One Simple Question: Enhancing the Student Experience for Underrepresented Groups in Higher Education

We’ve become used to the way that the student population is changing. The Access and Participation agenda has seen a significant increase in the number of ‘non-traditional’ undergraduates. Then there is the rapid growth in numbers of international (predominantly postgraduate) students. And now, with the introduction of the Lifelong Learning entitlement in 2025, the growth of vocational short courses at levels 4 and 5, and the expansion of degree apprenticeships, we’re set for more sudden and more rapid changes to the make-up of the student body.

There will be new types of students with different, and, in many cases, more challenging, life experiences than mainstream undergraduate students. Although some will still be 18-year-olds fresh from school or college, the journey to university for young people from more complex backgrounds will mark them out from other students. There will be older students returning to learning who may have more complex needs: more likely to be disabled, come from more deprived areas, or have family or caring responsibilities. 

They will be operating on a timetable removed from the majority of their fellow students. There will be new patterns of study, more technical and part-time courses, including modules of courses for the first time. With these more vocational courses will come more students who self-fund or are sponsored by employers and so have more flexible study options such as block learning over an average of one or two regular days a week.  

With new patterns of study come new expectations about access to support services. Even now a Student Support Manager describes to us how, “instead of seeing students in person, face-to-face, they are coming to us through Zoom or Teams, on their phones or in their rooms.” 

They will have different motivations: parents or carers, working full or part-time. They may have had negative experiences of education, gone straight into the workplace from school, may be uncertain if they will ‘fit in.’ They might be looking to retrain, earn more money and have wider employment choices, or to learn something new. 

As an Achievement Analyst in one university reflected to us, “success means different things to different students. It’s not just about the stats. For a student who is the first in family to go to university, just being there and getting the work done is success. For another, raising a child while staying the course is an achievement. We’re having to reframe what we consider to be a success.” 

If we are going to support these new students to succeed, to thrive, it is even more pressing that we acknowledge and work with their diverse starting points and life experiences. A Student Support Advisor told us how, “when I started really listening to what the students were telling me I started to appreciate the complexities and the busyness of their lives. So many of them have family to look after,  jobs so they can pay the rent. So I’m having to take their ideas on board.” 

We know that belonging at university can be an issue for all students, but this cohort not only have self-perceived inferiorities (different, poor, deprived, older, less qualified, less entitled). After they arrive they may well see these perceptions mirrored in how they are treated by their peers and even - however unwittingly - by the institution itself. So how do we address this? Typically we tend to think of what we can give to the students to cross that gap - how can we 'fix' them so that they feel more like the 'normal' undergraduate? 

But this can never be the case. University systems and processes designed for the late 20th century are never going work for the diverse student body of the mid-21st century. Clearly, it is time to challenge the way we think about supporting students.

In debates much attention is given to the systems, structures and processes – and there are useful and important changes we can make here. However, the implicit assumption is that, if we get these right, everything will fall into place. As well as thinking about the ‘what,’ perhaps, we should also give some thought to the ‘how’ of delivering professional services – both the way services are delivered and the culture of delivery. Belonging, wellbeing, agency, empowerment and fulfilment are all affected by ‘relationship’ more than anything else; and  relationship is fostered by a culture of curiosity, of listening, of non-judgement, of allowing the student to lead the way to their own solutions. The challenge for HE professionals now is to move from simply imparting information, to engaging students through open and non-judgemental relationship.   

A Programme Administrator: “My approach was to be very direct with students, very short and to the point. I was finishing their sentences for them, making assumptions about what I thought they needed, about what I thought they were trying to say. This made the students back away, go into their shells.”  

Students look to university staff for more than just information: they look to these interactions “for a familiar face and to establish a relationship, which leads to a sense of community and belonging.” A member of staff can be that point of connection, that place of certainty and stability from which a student can build a sense of belonging, agency and confidence. 

It is about a staff member investing in the relationship with students. It is about simply ‘checking in’ and encouraging open conversation that goes beyond the formal and the academic. It is about creating the space for students to air their beliefs about university life, about listening for what is getting in the way of a fulfilling and successful experience.  We can make a start by asking one simple question: “how are you doing today?” 

Our Student Support Manager again: “Normally when I’d talk with a student I’d go straight into action, into information and advice giving. It’s what the students present themselves as expecting. Now I give them the space to explore, to talk things through. It’s more of a conversation. I get a far better understanding of what’s really going on with them and they go out of the door in a much better place.”  

One simple question opens a space for connection, a chance for them to express how they really feel, tell you what’s really going on. They feel seen, heard and validated. They engage. It doesn’t take much, but one simple question can go a very long way. Try it.  

As an Engagement Manager told us, “when you connect with them, even in that one short moment, you see them sit up straighter, shoulders come forward instead of slumping back. They lean into the conversation instead of away from it. They are affirmed. They begin to see that university is a place where they can belong.” 

So when we welcome in these new types of students – those who have had different journeys to get to university, those who are operating on a different timetable, those who are looking for different things from the experience, those who have different definitions of success – we should keep in mind that we all have a lot more in common: the need to connect, the need to belong, the need to feel part of something bigger. Let’s begin that welcome with one simple question. “How are you doing today?” 

Ellie Garraway is CEO and Jon Down is the Director of Development at Grit Breakthrough Programmes. Grit delivers intensive personal development and coaching programmes in universities across the UK