Students locate compassion in everyday university systems

Updated Oct 27, 2026

Students connected compassion with everyday university arrangements as well as personal relationships. In Higher Education Research & Development, Jemima Dooley and colleagues examine how recognition, practical resources and institutional processes shaped experiences of care on campus.

What the researchers asked

The Nurture-U Compassionate Campus project asked where students had experienced compassion or its absence, and what universities could do to create a compassionate culture. The study involved 44 students at the University of Exeter and King's College London, with discussions held in 2022 and 2023. Two planned focus groups became individual interviews after participants dropped out.

Student advisers helped design the discussion guide and contributed to reflexive thematic analysis, including reviewing and refining the themes. They were distinct from the research participants. Recruitment used university newsletters and social media, with targeted invitations to students who had experienced exclusion.

What students' accounts reveal

Being understood mattered to inclusion. Participants described compassion through recognition of their experiences and backgrounds. They also challenged broad identity labels that obscured differences within groups.

Everyday arrangements shaped perceptions of care. Students described costs of food and activities, accessibility, transport and difficult-to-navigate websites. They also valued self-certified mitigation processes. These accounts connected compassion with practical decisions about resources and procedures, extending the discussion beyond the tone of an individual interaction.

Personal connection needed institutional support. Participants valued human contact and peer support, while questioning reliance on individual students and staff to carry the burden of care. They described limited time to connect and barriers within societies and personal tutoring arrangements.

Visible responses to feedback were valued. One participant recalled a course team changing an assignment requirement and explaining that it had listened to students. Elsewhere, participants wanted clearer communication and dialogue about support.

The authors caution that recruitment may have attracted particularly strong views. Both institutions were Russell Group universities, and the study did not include staff or leadership focus groups. Some accounts may have been prioritised over others in the analysis.

References

[Paper Source]: Jemima Dooley, Vee Okobia, Nouf Alsaadi, Jay Bate, Charles Hyde, Yashvi Prajapati, Mariyah Islam, Polly Card, Felicity Thomas, Edward Watkins, Louise Lawrence and Nicola Byrom. "Student perspectives on ‘critical compassion’ in higher education: the Nurture-U compassionate campus project" DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2026.2615302

Published online: 6 February 2026, Higher Education Research & Development.