Using the Snowflake Method to build belonging on campus

The pace of change in higher education makes it increasingly difficult for students to feel a sense of belonging on campus. This is even more difficult for the increasing number of students who take on part-time work to support themselves during their studies or who have other responsibilities.

Because these challenges are not unique to a specific university, it’s tempting to think that there is a simple, one-size-fits-all solution, but to be successful in this area, institutions must build a tailored programme to match the needs of their unique demographic and local environment.

What is the Snowflake Method?

While change takes time in a large organisation, it is possible to make a significant difference by building out from a core set of principles. This is called the Snowflake Method and it is used in several areas, from political campaigning to creative writing and community engagement. It advocates that by cycling around the core themes you are seeking to address, it is possible to identify and construct a multilayered approach that delivers a cohesive narrative. 

The Snowflake Method is ideal for developing a sense of belonging because it enables a university to enact myriad small interventions that cumulate into a complex strategy of belonging. The themes addressed may vary by institution but a good place to start is:

• Student demographics and pressures: what does the student body look like and what specific pressures do they face?
• Settings: what are the settings, the buildings used and the location of the campus/es? How do students engage with support services? How do they engage with local residents?
• Existing best practice: what already happens around the institution at the course, school or service level? Can this be expanded to other areas or brought into the centre to include more students?

Using these themes and the questions they pose, we can build belonging programmes that proactively respond to student needs by identifying further scope for improvement, reinforcing successes and driving change incrementally.

• Resource collection: Well-being in higher education
• How our Study Together programme promotes belonging and improves well-being
• Belonging: why it is the next step on the equity, diversity and inclusion ladder

A case study using the snowflake method 

Student demographics and pressures: at Teesside University we have a very diverse student population, with one in three of our students international, 54 per cent from the North East and 55 per cent commencing study after 25. We also have a high proportion of students who are first-in-family degree entrants, and many who are returning to education with personal responsibilities, such as caring roles and families.

Settings: we have a town centre campus in Middlesbrough and a further campus in Darlington, which is 16 miles away. Many students commute from the surrounding areas and leave as soon as their timetabled day ends. Encouraging students to spend more time on our campuses, particularly after the pandemic, is an important part of building belonging and encourages interaction between our home and international students.

Existing best practice: we were aware of several excellent initiatives that existed within the university when we commenced the programme, from events that showcase students’ home nations to school initiatives around subject terminology and support services that cover topics from academic shock to exam anxiety.

We used the outputs of these theme reviews as a basis to weave a belonging programme into the wider university experience, combining this with feedback on previous events to adjust delivery. Building around existing activities, as the Snowflake Method advocates, we added new interventions such as free engagement activities, including mindfulness and short yoga sessions, winter warmer chats with coffee during university closure to alleviate loneliness, and made some of our student events family-friendly so that those with caring responsibilities were able to attend. In doing this, we have been able to build a schedule alongside our students to enrich the sense of belonging on our campuses. We also co-created welcome and celebration campaigns with our students to bring our student voice visibly to the fore in our student life building – something that has been so well received that we will be expanding it in the next academic session. Feedback on these additions has been excellent, including comments that these are some of the best events students have attended at the university.

The beauty of the Snowflake Method is that it allows teams to try new initiatives in a low-stakes way, building on successes and adjusting in response to feedback. This iterative process delivers tangible benefits to the student community and builds a sense of belonging from the outset. It builds a fuller picture of the university’s internal communities. Using the snowflake method to run multiple smaller initiatives has enabled us to identify areas where students feel isolated and respond by working with internal and external partners to support these students in finding their feet. We don’t just say “Welcome” to our students at Teesside University, we say “Welcome home”.

Sarah Bishop is assistant director (communities, culture and international) of student and library services at Teesside University.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.