students to settle into their course and wider university lives (Crawford et al., 2024; Maunder, 2018). For scalability, peer support programmes should avoid relying on students’ goodwill in favour of meaningfully recognizing their contributions. Remuneration (stipends or official certification) and closing feedback loops helps show students their partnership is meaningful and not tokenistic. Meaningful partnership is also crucial for integrating belonging into academic design (such as in the design of university spaces). Educators can also improve students’ belonging by building small-group activities in-class that promote social skills and confidence. Curriculums can also be co-designed to represent diversity ensuring that students feel “people like them” have a place in the university (Ajjawi et al., 2025; Taff & Clifton, 2022).
Finally, universities should formalise and resource an ongoing evaluation process for all belonging initiatives. Addressing the current lack of empirical assessment especially internationally (Allen et al., 2024; Crawford et al., 2024) ensures that successful, evidence-based models are clearly identified. Furthermore, effective belonging builders can then be replicated across the higher education sector for meaningful, long-term, impact.
Conclusion
Belonging is a key influence on university student’s attainment, satisfaction and wellbeing. Our project suggests that belonging is significantly undermined by the cost-of-living crisis, including long commutes and unaffordable housing. However top-down university actions like creating cost-free ‘sticky spaces’, flexible timetabling and hardship resources are meaningful, structural, interventions to improve belonging. Furthermore, strategic peer mentor programmes, resourced clubs and societies, and student partnerships in curricula design can also provide immediate means to improving belonging. These steps complement existing national policies such as the National Student Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Framework (NSMHSP; Stronger Together (2022-2027) and the Healthy Campus Charter and Framework (HCCF). Collectively these policies advocate for supportive, safe, and compassionate campuses and inclusive educational experiences.
References
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