Hengyi’s Learning Community for international students extends well beyond traditional orientation activities. As well as providing academic skills support, it aims to strengthen students’ academic transition, sense of belonging and engagement with the wider University community.

Teaching area

Academic skills; student engagement

Course

This is an optional, non-credit-bearing Level 5 module. I describe it as a ‘learning community’ rather than a module, as this framing is more supportive and accessible for students. The learning community is for 2+2 direct‑entry international students. The students have already studied for two years in their own country and join the Business School in Year 2 to study for two years to complete their degree.

Description

The University of Sussex Business School has delivered a Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE)-informed Learning Community (LC) for 2+2 direct‑entry international students since 2021. This initiative was designed as a comprehensive, developmental support model that extends well beyond traditional orientation activities. The LC aims to strengthen students’ academic transition, sense of belonging and engagement with the wider University community.

The CECE model

The design is based on all nine indicators of Museus’s CECE model (2014), including five indicators that address cultural relevance:

1. Cultural familiarity: opportunities for students to connect with staff, alumni and peers who share similar backgrounds

2. Culturally relevant knowledge that draws on students’ own cultural backgrounds and the shared experiences common among international students as a micro‑culture. For example, Chinese students studying in the UK often develop specific academic and social adaptation strategies, and these insights are incorporated into peer-led support sessions.

3. Cultural community service: peer mentoring by students from international backgrounds

4. Cross-cultural engagement: reciprocal peer-led language and culture learning between UK and international students

5. Cultural validation: multilingual appreciation and scaffolding academic English. For example, we recognise the transitional challenges that come with operating in a non‑native language. We provide Chinese-language support as a bridge to help students access English academic materials. The online pre-arrival platform includes bilingual resources, and Chinese student volunteers create subtitles and culturally contextualised explanations to break down large volumes of English content into manageable segments.

The remaining indicators concern responsiveness to diverse students’ needs:

6. Building community and belonging

7. Building relationships between tutors and students

8. Proactive philosophies, realised through stage-based engagement and barrier-breaking access

Stage-based engagement involves aligning LC workshops with key academic moments in the year, for example:

• Module selection weeks: explaining syllabus structures and module options.
• Before the exam period: teaching revision strategies and how to claim for exceptional circumstances if things go wrong. After results: discuss reflection on feedback and being resilient as a university student.
• Preparing postgraduate pathways: covering master’s applications.

Barrier-breaking access refers to recognising the different stages at which students are ready to access support and providing the right type of guidance at the right time. The LC uses a structured access model (see chart below) to ensure students can meaningfully engage with the available support systems.

9. Student-centred approach to help students to navigate the support systems at the University.

LC activities

The LC runs weekly during both terms of Year 2, creating regular touchpoints for academic, personal and social integration. Alongside the structured weekly workshops, it also offers informal gatherings, peer support and online learning materials, enabling continuity of community and learning beyond the classroom.

The learning community is very flexible, with an element of student co-creation. Some activities are fully student-led; I help students to organise others. Activities vary by cohort. In some years, the students organise well-being walks. This year, students have led sessions on their Master’s application experience; strategies for achieving high grades in Economics and Finance, and Management and Marketing modules; and effective approaches to making the most of lectures and seminars. Students also led campus tours during Welcome Week. For Chinese New Year, students co-created cultural celebration activities involving both home and international students across the university. We hosted more than 500 students and staff this year.

Key features of the LC model

The LC integrates:

• Academic skills development.
• Transition and personal development support.
• Intercultural communication and language scaffolding.
• Peer‑led support and student co‑creation.
• Structured access: I invite colleagues from Professional Services to co‑facilitate sessions with me, ensuring students can speak directly with careers, well-being, alumni staff and others involved in their support journey.

Structure and delivery

Each LC session follows a consistent, research‑informed structure:

1. Academic skills and transition workshop (first two hours).
2. Student‑led and Professional Services embedded sessions (as above) designed to address structural and cultural barriers that direct-entry students often face. These components help students access support at the right stage of their development without having to make individual appointments themselves.
3. Group Q&A with me, as the Partnership and Academic Success Tutor (optional additional two hours).

See examples of weekly programme titles below.

Outcomes

Academic skills and student support and fostering sense of belonging

I have conducted weekly micro-surveys at the end of each session for the last three years. These micro‑surveys have demonstrated strong student gains in:

• Understanding academic expectations.
• Confidence navigating university systems and support services.
• Sense of belonging within the Business School.
• Engagement with academic skills and assessment preparation.

These outcomes reflect the LC’s role as a high‑impact, culturally responsive transition programme for direct‑entry international students.

Comments

This LC was developed in response to small‑scale research with Sussex direct‑entry international students (Watson and Wang 2024) and refined through practice. The research and delivery have reinforced that international students are not a single, homogenous group: students’ experiences are shaped by different educational systems, cultures, languages and aspirations, as well as individual circumstances. Inclusive practice therefore requires a nuanced approach that creates multiple pathways into participation rather than assuming one ‘international student experience’.

The LC is intentionally designed as a holistic, student‑centred learning process rather than a one‑off induction or a set of compartmentalised services. It moves away from a deficit model of ‘fixing’ students and commits to reciprocal adaptation, where institutional practices, staff and peer communities change alongside students in response to their insights and strengths. Transition is treated as ongoing and developmental, and the LC identifies key transition points across the academic year and provides timely, proactive support at these moments, extending beyond arrival across academic expectations, belonging, well-being and future planning.

The CECE framework provides an analytical lens for this approach, enabling us to design and evaluate cultural validation, relationship‑building, proactive engagement and structured access as connected conditions for success. This work continues to evolve and I welcome conversations with colleagues who wish to develop or adapt similar LC approaches collaboratively.

References

Museus, S.D. (2014) ‘The Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE) Model: A New Theory of Success Among Racially Diverse College Student Populations’, in: M.B. Paulsen (ed.) Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, 29, Dordrecht: Springer: 189–227, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8005-6_5 (accessed 25 February 2026)

Watson, S. and Wang, H. (2024) ‘Creating a Pre-Arrival Platform that Supports International Student Transition into UK Higher Education’, chapter in Garnham, W. and Walker, N. (eds) Supporting the Student Journey into Higher Education: How Pre-Arrival Platforms Can Enhance Widening Participation (1st ed.) Routledge (accessed 28 April 2026)