How the concept of ‘environmental press’ can be used to analyse belonging for students at a multi-campus university. Neil Currant, Oxford Brookes University

Context: Narrative research into experiences of BME students at a predominately white multi-campus university Concept: Environmental Press Application to themes: ‘Promoting a sense of belonging’ & ‘fostering a safe and inclusive study place’

Small scale narrative study Belonging and the student experience Four campus university (data from three campuses) No intention to look at campus differences but emerged as part of data analysis.

Environmental Press (Pace & Stern 1958): Needs (of the individual) Press of the institution Press represents polices and practices intended to influence the development of students - as perceived by students. The error Pace & Stern made was: Assuming that there had to be an alignment between needs & press (Baird 1988). No link between alignment and achievement. Trying to quantitatively measure needs & press. However, does not negate considering both elements simultaneously & qualitatively: similar to the debate on who is responsible for student engagement? (Trowler 2010)

Typologies of engagement: Student Engagement Styles Institutional Engagement Types (Trowler 2010) Student engagement types e.g. Coates (2007) Institutional Engagement Types, e.g. Pike & Kuh (2005) 7 types based on NSSE data. CollaborativeIntense Passive Independent Academic

Environmental Press as a notion to inform our understanding of Belonging. The need for Belonging varies for each student (need) The type of Belonging varies for each student (need) How universities cater for Belonging varies (press)

Profile: Mature, part-time student, mother, wife, female, introvert, Black… Campus Y

Likes the city but feels like a foreigner, a visitor, coming to university. The only black person in her class. Only at university one day a week and has not done many group work activities. As a result, found it hard to make friends. Feels like she is ignored when speaking to other students in the class; it feels like she is impinging on their space. Feels anxious when coming to university, can’t describe it exactly; it is subtle.

Fitting in Social belonging needs not being met: white students don’t want to associate with her and staff have not engineered the environment to support this. Staff interaction Needs for support and advice not met: Staff seem very busy and multiple support services are hard to navigate.

Profile: full time, male, son, extrovert, multi-racial… Campus X

Career-focused and driven, sees his prestigious degree (MEng) as a route to a good job. Works hard to build good relationships with academic staff. Feels part of a community on his course. Feels like students on Campus X are all ‘in it together’ (Campus X is widely derided as problematic for students.) His social life is outside university in the local community – in part because that community is more diverse.

Fitting in The course develops a strong shared identity which meets the needs of Kingsley. Campus X feels more like a cohesive environment for students. Personal, social needs met elsewhere. Staff interaction Seeks to satisfy needs proactively. Staff are happy to fulfil that need.

Kingsley has needed to work hard to have his needs met but the Press on his course and campus X have been accommodating. Janice has not had her needs met and the Press on campus Y does not really help acknowledge the diversity of students. The Environmental Press’ of campus X & Y are different. Complexity of meeting the needs of a diverse student population.

Would Kingsley’s needs have been met by the Environmental press of campus Y and vice versa for Janice? Why are the Environmental Press’ of each campus different? (courses taught, demographics…?)

Is the concept of needs and Environmental Press, in addition to student engagement, useful for considering the belonging and experiences of BME students? Given that ‘needs’ vary, how do we create an optimal Environmental Press?

Baird, L.L. (1988) The College Environment Revisited: A Review of Research and Theory in Smart, J.C. (ed) Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research (vol 4), New York: Agathon. Coates, H (2007) A Model of Online and General Campus- Based Student Engagement, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 32 (2), pp 121–141 Pace, C. R. & Stern, G. G. (1958) ‘An approach to the measurement of psychological characteristics of college environments.’ Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 49(5), pp Pike, G R and Kuh, G D (2005) A Typology of Student Engagement for American Colleges and Universities Research in Higher Education. 46 (2), pp 185–209 Trowler, V. (2010) Student Engagement Literature Review HEA: York