Higher education institutions have not yet succeeded in offering equitable opportunities and outcomes for the diverse student population participating in higher education. This prevents the talents of students from flourishing (Daddow, 2016), as can be seen in the performance gap between diverse groups of students in higher education across Europe. The #IBelong project therefore focuses on improving the experiences and outcomes of students from diverse backgrounds (in particular migrant students and first-generation entrants) through creating a more inclusive learning environment in higher education. The project builds on the student experience, their academic self-confidence and contribute to more equitable outcomes. This is most effectively achieved through an inclusive learning environment. An inclusive learning environment proactively and systematically anticipates to a diverse range of learners, rather than responding on an ad hoc and individual basis to differences as they are revealed by learners. The main objective of this Strategic Partnership on diversity and inclusion in higher education is to build a programme of interventions, to develop a sense of belonging amongst higher education students irrespective of their diversity, thereby increasing student retention and promoting a fair chance of succeeding. The #IBelong project’s sub objectives are: • To raise awareness among staff and faculty of higher education institutions to effectively engage with the current diversity of students • To develop the capacity of higher staff to understand and value (cultural/ethnic) diversity and sense of belonging, and to design and deliver learning that is inclusive of the breadth of diversity found in a modern higher education cohort • To develop a set of culturally sensitive interventions, which can be adapted to various contexts, positively impacting higher education needs in terms of diversity, sense of belonging, inclusion, retention and success • To provide evidence and examples of interventions for higher education institutions to develop their own policy and practice on improving students’ sense of belonging • To collaborate and share practices with EU and global networks with valuable knowledge, expertise and skills in field of diversity in higher education. The #IBelong project uses a deliberate and participatory intervention (Dialogue Days Toolkit) to empower students to talk about diversity and difference in relation to higher education learning with staff. It builds on these insights with teaching staff to develop their capacity and confidence to enable a diverse student population to engage, belong and learn successfully (Team Teacher Training Programme). The final intervention seeks to support students to develop learning communities (Students as Community Builders’-Resource Pack) in which they can belong outside of taught sessions. Both staff and students at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Edge Hill University, University of Porto and Osnabrueck University will be actively involved in all project’s interventions. To guarantee a high quality project, main applicant ECHO will support in the design and development of the measures of the Dialogue Days Toolkit, Team Teacher Training Programme and Students as Community Builders’-Resource Pack from their expertise and experience with both staff and the project’s student target groups (i.e. migrant students and first generation entrants). The project’s high-quality impact is assured via dissemination partner KIC who will communicate project’s results during the project and disseminate project’s approaches, results, practices and associated resources upon project completion to the European field of higher education institutions. KIC will also assist partners in ensuring that all project outputs are designed from the outset for transfer, multiplication and upscaling to other educational organisations around Europe. The #IBelong project will enhance expertise in promoting an inclusive learning environment in higher education, by working towards opportunities for a diversity of students to construct a strong sense of belonging. The project will impact on a change in organisational culture to create and sustain a more inclusive university by developing a systemic approach that integrates a vision of high quality education and also a vision on supporting diverse students’ engagement in meaningful learning experiences. As such, student outcomes in higher education may be improved and have a positive impact on learning and teaching practice in higher education if other institutions are able to translate the experience of this project to their own context (higher education system, learning environment, curriculum, staff and students).
The #IBelong project is an innovative programme of evidence-informed interventions to improve students' sense of belonging and success in higher education, with a focus on – but not limited to – ethnic minority students and first-generation entrants in higher education. Central in the #IBelong programme are a suite of interventions that operate at course programme level, engaging first year students, student-peer mentors and the staff team to improve diverse students’ belonging and success. Interventions include dialogue about diversity, belonging and success (Dialogue Days; DD); staff engagement with and reflection on diversity, and changes to practice (Team Teacher Reflection; TTR); and student-peer mentors building a community (Student Community Mentoring; SCM). The three interventions interact as a suite of activities to improve students’ belonging, continuation and attainment. The #IBelong consortium started implementing these integrated interventions in single course programmes in Pedagogy and Education at the four partner universities involved in 2019/2020. During the 2019/20 academic year however, global challenges – both the COVID-19 pandemic and world-wide anti-racism protests – impacted the importance and the scale of our #IBelong project and activities. The #IBelong team redesigned and redeveloped all IO’s for online and blended education in 2020 and 2021. In the 2020/21 academic year the #IBelong interventions were implemented in additional course programmes with activities that were scaled up to faculty- or university-wide levels. #IBelong activities impacted directly on 5 higher education institutions, 11 course programmes, 2100 students, 208 staff members, and 73 mentors offering mentoring to the 2100 students on the 11 course programmes. DD1 take place at the beginning of the academic year and are embedded into the face-to-face and online teaching as appropriate within each university. Staff is involved, sharing their stories and facilitating the sessions, and developing their own understanding of and capacity to be inclusive. DD2 takes place towards the end of the first academic year, and assist students with reflection on the year, and looking forward to supporting their success in year 2. TTR is integrated into regular staff meetings throughout the year and makes use of evidence and specific cases which may are collected by student community mentors, to stimulate authentic and continuous discussion. If necessary, the sessions can be delivered online to ensure that all staff are able to participate. SCM benefits from embedding the scheme into existing structures and models of mentoring and support available. There are different models of mentoring, including group and 1-1. Where individual mentoring takes place the matching (e.g., first- or continuous generation in higher education, migrant or non-migrant, urban or rural) is very important to help students engage and belong. A schedule of mentoring sessions or meetings is very useful for students, rather than relying on mentees requesting meetings. Common methods of evaluation evidence collection have been used across the interventions and universities, drawing on a mixed methods design. Student surveys about belonging and student-staff interaction have been administered in each of the universities. Focus groups have been conducted with students and with staff about diversity, belonging and success and their experiences of the interventions in all four universities. The #IBelong team used Programme Theory evaluation tools, namely the Logic Chain Model and the Theory of Change (Thomas, 2020), for monitoring and evaluation. The #IBelong interventions had a range of short-term benefits for participants (students and staff) in terms of better understanding diversity, belonging and success as a result of the IOs. In the medium term the outcomes were generally changes to student and staff behaviours in response to the improved understanding, and which promoted improved engagement and belonging. In the longer-term we expected #IBelong interventions to contribute to retention and attainment. We have not been able to prove this due to the pivot to online learning and related consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. All of the partner institutions have however made changes to learning and teaching to ensure it is more inclusive, acknowledging and engaging with diversity, and facilitating belonging and contributing to success. Overall, the #IBelong interventions have been (re)designed, (re)developed and implemented in on-campus, online and blended education in all the universities. We have (successfully) adopted an embedded, mainstreamed approach to reaching and supporting students from diverse backgrounds and others who may be less able to participate – to engage. The learning from the evaluation and experiences has informed the final outputs delivered by the #IBelong team.