Supporting Wellbeing and Belonging in Postgraduate Taught Programmes

She began with the conundrum that PGT students often report high satisfaction with their courses but there is a low sense of belonging. ​“It really matters because learning is an emotional activity — the way we interact with the things that we’re being taught and the things that we’re learning. If we don’t feel that we belong in a particular space that we’re inhabiting, this is made more difficult.”

She then outlined how she interprets belonging, observing that the students often feel a sense of belonging to the programme but not the university. ​“But, pedagogically, belonging is an outcome that is shaped by the teaching, by the curricula, by the assessment, by the relationships and the vibe that goes on in the classroom.” 

She went on to explain that belonging has three key dimensions: firstly, social (do I connect with others? Can I make friends?); secondly, academic (Do I understand what is expected?) and thirdly, the epistemic level (Do I see myself as someone who belongs in this field?) Speaking of the latter, she said that it probably depends on whether they feel that they align with the behaviours and the identities of those around them. ​“Belonging is really complex because it can be looked at from many different angles, and it involves many different aspects of the individual.” 

Dr Costa-Pereira went on to highlight the short duration of PGT courses and how this can contribute to a sense of distance, along with the added intensity in terms of expectations and the relative detachment of academic staff compared to teaching at undergraduate level.

“Of course, we’re not even talking about the identity of the students,” she added. ​“Many will be going through a process of discovering who they are as human beings, and they might be quite worried about how they present themselves to their peers.”

She then turned to the style of teaching, explaining that she had personally moved away from the didactic ​‘lecture’ in favour of more interactive discussions. She also spoke of how students were less likely to approach academics with difficulties, so they had to be more alert to what she called ​‘pastoral interactions’.

She concluded by saying that ​‘designing for belonging’ was very important in PGT contexts. ​“You can’t expect belonging to be a spontaneous event that just happens by virtue of putting nice, clever people in the same room,” she said. ​“You really have to be intentional about how you design your curriculum and how you bring all the skills you need — not just to equip students for the workplace, but also with the social and emotional skills that they need to actually feel that they can do it.”