Building Student Belonging in Higher Education

Kate Strudwick is Professor of Student Engagement and Dean of Teaching and Learning at the University of Lincoln.Kirsty A. Miller is Head of the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln.

Given the explosion of interest in student belonging across the sector, there couldn’t be a better time for an edited collection like this to help university leaders make sense of how to embed belonging within their institutional strategies. [Insert book title] achieves a thoughtful balance between the theoretical and practical; allowing readers to quickly get to terms with the messy concepts surrounding belonging in higher education, and then knowing what they can meaningfully do about it. Chapters are filled with tangible recommendations for practice, whilst also not shying away from discussion on the underlying challenges and lessons learned. It’s also wonderful to see how multiple chapters in the book are drawing from collaborative sector conversations about belonging. For example, Chapter 3 from Jo Divers talks about how they learned about the listening rooms methodology from the Advance HE Building Belonging programme, which provided them with an innovative qualitative approach to assess students’ experiences of block teaching. The book from introduction to conclusion neatly captures the challenges that we’re all facing together as a higher education sector, and shows how collaborative work is helping us move forward.Dr David Gilani, Head of Student Engagement and Advocacy, Middlesex University

• Chapter 1. Introduction; Kate Strudwick and Kirsty A. Miller Chapter 2. Building a Sense of Belonging in He: Why Leadership Matters; Liz Mossop Chapter 3. Alternative Teaching Delivery Models: A Case of Student Belonging in ‘Block’; Jo Divers Chapter 4. Belonging: The Impact of Assessment and Grading; Kirsty A. Miller and Hannah L Merdian Chapter 5. Student Engagement and Sense of Belonging: Are We Ready for a New Approach?; Caroline Jones and Leonie Sweeney Chapter 6. Using Pedagogical Choices to Foster Student Engagement and Belonging; Juliette Wilson-Thomas Chapter 7. Students with a Criminal Past: Supporting Belonging and Fostering Inclusivity; Chloe Wilson Chapter 8. Building Connections: Fostering Belonging Among International Students; Claire Randerson and Kate Strudwick Chapter 9. Enhancing Belonging and Engagement Through Effective Student Support; Jessica Hodgson Chapter 10. A PLACCE for Belonging: The Power of Methodology to Illuminate Student Voice; Rebecca Westrup, Becky Price, Callum Perry, Elizabeth Scholefield, and Gray Prothero- Gibbs Chapter 11. Developing Social Worker Student Belonging, Engagement and Confidence through Peer-Mentoring: A Case Study Exploration; Cally Bleasby, Leigh-Anne Coffey, Hayley Sweeney, and Jessica Thompson Chapter 12. Belonging to Your Graduate Career: A Critical Exploration of Student Engagement with Employability; Saffron Passam and Sarah Riley Conclusion; Kate Strudwick and Kirsty A. Miller