Building a community at university and why it matters

Second-year student Idriss shares what he's learnt so far about the importance of community and how to build strong connections at university. 

Welcome to your first year at SOAS! Starting university can be quite intimidating, but this blog is here to give you ideas on how to steer your experience to be more enjoyable and less stressful. 

Community is so important to everyone, but particularly to university students. As someone who has now finished my first year at university, I’ve realised that understanding what connection, community and togetherness mean actually changed the way I interact with people and how I understand being social.  I came to this realisation by attending  ‘Steps to Togetherness’ workshops, hosted by Civil Society Consulting (CSC) at SOAS, and subsequently volunteering for them. 

Here are some of the lessons I learned about loneliness and the need for community during my first year at SOAS. 

Why we need community as students 

University students are at high risk of loneliness. Moving to a new city and making new friends can have a big impact as you balance this with your studies. Loneliness can lead to depression and anxiety because human beings have an inherent need for connection and community. 

The social side of university is a completely different experience from secondary school. At SOAS, you will find a much larger and more diverse student body than most schools, not just in terms of cultural backgrounds but also in age and life experience.  

At first, this can feel a bit daunting or even isolating. However, university is ultimately a unique opportunity to meet people from all walks of life and form deep friendships through shared experiences that can last a lifetime. 

I really appreciate the people I’ve met in my first year. It takes a bit of courage; you have to say hello, start conversations, and put yourself out there, but it is so worth it.

I really appreciate the people I’ve met in my first year. It takes a bit of courage; you have to say hello, start conversations, and put yourself out there, but it is so worth it. 

We should want to connect with one another, because at the end of the day, we are all part of the same community here at SOAS; sharing this space, academic interests, this time, and this experience, and that’s something special!

The Togetherness movement and the concept behind it 

Connection and community aren't just a nice-to-have to promote student wellbeing. After years of working in the charity sector, Civil Society Consulting has come to the conclusion that connection and community are fundamental for bringing about meaningful social change. 

They’ve seen how the increasing lack of social connection and a loss of community in the UK is a shared root cause driving all of the health and social issues on which they work. Disconnection creates loneliness, which is the underlying cause of so many mental and physical health issues. 

Widespread loneliness also creates the perfect conditions for divisive narratives to thrive in, so loneliness is also responsible for social fragmentation (division between communities) and thus the weakening of democracy. All this division puts power in the hands of populist politicians and tech oligarchs and makes change feel impossible.

If we want to create the conditions for positive change, we all need to do our bit to build connections around us - within and between communities.

If we want to create the conditions for positive change, we all need to do our bit to build connections around us - within and between communities. With this in mind, CSC developed ‘32 Steps to Togetherness’ - a set of 32 ideas of practical things we can all do to help bring people together. The idea is that following a few of the steps benefits us as we become happier and healthier, but also creates the conditions for changing the system. 

Our year at SOAS 

I learnt all this through Togetherness workshops held here at SOAS in my very first term. I stumbled on it by complete chance while searching for a phone charger. But it’s changed my life.

CSC, in an effort to help build community here in SOAS, put on some relaxed evening workshops, where new students could sit around a table and discuss these ideas and how the community can look at SOAS. With CSC’s support, a bunch of us students took forward some of the ideas that emerged.

I stumbled on Togetherness workshops by complete chance while searching for a phone charger. But it’s changed my life.

We decided to host a big poetry night and a smaller poetry workshop as an opportunity for students to come together - and we’ve planned a bigger and better programme of work for all those joining SOAS this coming academic year.

As a new or future SOAS student, being aware of togetherness is vital because, in my experience, it changes the way you approach social situations and allows you to appreciate your university experience. Look out for my next blog post on how to go about building a community. 

Last year, we built the foundations for more amazing work with SOAS in the future, which you get to benefit from. Join us to shape and steer the movement at SOAS. There will be lots of workshops happening, including a big welcome back poetry evening on 9 October and film-making workshops leading to a collaborative/participatory social media campaign throughout the next year.