Six Months In: Welcoming Universities Coordinator Trisnasari Fraser reflects on her first 6 months

Returning to Canberra to Explore Student Voice, Belonging and Systems Change

On Thursday 8 October, at Student Voice Australasia’s Student Voice Symposium, hosted by the University of Canberra (UC) and UC Student Representative Council, students, higher education leaders, regulators, practitioners and researchers came together to discuss Trust, Safety and Participation in Times of Change.

Six months into my role as Coordinator of Welcoming Universities, it felt fitting to return to UC for the Symposium. In my first assignment with Welcoming Universities earlier this year I had the opportunity to contribute to UC’s University Voice Panel, which explored how the university can become a place where everyone feels they belong, express who they are, and connect safely across difference.

The symposium began with Aunty Violet welcoming participants onto Ngunnawal Country with generosity and wisdom. Celebrating the diversity of cultures represented in the room, she spoke of the importance of recognising both what makes us different and what unites us. Her simple reminder that we all “bleed red” reinforced our shared humanity and set the tone for a day of conversations about belonging, participation and inclusion.

In his keynote address, Professor The Hon Bill Shorten reflected on the changing social and emotional landscape facing today’s students. He described a generation navigating geopolitical conflict, climate change, artificial intelligence, economic uncertainty and the continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Against this backdrop, he argued that universities have a responsibility not only to support academic success but also to create environments where students can find belonging and participate safely in public discourse. Drawing on the findings of the Racism@Uni study, he noted that exclusion is often embedded not only in formal systems but also in habits, cultures and silence. He challenged institutions to create cultures where difficult problems can be discussed openly. 

A recurring theme throughout the symposium was that student participation must move beyond symbolic consultation. Discussions explored what meaningful participation requires in practice: creating pathways for diverse voices to contribute, reducing the barriers that prevent engagement, and ensuring students can see how their feedback influences change. Participants emphasised the importance of closing the feedback loop, providing support and training for student representatives, recognising the time and effort involved in participation, and embedding student perspectives into continuous improvement processes.

These themes aligned closely with the work of Welcoming Universities and the focus of our symposium workshop, Mapping Belonging and Participation: A Systems Approach to Student Voice for Diverse Cohorts. 

Mapping the System Together

The workshop brought together participants from across the sector, including students, academics, educators, professional staff, researchers and sector experts. Rather than discussing student participation in abstract terms, participants worked together to explore the interconnected factors that influence whether students feel welcomed, included and able to participate in university life.

Using group model building, a participatory systems thinking method commonly used in public health and community development, participants collectively mapped the factors influencing participation among several student equity groups, including First Nations students, students with disability, students from non-English speaking backgrounds, and students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds.

Drawing on the Welcoming Universities Standard, an exemplar systems model, and the extensive expertise present in the room, the resulting systems models highlighted the complexity of participation and belonging. Participants identified relationships between factors such as institutional culture, confidence, representation, accessibility, social connection, trust, support services and opportunities for engagement. 

Alongside the systems modelling activities, participants also created a social network graph. Despite representing only the 38 people in the room, the exercise revealed a web of relationships spanning institutions, roles and sectors, with ties strengthened and augmented by their participation in the workshop. 

The network included horizontal connections between people working at similar levels, vertical connections linking individuals across different levels of authority and decision-making, and diagonal connections that bridged both organisational hierarchies and institutional boundaries. Together, these relationships illustrated how information, ideas and influence can circulate through the higher education sector, often extending well beyond formal structures.

These different forms of connection matter because they shape how knowledge moves through a system. The workshop discussion drew on the work of sociologists Mark Granovetter and Ronald Burt, whose research highlights the value of “bridging” connections across otherwise disconnected groups. Such brokerage roles can become important sources of innovation because they enable new ideas, practices and perspectives to travel between bounded groups.

The exercise offered a practical reminder that belonging is not produced by individual programs alone. It emerges from complex systems and connections that span higher education institutions and the broader communities in which institutions are embedded.

Looking Ahead

Reflecting on both the symposium and my first six months as Welcoming Universities Coordinator, a consistent message emerges: meaningful change requires participation from a wider range of voices.

The Universities Accord challenges the sector to improve access, participation and success for students from underrepresented groups. Achieving those ambitions will require more than new policies or programs. It will require universities to strengthen relationships, listen differently and create opportunities for students and communities to shape solutions together.

The Student Voice Symposium provided many examples of institutions experimenting with new approaches to partnership, co-design and shared governance. Our workshop reinforced the value of participatory methods that help people develop a shared understanding of complex challenges while identifying practical pathways for action.

As Welcoming Universities continues its work supporting institutions across Australia, these insights will help inform our ongoing efforts to build campuses where all students feel welcomed, valued and empowered to participate. Six months into the role, the trip back to Canberra was a timely reminder that lasting systems change starts with bringing people together to better understand the systems they collectively inhabit and the future they want to create.

Trisnasari Fraser is coordinator of Welcoming Universities, a network that aims to build inclusion and belonging in the higher education sector.