13 November 2023

Wednesday 29 November at 6pm

In this seminar Professor Rola Ajjawi, Associate Professor Karen Gravett, and Professor Sarah O’Shea will present research funded by the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE) on student belonging. Belonging is broadly considered to be a positive foundation for students’ well-being and success at university.

• When: Wednesday 29 November 2023

• Time: 6pm – 7.30pm (AEDT)

• Where: Online

• Cost: This is a free event

We start by presenting a brief history of belonging research in higher education and invite you to think more critically about belonging. Drawing upon empirical data from interviews and video-blogs with 30 students in the UK and Australia, our research highlights how students experience and create multiple belongings. We identify how calls for integrated, uniform approaches to building belonging in universities are unhelpful. Instead, we foreground the situated and political ways in which students make and curate meaningful and purposeful connections and safe spaces. Our research points to the personalised nature of belonging. We show how individual learners often enact belonging in ways that disrupt or challenge institutional assumptions and expectations. These insights are particularly important in the current higher education context, with universities in many countries, such as Australia, setting ambitious targets to expand the access and participation of students from more diverse backgrounds. We advocate for critical discussions between staff and students related to the affordances of embracing the multiple ways students and staff choose to belong, at different times, and in different spaces.

About Rola Ajjawi

Professor Rola Ajjawi is Professor of Educational Research at CRADLE, where she has led an extensive programme of research into student failure and success, with particular interest in equity, feedback, and learning cultures. Rola is Deputy Editor of the journal Medical Education and a member of the editorial board of Teaching in Higher Education. Rola’s newest edited volume is Assessment for Inclusion in Higher Education: Promoting Equity and Social Justice in Assessment (Routledge, Open Access). Rola is also the lead guest editor of a special issue of Teaching in Higher Education: Reconsidering the role of authenticity in assessment in higher education.

About Karen Gravett

Associate Professor Karen Gravett is Director of Research at the Surrey Institute of Education at the University of Surrey, UK, where her research focuses on the theory-practice of higher education, and explores the areas of student engagement, belonging, and relational pedagogies. Karen is Director of the Language, Literacies and Learning research group, a member of the SRHE Governing Council, and a member of the editorial board for Teaching in Higher Education and Learning, Media and Technology. Karen is also a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA). Karen’s latest book is Relational Pedagogies: Connections and Mattering in Higher Education (2023).

About Sarah O’Shea

Professor Sarah O’Shea is both Honorary Professorial Fellow in the School of Education, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Wollongong as well as the Dean, Graduate Research at Charles Sturt University. A nationally and internationally recognised educator and researcher, Sarah has worked across education sectors for nearly 30 years. Sarah has held numerous university leadership positions which have directly informed changes across the Australian higher education sector, particularly in the field of student access and participation. This work has been used to inform both government policy and also teaching practices, with regular invitations to contribute expertise to government panels, peak bodies, professional associations as well as educational providers. Sarah is currently an Australian Learning and Teaching Fellow (ALTF), a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), and a Churchill Fellow (CF).