Why Aren’t Students Asking for Help and What Can We Do About It?
As more students from diverse backgrounds enter higher education, it is crucial to consider how we can better support their transition to university and beyond. We must help students understand what it means to be a university student. Often, implicit and unclear expectations can disadvantage certain students, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, such as mature students and minority ethnic students.
In this article, I explore the barriers students might face when it comes to seeking support and how we can rectify this with insights from my role and research at Imperial College London.
What are the key challenges for students underrepresented backgrounds?
Our research on underrepresented students found that some are hesitant to ask for help due to fear of the unknown and uncertainty, as illustrated below:
Image created by GPT 4o, August 2024
Here, knocking on the door of an unfamiliar place can be intimidating. It is important to also acknowledge the difference between students knowing about the existence of these support services, and actually using them.
In contrast, some students are too proud to ask for help. For them, seeking help may feel like admitting weakness or dependency. This perception can be shaped by their personal backgrounds and intersect with wider discourses around gender, ethnicity, class or culture. For example, one student, Foreman, shared, ‘I don't really ask anything from anyone in life’. He felt uncomfortable asking for help because it contradicted the independent identity he had cultivated. However, he later recognised the value of seeking support:
‘I realised the value of showing your lecturers your draft, I’ve learnt to let other people look at my work … I also send her [student support service] all my essays, I see the benefit now and she really helped with my English and grammar.’
Foreman acknowledged that if he had sought support earlier, he might have achieved higher grades in his assignments.
This example highlights the importance for staff and educators to be more proactive in supporting students. We need to move away from the deficit-based model – where support is only provided when something goes wrong – and where appropriate, embed support within the curriculum, rather than placing all the responsibility on students to access and request these services.
Another challenge students face is imposter syndrome, the persistent feeling that one is like a fraud despite achievements and successes. Students with strong imposter feelings may avoid asking for help out of fear that it could expose their perceived inadequacies. Many students, especially those from working-class backgrounds, also discussed the intersection of social class and imposter syndrome. For example, David, a working-class biology student consistently achieving very high grades, struggled to believe in his own success. He felt ‘lesser than most other people’ he studied with, which he attributed to his different educational background.
What can we do to support students?
Facilitate peer support & Collective spaces of belonging
Our research found that students managed their imposter feelings effectively through collective spaces of belonging. These spaces, such as friendship groups or inclusive student societies, allow students to be emotionally honest about their struggles. Encouraging students to share their experiences with support services can also help address the ‘fear of the unknown’. By sharing authentic examples, students can see that they are not alone in their challenges, which can improve wellbeing and help-seeking behaviour.
Foster academic culture changes
It is important to have more open discussions about imposter feelings and acknowledge that they are a common part of the learning process. We should also normalise asking for help and support students to view making mistakes as a part of learning. This can reduce the stigma around seeking assistance and help students see it as a natural aspect of their educational journey. This also ties into the idea of managing students’ expectations and the importance of transparency and mutual understanding. For our support services, staff may find it useful to consider implementing open-door policies, offering more flexible timings, or using online meetings and other methods to broaden and diversify how support can be accessed.
Developing an inclusive learning community
We should strive to create a supportive and inclusive environment for students from all backgrounds. Supporting students in making friends is crucial, especially at the start of university. Universities should provide ample opportunities for cohort-building through social activities to facilitate a positive and supportive learning culture.
Pedagogical innovation to foster a diverse and inclusive academic culture
Based on insights from our SIDUS project on supporting the identity development of underrepresented students, we worked in partnership with students to create materials to promote inclusion and support success for students at university. These resources include a student handbook - a student’s guide to university, bookmarks, and posters, along with a staff guide on how to use these materials in teaching and supporting learning. Below are examples of some of our pedagogical resources:
These resources cover topics such as sense of belonging, university drinking culture, mental wellbeing, imposter syndrome, what it means to be a university student, and so on. We distributed them across campus including student accommodation, induction events, student societies, and a stall in one of the university libraries:
We are very happy to support colleagues to adapt these materials for their own teaching and learning context. Please feel free to contact the SIDUS project team, including our impact case studies.
Supporting students to thrive at university is a collective responsibility. Every interaction, every touchpoint with our students, shapes their experience and perceptions. These minor but meaningful encounters can lead to significant differences in how students engage with support services and their overall learning experience at university. By working together, we can create an environment where students feel valued and understood, and where asking questions and exploring uncertainties are seen as strengths, not weaknesses.
