Outcomes of the Belonging and Wellbeing Survey 2022

From April to May in 2022, the University launched a Belonging and Wellbeing survey. The survey aimed to understand students' sense of belonging, engagement and confidence in their studies and mental health.

The Belonging and Wellbeing survey will be conducted annually, so that we can make improvements to student support and develop new types of support where needed. In 2022, 1,500 students completed the survey. Key findings are summarised below.

• 85 % of students expressed they were highly engaged in their studies
• 67% of students expressed they feel a sense of belonging to the university
• 50% of students expressed they had a strong level of confidence in their studies. 

Next steps 

Compared to previous UoW belonging surveys (2013-2015), there have been considerable improvements in students’ reported engagement and self-confidence in their academic studies. Overall, sense of belonging remains the same across the university. However, previously white students had higher levels of sense belonging than global majority students. This gap has now reversed. This is likely to be a result of the focused and targeted work we have embedded across the university. However, there are still improvements we need to make to the student experience.

We will be prioritising these throughout 2023. Our priority areas to address include:

1. Younger students (aged 25 and below) have lower levels of belonging, engagement and self-confidence than mature students.
2. Students with fewer friendships at university and below average levels of mental health also scored lower across all measures.

Join us  & Make Change Happen

Would you like to become more involved in this work by joining the Belonging Working Group? Or do you know any student who would? For more details, please contact Ada Adeghe: email: a.adeghe@wlv.ac.uk

Find out more about student voice at wlv.ac.uk/student-voice.