{"id":3526,"date":"2026-10-02T09:37:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T08:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/?p=3526"},"modified":"2026-10-02T09:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T08:49:09","slug":"what-is-the-kent-belonging-beyond-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/2026\/10\/02\/what-is-the-kent-belonging-beyond-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Kent &#8216;Belonging and Beyond&#8217; initiative?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Starting university is about more than lectures, assignments and exams. It\u2019s also about finding your people, building connections and feeling like you belong. <strong>Belonging &amp; Beyond<\/strong> is a University of Kent initiative designed to help our diverse student community feel <strong>seen, valued and empowered<\/strong> throughout their university journey.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the year, the programme offers different opportunities for students to connect with others, hear different experiences, share their own voices and discover ways to get involved in university life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why does belonging matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Everyone\u2019s experience of university is different. For some students, finding their community happens quickly. For others, it can take time.<\/p>\n<p>Belonging &amp; Beyond recognises that there isn&#8217;t one way to feel connected to university. Whether it&#8217;s meeting someone at an event, joining a society, building a relationship with a member of staff or simply finding a space where you feel comfortable being yourself, small moments can make a big difference.<\/p>\n<p>The programme centres on the experiences of <strong>ethnically marginalised students<\/strong>, while recognising that creating a welcoming and inclusive university community is something we can all contribute to.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Belonging doesn&#8217;t stop after Welcome Week<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Finding your sense of belonging doesn&#8217;t have to happen in your first few weeks at Kent.<\/p>\n<p>Belonging can develop throughout your university journey, which is why Belonging &amp; Beyond continues throughout the academic year with opportunities to meet others, share experiences, get involved and build connections.<\/p>\n<p>So, whether you&#8217;re new to Kent or have been here for a while, keep an eye out for what&#8217;s happening and get involved in something that interests you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You belong here.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Find out more about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/student-success\/student-success-home\">Belonging &amp; Beyond<\/a> and discover upcoming opportunities at Kent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting university is about more than lectures, assignments and exams. It\u2019s also about finding your people, building connections and feeling like you belong. Belonging &amp; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/2026\/10\/02\/what-is-the-kent-belonging-beyond-initiative\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78257,"featured_media":3203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[312383,205698,223280,223276,183846,1479,312220,202865],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3526"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3528,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions\/3528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}