Belonging and Place: A Case Study of Digital Practice at the University of the Highlands and Islands

Abstract

​This case study synthesizes findings from a strengths-focused project on belonging, place, and digital practices, conducted across the federated network of partner colleges comprising the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) in Scotland. Completed by a Canadian researcher serving as a UHI visiting fellow, the project involved over thirty individual and group interviews with staff across nine partner colleges and campuses. UHI's distributed structure emerged from that data as a key foundation for community sustainability as well as individual opportunities for learning and flourishing. Overall, the findings demonstrate that belonging at UHI is fundamentally place-based and relational, and supported by participatory and connection-focused digital practices. The paper showcases a model of institutional digital and distance education governed not by scale but by a constellation of place-based and human-centered practices. The study centres how belonging can be fostered by an institution being grounded in the place and people it serves, even amidst this challenging global era in further/higher education. ​