Abstract

When considering a student’s sense of belonging, there are three components of importance to students: Being, Belonging and Becoming (BBB). These are intrinsically linked with academic success for both the student and the institute. We know our undergraduate students are at the highest risk of dropping out in the first 6 weeks of their programme so wanted to understand what impacts their decision of ‘Should I Stay, or Should I Go’, and explore what we could do as an institute to help them settle quicker and feel like they belong. In 2023/24 several Faculty Academic Support Leads ran a pilot BBB survey across 6 Schools to understand this exact question and the results were both interesting and impactful! We identified specific barriers to belonging which allowed us to change practice across the whole university and implemented immediate interventions which stopped students from withdrawing. In 2024/25 this is rolled out to all Undergraduate programmes at Sunderland campus - If we don’t ask, then we don’t know! If we don’t know then we can’t change!