Understanding Belonging in Higher Education
A Collaborative Look at Belonging
A few months ago, we partnered with Paskill and Lexicon & Line to explore how higher education leaders—presidents, enrollment managers, marketing teams, DEI officers, and student affairs professionals—are defining, measuring, and prioritizing belonging across their institutions.
It was the natural evolution of the Belonging Benchmark we’ve developed with Lexicon & Line; a research-backed tool that was piloted with nearly 900 students to understand what belonging actually feels like from a student’s perspective. This next phase turned the lens outward: What do campus leaders see? How do they think about belonging? What’s the gap between what students need and what institutions are offering?
The Research Approach: Bridging Worlds
Here at KNow, we’re passionate about the power of qualitative research to uncover human truths. But we also know that sometimes you need both depth and breadth to tell the whole story. That’s why this collaboration mattered.
We brought our human-centered, qualitative expertise to understand the nuance of how leaders think about belonging. Lexicon & Line brought quantitative rigor and strategic evaluation. Paskill brought deep institutional knowledge of higher education and the ability to translate findings into actionable strategy. In August – October of 2025, more than 100 higher education professionals completed our survey—representing two- and four-year institutions across every region of the country.
What We Learned
Nearly all respondents agree on one thing: belonging is essential. It matters for enrollment. It matters for retention. It matters for student success. And it should be communicated intentionally across every single recruitment touchpoint.
Yet the hard truth is that more than half of respondents said their institutions only somewhat understand or measure belonging. There are gaps in how data systems capture the lived experience of students, especially first-generation, international, and racially or religiously minoritized students.
In other words, leaders know belonging matters. They just don’t always know how to operationalize it. How do you measure something that’s part feeling, part signal, part lived experience?
What we found particularly striking was the recognition among leaders that the first student experience is now digital first. It’s the website. It’s the email. It’s the social media post. This means every copywriter, every designer, every marketer working in higher education needs to think differently about their role—not just promoting the institution, but helping prospective students see themselves as part of the community before they ever step foot on campus.
The Bigger Picture
What emerged from this research is a clear truth: belonging is both a human cornerstone and a strategic imperative. It’s what transforms recruitment into relationships. It’s what keeps students connected long after they’ve enrolled. Institutions that take this seriously—that design for it, measure it, and prioritize it across every touchpoint—are the ones that see real impact on retention, engagement, and student success.
Why This Matters for Your Institution
If you work in higher education, this research is worth your attention. More than half of our respondents expressed interest in benchmarking belonging nationally—in having shared standards and frameworks for what belonging actually looks like and how to strengthen it.
For us at KNow, this project reinforced something fundamental about our approach to research: you can’t separate the human experience from the institutional strategy. You have to understand both. You have to listen to what students need and what leaders are trying to do. You have to bridge qualitative depth with quantitative reach.
And you have to remember that behind every enrollment decision, every retention metric, every institutional challenge, there are human beings asking: Do I belong here?
When institutions take that question seriously, that’s when real change happens.
Ready to explore belonging on your campus? Let us know if you’d like to explore the possibilities of building your own Belonging Benchmark survey to track – and take action to improve – belonging on your campus.
