Higher education is not a “one size fits all” experience. Small, specialist, and independent higher education providers play a crucial role in catering to diverse student populations.
Whether serving mature learners, part-time students, those in creative or vocational disciplines, or students from underrepresented backgrounds, these institutions often pride themselves on a personalised, student-centred approach.
However, the challenge remains: how can these providers ensure all students feel that they belong, they matter, and they are empowered to thrive?
The Advance HE Framework for Student Needs provides a foundation for understanding what students require to thrive, both in terms of academic and personal development and in fostering a sense of community and belonging. By embedding this framework into service design, institutions can move beyond simply providing support and instead co-create environments where students feel valued, included, and empowered to self-actualise.
What is the framework?
The Framework for Student Needs was developed by Advance HE in collaboration with sector practitioners and student policy leaders. It’s designed as a flexible tool to help higher education providers understand, discuss, and respond to the needs of their students.
The accompanying User Guide explains how the framework can be used across various levels - from informal discussions within course teams, to strategic planning conversations at institutional level. It is particularly useful for staff involved in teaching, learning, student support, and enhancement roles, offering a shared language for thinking about student experience.
Far from requiring large-scale interventions, the framework can support small, meaningful changes that have powerful effects, especially in non-traditional settings like independent providers of higher education or specialist institutions.
For example:
- a course leader might use the framework with colleagues to reflect on how well students understand what’s expected of them in assessments and then co-create a clearer set of guidelines
- a student services team could use it to map how well their current provision supports student independence and then make small changes to how information is presented or signposted online.
These are manageable actions, yet they speak directly to core areas of student need - competence, clarity, independence, and belonging - that can significantly affect student confidence and success.
The framework can support small, meaningful changes that have powerful effects
The Framework for Student Needs and the role of belonging
The framework identifies two broad categories of needs: those that support individual competence, confidence, and resilience, and those that enable belonging and community.
On an individual level, students benefit from clear and accessible academic guidance, specialist support services, and opportunities to develop their independence and agency. Feeling confident and capable in their studies is crucial, but for many students, it is not enough. The emotional and social dimensions of learning are just as important.
Belonging is key to student success. It is not just about feeling included but about knowing that one’s presence and contributions are valued. Research into student belonging, including work by Goodenow (1993), Lewis et al. (2016), and West (2022), has repeatedly shown that a strong sense of belonging enhances motivation, engagement, and retention. Conversely, when students feel isolated or unwelcome, they are more likely to disengage, struggle academically, or even withdraw from their studies.
This is particularly significant in small, specialist, and independent higher education providers, where students may not have access to the same large-scale peer networks, societies, and student communities as they would in a traditional university setting. Many students in these institutions study remotely, part-time, or in niche subject areas, making it even more essential to create intentional opportunities for connection and community-building.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs and student self-actualisation
To understand how belonging fits into the bigger picture, it is useful to consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow (1943) proposed that people move through different levels of needs: from basic physiological and safety needs to social belonging, esteem, and finally, self-actualisation.
In an educational context, students must first have their basic needs met, such as financial security, housing, and access to mental health support. They then need to feel safe and supported in their learning environment, with clear structures and expectations. Only once these foundational needs are addressed can they fully engage in academic life, build meaningful relationships, and develop the confidence to take ownership of their learning.
At the top of the hierarchy is self-actualisation - the ability to realise one’s potential, to grow, and to achieve personal goals. This is the aim of higher education, but it is only possible when students feel a strong sense of mattering, belonging, and agency in their institution.
The framework provides a roadmap for this journey, and when deployed even in small ways, it can help institutions create an environment in which students are not just supported - they are empowered.
From support to co-creation: rethinking service design
Perhaps it might be argued that, for too long, student support has been seen as a reactive process - an intervention when things go wrong. But if institutions want to create environments where students truly thrive, they must continue their shift towards co-creation models.
Rather than assuming what students need, institutions should engage them as partners in designing services, policies, and learning environments. The framework provides a structured way to do this, offering a shared language for students and staff to explore how best to foster a sense of belonging and empowerment.
This means rethinking everything from student induction processes to academic feedback, from extracurricular activities to mental health support. Instead of seeing these as separate areas of student life, they should be understood as interconnected, each contributing to the overall student experience.
If institutions want to create environments where students truly thrive, they must continue their shift towards co-creation models
Creating spaces where students belong and matter
One of the key ways that small, specialist, and independent providers can enhance belonging is by creating intentional spaces - both physical and digital - where students feel connected.
For on-campus students, this might involve rethinking learning environments, ensuring that there are spaces not just for formal teaching but for collaboration, informal discussions, and peer learning. For online and remote learners, virtual communities, peer mentoring, and regular points of contact with staff and fellow students are essential in preventing isolation.
The role of staff in fostering belonging cannot be overstated. Research has shown that meaningful staff-student relationships are one of the most significant factors in student success (Goodenow, 1993; Lewis et al., 2016). In small and specialist institutions, where students often have more direct access to lecturers and tutors, there is a real opportunity to build supportive, trust-based relationships that make students feel valued.
Institutions must also acknowledge that belonging is not just about inclusion, but about recognition. Students need to feel that their backgrounds, experiences, and identities are acknowledged and celebrated within their institution. This means diverse and inclusive curricula, student-led spaces, and recognition of different learning and life experiences.
Recognising the importance of mattering - the belief that one’s presence and contributions are acknowledged - can lead to practices such as:
- visible student representation in decision-making
- feedback loops where student suggestions are actioned and credited
- celebrating student contributions both academically and socially.
Shifting towards a more holistic model of student experience
For small, specialist, and independent higher education providers, embedding the framework into institutional strategy offers a powerful opportunity to move beyond transactional support models and towards holistic, student-centred service design.
This is not about adding more services or increasing intervention - it is about redefining the student experience so that belonging and mattering are at its core. By actively involving students in shaping their environment, fostering meaningful connections, and ensuring that every student knows they are valued, institutions can transform not just student outcomes, but the very nature of higher education itself.
In a rapidly shifting educational space, institutions that prioritise co-creation, empowerment, and belonging will not only retain and support their students - they will also help them to flourish, self-actualise, and leave with a sense of confidence and agency that extends far beyond their time in education.
A framework that works for your context
The key message is that embedding the framework does not require wholesale institutional reform. It can be used flexibly, selectively, and creatively.
Whether you are an independent arts college running a peer-led feedback forum, a specialist STEM provider enhancing online induction for distance learners, or a part-time adult education centre reviewing how students access wellbeing services - the framework gives you a language and lens through which to view your work. Even modest changes, implemented collaboratively, can significantly impact how students experience their education, and how they see themselves within it.
Juliette Morgan is a Senior Consultant at Advance HE.
