We’re All in This Together: Promoting Law Students’ Sense of Belonging via the Law School Community

Hughes-Gerber, Laura and McGuirk, Noel (2026) We’re All in This Together: Promoting Law Students’ Sense of Belonging via the Law School Community. In: The Open University - Disrupting Tradition: Pedagogical Innovation in Legal Education, 2026-03-10 - 2026-03-10.

Abstract

It is well-established that Law students in comparison to their peers in other disciplines suffer from low levels of wellbeing. This can at least in part be ascribed to a lack of a sense of belonging amongst the Law student cohort. Drawing on interdisciplinary insights from legal design theory and higher-education pedagogy, the study will report on a pilot co-creation initiative adopted by law tutors at Lancaster University. The initiative saw several undergraduate student focus groups consider the design of our departmental student support system. Each group considered a fictitious student persona, with participants considering how their Law School should respond to a range of common issues experienced by students throughout their degree. Law School Community: The primary theme emerging from the focus groups identified students feeling anxious and alienated, as well as intimidated to approach academic staff with questions and problems. Students emphasised their desire for a closer connection to both their lecturers and peers, fostered through mentoring, study groups, study buddies, student interest groups and networks for like-minded students, as well as further opportunities for formal and informal dialogue. This underlines the need to bolster a student’s sense of community within their Law School as a means of reducing anxiety and improving communication to provide reassurance and tackle alienation and intimidation. Fostering the Law School Community as a Vehicle for Inclusion: Having identified the desirability of fostering a greater sense of community amongst the Law student body, this paper will then turn to address several action points: what can we as legal academics do to foster an inclusive Law School community?