Universities
Building. Belonging.
At Grit, we co-create programmes with our university partners. Our workshops transform the beliefs students have about themselves, their peers and their educational community. By altering limiting beliefs, students take ownership, become more engaged with university life and are more likely to achieve their potential.
Attainment goes up, retention increases, engagement levels improve. Students increase their self-efficacy, agency, sense of belonging and resilience.
And our workshops for Black Students and Students of Colour generate new levels of connection, new power in their identity and voice.
Sustainable and meaningful change is created.
We run programmes for staff in universities too. We believe that, as professionals, it is important to examine our own mindsets and understand ways in which we may – unwittingly – be limiting the contribution we can make to our students.
Our staff training provides this challenge and supports professionals to take a coaching approach, to work together to increase expectations, self-belief and engagement.
We build relationships with universities to support culture-change for the long-term. And we co-author contributions to the debates and discussions about pressing issues in the sector.
83% of students have an increased sense of belonging
86% of students at risk of dropping out, stay at university
What’s Grit like?
These short films give insights into the impact and experience of our university workshops.
What is the impact of Grit on university staff?
Read how a mature student, a foundation year student and an international student describe their Grit journey.
What is it like on a Grit workshop?
How has Grit changed things for you?
Our impact.
Former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Nottingham Trent University
(now Vice-Chancellor, University of Chester)
“I was struck by the way Grit worked, the sense of belonging they created and the outcomes they achieved. I had not seen this approach used so effectively with students and staff before.
Our work with Grit is quite extensive… we have evaluated it and found it had an immediate and significant beneficial impact on self-efficacy; self-esteem; engagement; progression and attainment. In recognition we awarded Grit a Supplier award for Best Contribution to Student Employability, Capability and Skills.
We wanted different and Grit was different.”
Executive Dean, Faculty of Science and Health, University of Portsmouth
“We ran some programmes at Portsmouth and the feedback was very positive: workshops were “absolutely brilliant.” They really made staff think about themselves and how they work with others; and we saw students develop a strong sense of belonging.
With Grit you get an intelligence and thoughtfulness. You get a listening and ability to understand a problem and co-create a solution that works.
You get a really strong theoretical rationale for its approach along with integrity, care and great fidelity.”