Co-authored by Simone Faulkner and James Wakefield (UTS Business School)
Establishing peer connections is integral to student belonging, which has wide-reaching implications for self-confidence, academic progression, assessment outcomes, satisfaction and retention. Ongoing changes in the higher education landscape and shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic continue to affect the student experience, however, leaving some students feeling isolated, disconnected and in the worst cases, at risk of dropping out of their studies.
The business of belonging
First-year undergraduate Business students are usually part of large, diverse cohorts, where it can be difficult to make meaningful, personal connections as they navigate the crucial early stages of their degree. When they attend induction sessions (and not all do), students are unlikely to know others in the room; faced with hundreds of unfamiliar faces, they may feel lost, anxious and overwhelmed.
Given how confronting these experiences can be, we were motivated to help Business students build a peer network from day one of university, building on the following key concepts:
- Belonging: particularly during and post-COVID, issues relating to student connection, high rates of isolation and concerns surrounding the lack of student belonging (Gopalan et al., 2022);
- Social Constructivism: students engaging in participative and collaborative experiences in the classroom to jointly construct their understanding enhances learning (O’Connor, 2022);
- Group Formation: grouping of students based on commonalities (including shared interests and study preferences) promotes sustained friendships (Bryden et al, 2011).
Re-engineering the induction process
Drawing on these foundational principles, we redesigned the induction session in the UTS Business School to enhance and sustain student connectedness. Put simply, we ‘socially engineered’ the group formation process prior to students undertaking a group activity within the session.
The aim was to place students in small groups at an induction session; here they would connect with peers who had shared interests, making it more likely they would make friends and keep in touch with their new contacts (Bryden et al., 2011; Marmaros & Sacerdote, 2006).
To do this, students were invited to complete a pre-induction form relating to their interests and study preferences. The form asked about their entry pathway, any planned major selections, class time preferences, activities/interests and open-ended questions for further details. The grouping was then based on (1) preferred class times, (2) entry pathway, (3) majors and (4) interests.
At the induction itself, an activity asked students to seek information and problem-solve aspects of the university experience together with peers in their group. There were questions related to university clubs and societies, finding subject resources, study spaces, study support, time commitment expectations, academic integrity, choosing majors and finding work. After the induction activities, students were encouraged to keep in touch.
Social success – measuring outcomes
Our analysis indicates that social engineering of groups based on similar interests enabled students to establish more sustained peer connections (compared with randomly assigned groups), and students were generally more satisfied with induction sessions.
Students who completed the pre-induction form were significantly more satisfied overall, and specifically with the information provided at the induction. We also measured the extent to which students kept in touch with peers from their induction and found that a substantially higher proportion of students kept in touch when they completed the pre-induction form and were allocated to small groups with peers with similar interests and study preferences.
We observed students at inductions as they tried to work out why they had been placed together and what they might have in common. Anecdotally, many enjoyed the novelty of the process, connecting through curiosity and eventually finding their shared interests.
What’s next?
As institutions aim to widen participation and enrol increasingly diverse cohorts of students, these initial findings have practical implications beyond the context of a single faculty or university. In the Business School, we continue to iterate and learn from each induction, and are considering how we can focus more on students’ extra-curricular interests rather than relying on the ability to synchronise timetables.
We would also like to hear from you – how have you managed orienting your commencing students in large cohorts?