Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, this 3-year project (2026-2029) sets out to explore how different campus and online spaces shape students’ sense of belonging in higher education. Building on Wong’s (2024) spatial belonging framework, which looks at four dimensions of space (physical, digital, relational and structural), the study will empirically examine, develop and refine how space is conceptualised in the context of student belonging.
The study has three stages. The first is individual interviews with students and staff, mostly students, to unpack the spaces on campus and beyond that students find comfortable and uncomfortable. In the second stage, a smaller group of students will take part in a case study, where they will be interviewed alongside the production of visual materials such as photos of the places they find important, welcoming or unwelcoming over a short time period. The third stage will bring together students and staff in discussion groups to talk through the latest themes and data from the project.
The study will demonstrate how belonging is produced through the spaces that students move through and how those spaces are designed and organised. By understanding how different university spaces are experienced by students, we can better appreciate how to build inclusive environments to enable students to develop their sense of belonging.
The project is led by Professor Billy Wong