This paper gives an overview of a study conducted at the University of Winchester to explore students’ ‘sense of belonging’ at one particular UK institution. The project was completed in two phases: first, an investigation via a ‘Feedback Forum’ of the different stages and factors contributing to a ‘sense of belonging’ and the points in time during the student journey where this was achieved. Second, this initial data was coded to provide a series of categories which informed the creation of an institution-wide survey to investigate further which types of engagement led to a ’sense of belonging’, and to what extent, for each category identified. This research was influenced by the national policy and market economy within current UK Higher Education (HE), with a focus on retention and student satisfaction, which has, in turn, been linked to belonging (Thomas, 2012; Morgan, 2003). The study was undertaken, and the paper authored, through a student-staff partnership within the Winchester Student Fellows Scheme (described by Sims et al, 2014).

Since technology permeates every aspect of contemporary life, just navigating Higher Education (HE) in the 21st century makes you, to an extent, ‘tech savvy’. However, when looking to technology to assist student/staff partnerships, colleagues need to take their practice beyond Microsoft Office, social media and Photoshop.During a student/staff partnership research project, a student and a higher education professional used the online platform Padlet as their selected medium for collaboration, in order to replicate such of Healy’s principles of partnership as inclusivity, reciprocity, trust and community (Healy et al., 2014).

This article reports upon the systematic literature review of ‘hard to reach’ students carried out as part of the REACT (Realising Engagement through Active Culture Transformation) project. The review has been undertaken in order to critically assess the concept of ‘hard to reach’ and attempt to bring some clarity to the use of the term, as well as to add empirical rigour and much-needed context to discussion in this area. The review also explores methods that have been used to explicitly engage the ‘hard to reach’, thereby providing a resource for policy makers, researchers and also practitioners who are working to increase inclusivity  or better engage their students. The article presents a summary of the initial findings of the review.

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