Every September, universities try very hard to make sure that students, especially new students, feel welcomed.
There are induction talks, tours and welcome fairs. These events are designed to help students find their way into university life and feel a sense of belonging.
But belonging doesn’t only happen in welcome week. It’s not settled in the early stages of university life. Belonging is worked out slowly, in the ordinary spaces students move through, in daily life both on and off campus.
Belonging is spatially organised
Many universities approach student belonging with a focus on students’ friendships, social groups, confidence and how much they feel accepted. These things matter. But more attention is needed to how the spaces of the university shape students’ understanding of their belonging.
By spaces, we do not only mean buildings, although physical space is important. Buildings, pathways, libraries, cafés and lecture theatres shape how a campus is organised, navigated and experienced. But university space extends beyond the material. We propose attending to how belonging is spatially constructed through physical, digital, relational and structural spaces.
There is a dialogue when students enter these spaces. What can they do? Can one sit down? Can one speak, or stay? How should one behave? How does one learn the rules of the room?
Some of these rules are explicit, but others are implicit and bound up in power and authority relations. They can also operate online through what forms of participation are visible and valued.
If belonging is about whether students feel they matter and can make sense of their place in the institution, then space is one of the ways that message is communicated. Some spaces say “come in and stay.” Others say “move along,” “this is not for you,” and “you need to already know the rules.”
The rules of the room
Take the library as one example. In our earlier research, it served multiple purposes. In addition to providing resources for learning, it was also a space for social networking, conversations and study groups.
Even within the library, there are different zones with different expectations. Some rooms are for group work. Others are for quiet study. Some spaces have fewer explicit rules, meaning students can talk and chat. So even within one building, the rules of space governs how students are expected and allowed to behave.
For example, a group of friends may take over an entire table, but there may still be two unoccupied seats. Those seats are, in theory, available to all. But they may feel unavailable to someone who does not want to question that implied social barrier.
The same applies to digital space, including student portals, virtual learning environments, lecture recordings, discussion forums and support systems.
These spaces can also shape belonging. A student may be able to hear the lecture and see the slides in an online class, but still miss the informal conversations, group dynamics and sense of being in the room.
The hidden hard work of space and belonging
For commuter students, there are very specific aspects of their lives that may or may not fit with how university spaces are designed. There is the travel time involved. Once they arrive, if there is a big gap between teaching, where will they go? Where can they rest? Where can they work without spending money?
This is different from students who live close to the university, who can go back to their residence and relax before returning to teaching. For commuter students, space plays a big part in shaping belonging, inclusion and exclusion.
There are other students where space will shape experiences: minority ethnic students in spaces dominated by particular groups, disabled students, students in halls who may still feel isolated, and students with work, care, faith, financial or health-related commitments. Proximity does not ensure meaningful connection.
This is why presence is not the same as participation. A student can be on campus and still have nowhere they feel able to stay, take part or belong.
From welcome week to the whole institution
Universities invest considerable time and energy to develop and deliver their welcome week, and rightly so. A campus tour can show students where the library is, where to find support and give them a “feel” for the university’s physical layout. But rarely does it tell students how those spaces work in practice. Where can students go if there is a two-hour gap between classes? Where can they sit or rest without spending money? Online, students may be shown where to login, but not necessarily how the different systems, portals or websites fit together. The tacit rules of university space can be made more explicit.
But spatial belonging does not end with induction. Universities ought to ask who is using their spaces, who is not and why. Which spaces are the hot and cold spots? Are spaces intended for student use being used as envisaged?
Universities should review regularly how students actually make use of university spaces, beyond whether they are simply available. This might include looking at opening hours, timetable gaps, places to “hang around” and the ease of navigating their digital systems.
Belonging is therefore not only the work of induction, student support or engagement teams. It is also shaped by estates, timetabling, teaching, digital infrastructure, commuting patterns and informal social space.
All of this links to our Leverhulme Trust-funded project. The study will explore how students experience different university spaces and what this tells us about belonging, inclusion and exclusion.
Students do not live inside welcome week. They live in timetables, teaching rooms, digital platforms, libraries, cafés, corridors and the gaps between formal provision. They often live in the spaces between our words. If universities want students to belong, they need to ask not only how students are welcomed, but where they are expected to belong and whether those spaces are available to them.
