This action research project wants to find out what the needs of MA Innovative Fashion Production (MA IFP) students are to make meaningful connections to other MA students. The results should inform the development of an intervention, such as a workshop or teaching material, that aids students to identify their individual relationship-building needs. The purpose is to foster belonging and to challenge the structural and social barriers that international students, especially those arriving from Asia, might face but may not initially recognise.
Connect – You and your connections, centres students’ needs to make meaningful emotional and professional connections during their study. It responds directly to data from our Course Student Survey (CSS, 2025), where 73% of students agreed there are sufficient opportunities to connect with other postgraduate taught students. Although a figure 10% above the UAL-wide average (see fig. 1 and fig. 2 appendix) it still leaves room for improvement.
All current MA IFP students are Chinese, far away from home, thus the groups they belong to, such as kin, culture and friends, are not in practical, immediate reach. I believe that the lack of feeling connected and consequently to belong, negatively affects academic performance and social life, triggering a cycle that can amplify individual struggles.
“Humans are hardwired with the desire to belong; belonging to family, a group of people, a community. It is existential for us now and historically.” (Eastwood, 2022).
Our core relationships, the people we choose to surround ourselves with, are our network and the place that we think of as belonging to. “Not to belong affects our physical and mental health. Even the fear of not belonging triggers a physical reaction and puts us into a fight and flight state”.
Rightfully, the term networking has fallen into disrepute because the old doctrine encouraged practices that are self-serving and opportunistic, such as valuing the number of connections more than their quality (Gerber and Paugh, 2018; HBR, 2022). However, network building based on authenticity and reciprocity is not only effective for succeeding well in life, but promotes our well-being, as more recent studies suggest (HBR, 2022; Eastwood, 2022). I believe that having an authentic, meaningful, reciprocal, slowly and naturally grown network is directly related to our sense of belonging.
My positionality as a fairly recent immigrant to the UK, who has lived in multiple countries and speaks several languages, informs this perspective. I know first-hand the emotional importance of belonging and its correlation with having an authentic, supportive network, grown out of authentic curiosity and informed by reciprocal interest in one another. Truly diverse networks do not distinguish between private and professional; connections are often interlinked (i.e. multi-flex ties) and bridge across groups.
Reading notes: Super Connector by Gerber and Paugh (2018), from left to right p.1, p.2, p.9 with my annotations (2025)
My working out: iterative rationale development, notes and reflection
My topic: Connect
Networking is important for everyone’s personal and academic development. It provides support and opportunities for many aspects in life, such as job search, furthering research, pastoral support, emotional stability (sense of belonging). I believe that our network needs are as diverse as our research questions; like a fingerprint. It must be chosen and composed by us with people we naturally, organically connect with.
- The challenge is that networking events are not tailored to individual needs.
- A solution might be to design a workshop that helps students develop their own networking strategies.
- A possible threat is that once the workshop is done, the student might not find a sustainable way for the upkeep of their networking ideas. Reflection: Which methods could work? First, I will explore in which way this was found true for myself and others I know.
Workshop 1 Notes
