Building Belonging at the University of Northampton

Background/context

The University of Northampton (UON) had been working on initiatives that could be characterised as enhancing a sense of belonging before and after the move to our new Waterside campus in 2018 and, inspired by the Wonkhe/Pearson research published as Building Belonging in Higher Education,  took the opportunity to build on this by joining the second wave of the Advance HE Building Belonging Project in Autumn 2023.   

The UON Project team was led by Michelle Chodyniecki (Assistant Director of Estates and Campus Services), Kate Coulson (Head of Learning and Teaching Engagement until leaving the university in January 2024) and Chris Powis (Director of Library, Learning and Student Services). A wider steering group of around 40 staff representing academics, professional services and students were also involved over the course of the project.

Our new campus was a great disruptor. The sense of belonging attached to buildings, ways of working, groupings of staff and students and leisure and social facilities linked to the, now closed, old campuses were all changed overnight. Then Covid struck within 18 months of the move, further disrupting use of the new campus and the new relationships with people and space that had begun to form. We felt that we needed to address belonging as part of culture change around Waterside, rather than deliver specific projects around events, spaces or particular groups, such as our large body of commuter students. These were, in some cases, already being addressed under the banner of the new learning and teaching strategy, Estates plan or Access and Participation Plan (APP). 

Solution 

We wanted a recognisable definition of belonging for UON under which existing and new projects could sit and more importantly, to embed the discourse of belonging throughout the University to appropriately and sustainably influence strategy, planning and project development.

We found real value in working across the University, but also in working with Advance HE and other institutions as part of the project. The workshops were invaluable in networking, hearing how others had tackled the inevitable barriers to success and simply borrowing ideas. 

Outcomes

Institutionally, the project succeeded in its aims. Belonging is now definitely part of the discourse at UON. It is a key element of a raft of university strategies and plans, informs other projects such as the Drug and Alcohol Impact Project and the University Mental Health Charter, is popping up in meeting agendas across the university and has resulted in a number of bids for internally funded projects. 

We now have an agreed definition for UON and wide buy-in to the concepts and ideas explored in the Wonkhe/Pearson report. 

Personally, I enjoyed the project immensely. It meant working with people internally and externally on something that I’m passionate about and seemed to unleash a deep well of enthusiasm (turning into practical suggestions for initiatives) from areas that might not traditionally have been involved in such work, for example in Finance. 

The Project worked for UON. It gave a framework and an impetus to build on existing work, involved staff and students from across the University and the involvement with other universities gave us great external networking and learning opportunities. I hope to continue to build on the latter and am more than happy to talk to any interested party about our experience and potential collaboration. It has, and will continue to impact, on UON’s staff and students.