By Hannah Roberts, News Reporter
University of Bristol students are not just struggling to find jobs or afford rent. According to this year’s Big Bristol SU report, they are increasingly struggling to feel like they belong.
Conducted over January and February, the survey received 2,534 complete responses with the aim of understanding and improving the university experience.
‘Cost of Living’ holds the top spot for the third consecutive year. ‘Mental Health and Wellbeing’ has fallen to third, and ‘Academic Experience’ to fifth.
Lenny Osler
‘Student Community and Belonging’ recorded the biggest rise of any category in the 2026 survey, jumping from fifth place in 2025 to second.
The proportion of students flagging it as a key concern leapt from 33 per cent to 45 per cent in a single year.
The trajectory is unambiguous: belonging has become one of the defining concerns of Bristol student life.
The surge in community as a priority does not come out of nowhere. Bristol SU's 2025 Student Work-Life Report found that 29 per cent of students work over 15 hours per week, which is the University’s recommended limit.
The 2025 report found this adversely affects students’ social lives, with one saying working during term time ‘takes the fun out of being a student.’
The demand for connection does not stop when term does. With 38 per cent of UoB students planning to stay in Bristol over summer, students highlighted the need for social spaces to stay open outside of term.
Dana Andrea Datu
Some students in the 2026 survey also called on the SU to work on ‘free or low-cost’ social events.
2025/26 Arts, Social Sciences and Law Faculty Representative Teo Guez told Epigram that Joint Honours students in particular find their ‘fragmented’ academic identity undermines their ability to truly belong.
Guez also said that fostering community ‘does not fall to the SU alone’ calling on the University’s Schools and Faculties to do more to build and sustain connection.
The fall of ‘Academic Experience’ to fifth this year, its lowest ranking in at least three years, also suggests students increasingly expect university to fulfil much more than just studying.
Beyond the priority rankings, the survey also revealed that while overall satisfaction sits at 96 per cent, unchanged from 2025, attitudes toward the SU steadily decline from first to fourth year.
Students are financially squeezed, quietly disconnected, and increasingly looking to the SU to plug this gap.
Featured image: Epigram / Sophie Maclaren
