A lacking sense of belonging within higher education, both regarding connections to fellow students as well as the identification with the institution and academic life itself, represents one of the three major reasons students drop out and break off their higher education experience. Especially for under-represented groups, such as first-in-family students or those with a migration or BME background, mature students or women in STEM, feeling out of place can be considered the main reason for student departure, more so than academic difficulties or having chosen the wrong study programme. The project’s objective is to increase this sense of belonging of under-represented groups while at the same time avoiding the triggering of “Othering”-effects or stereotype threat. Measures aiming at specific “vulnerable” groups often prove unsuccessful and are not taken on by the targeted groups due to a degree of stigmatisation associated with it. Also, accessing and acknowledging the need for support in case one feels isolated or disoriented is often associated with a high threshold, especially among non-traditional students who are generally more reluctant to ask for support. Thus, instead of developing measures exclusively for specific groups of students, the project takes an anti-categorial approach addressing all beginner students alike: it strongly relies on initiating and fostering exchange between different student groups (especially between non-traditional and traditional students) and provides anonymously available, issue-based support. To reach the objective the following project outputs will be developed: 1) a programme for an obligatory COMMUNITY BUILDING COURSE (O3) for first-semester students which will be carried out at all three participating HEI. The course aims at initiating and encouraging exchange among new students, establishing more tightly relationships by didactically focusing on changing group formations, but also by empowering students to act as experts in their own right. Further, by making the own institution a subject of inquiry it is hoped to achieve a stronger identification with the institution. 2) an online STUDENT EXPERIENCE PLATFORM (O2). The anonymously available content of the web-based platform will offer interactive content with a strong focus on sharing and relating experiences of other students (via podcasts, video material, etc.). Further, it will also bundle relevant information on belonging issues – which is currently not available – in one site. Students participating in O3 will be exposed to the platform which is intended to function as a natural companion through student life. 3) a STAFF TRAINING (O4) To establishing and maintain a sense of belonging it is vital that students are met with staff sensitised to their needs. In two formats, one for teaching staff, the other for administrative staff, issues of unconscious bias and the importance of belonging will be addressed, ultimately enabling staff to recognise and deal with problems arising out of a lacking integration into the HEI. The outputs will be informed by an initial NEEDS ASSESSMENT (O1) in the form of a Europe-wide student survey among first-semester students gauging their sense of belonging and possible difficulties in adapting to academic life. The impact of the proposed measures, i.e. testing if they were successful in raising a sense of belonging and a higher integration and identification with the institution, will be measured by surveying those students who went through the programme and comparing the results to a control group of students who did not. The project participants include beginner students from all three participating HEI. In this run, around 25 students per HEI will participate in the course; they will also function as a testing group for the platform. Further, teaching and administrative staff from all three HEI will participate in the training. The project also includes students, staff and renowned international experts in advisory functions (Student and Staff Advisory Board, Quality Council). Throughout the project, tight quality control regarding relevance and adequacy of proposed content will take place. The consortium was chosen carefully: The three participating HEI all have a high percentage of non-traditional students (UDE: 30% students with migration background, among the highest in Germany; BCU: 70% BME; FHOOE: 80% first-in-family) and thus have extensive experience in inclusion and diversity management practices in HE. ESU, on the other hand, contributes the student perspective and its Europe-wide networks. In the longer run and with a view to sustainability, the project results (i.e. the course-programme, the content on the platform, the training formats) are highly transferable. The outputs, or modular parts thereof, can be adopted easily by other HEI or rolled out to a larger group of students at a later point.
The project aimed at increasing student success for vulnerable student groups by developing measures to increase their sense of belonging at higher education institutions. A lacking “sense of belonging” or lacking social and academic integration is considered to be one of the main reasons students decide to break off their studies early. Feeling out of place, having little to no contact with other students or just difficulties in finding their way in this new, often anonymous and foreign world of university life, can make it hard to start out and succeed in higher education. The COVID19 crisis only amplified these problems. Moving away from support structures targeted to specific demographic groups to providing support in dealing with challenges that all students face, albeit to a different degree - such as difficulties with academic language, feelings of isolation or exclusion, establishing relationships with teaching staff or social contacts with other students, or achieving a general sense of orientation at university - was key. The project strongly relied on initiating and fostering exchange between students and provided anonymously available, issue-based support.
The ENTRANTS project focused on challenges in adapting to student life. It targeted the transitional phase during the first year after encountering the first difficulties or mismatched expectations within higher education and tried to counterbalance and catch these problems before they become too overwhelming and result in departure. While the project in its title “Enhancing the transition of non-traditional students” addressed so-called non-traditional students, for example mature students, those with a specific socioeconomic background or educational path that might face stronger challenges in adapting to new ways of learning and a certain ”academic habitus”, in devising its outputs, the project opted for an anti-categorial approach. This was done to avoid triggering “othering” effects or stereotype threat of certain groups, i.e., by devising outputs for a certain “disadvantaged” group only and by doing so singling out and to a degree stigmatising these students as “others”, in need of help. Thus, the project’s outputs (e.g. an anonymously available support platform, a community building course) were essentially developed for all students, assuming, however, that some students might need or profit from them more strongly.