The higher education sector is undergoing rapid change. Institutions are navigating an onslaught of pressures: funding cuts, restructuring, a generational shift in student demographics, and increasing expectations from regulatory bodies for agility and innovation. The students, too, are not left out of the pinch. The cost-of-living crisis, long commutes to campus, the need to stay at home for financial sustainability, and reduced access to low-stakes jobs all contribute to how they show up and their ability to participate fully in university life.

These challenges cut across the higher education sector, affecting students at all types of institutions, including Russell Group and post-92 universities. It is interesting to note that these pressures affect some categories of students differently. The pressure is amplified for those who come from social-mobility backgrounds, those with limited social capital, and students from diverse communities. Many arrive with limited or no prior science experience, and the cognitive demands of scientific learning can be enormous. This impacts their ability to understand scientific concepts.

Other pressures include the impact of digital saturation and artificial intelligence on students’ metacognition and attention spans. The need for rapid turnaround times for coursework submissions, alongside fragmented attention, is reshaping metacognition and reducing the mental space students have to engage deeply with complex concepts. Could these ongoing pressures be a reason for students’ lack of engagement?

Traditional approaches to lecture delivery are often content-heavy, can be detached from students’ lived realities, and leave little room to consider student needs. If higher education and the student experience are changing, our teaching must evolve with them. Innovative approaches that align with the realities of a new generation, such as Gen Z, are essential.

At Nottingham Trent University, we are exploring what it means to embed care in the classroom. This is a universal design approach that goes beyond content delivery. It is a simple but powerful concept underpinned by the fact that students care about their learning when academics show care for them as learners. This approach is grounded in relational pedagogy, which emphasises key elements such as power sharing, psychological safety, connection and belonging, and collaboration and co-creation. Imagine a classroom where students’ wellbeing is acknowledged by the academic, where power distance is intentionally lowered to allow students to build confidence. When students feel safe and supported, they engage more and are willing to take intellectual risks.

We are beginning to see this in our lecture sessions. Emoji check-ins at the start of sessions help students express how they are arriving into the learning space. This gives academic staff the opportunity to read the room before learning begins. In addition, low-stakes questions break down core scientific concepts into digestible steps. These provide opportunities for instant feedback, reduce cognitive load, build confidence, and create connections between staff and students.

The early evidence from our classrooms shows these micro-interventions are working. Students are responding positively, engaging more openly, and showing willingness to participate. This suggests that we may be striking the right chord and that care-centred innovation could be a meaningful shift to enhance student engagement. The module survey report indicates relative mapping to core competencies, including engagement, confidence building, and subject knowledge. A Peer Observation of Learning independently rated the session as ‘outstanding’, highlighting the method’s originality. These findings suggest that embedding care-centred innovation can help address challenges relating to engagement and belonging for diverse learners.

Could this be the shift higher education needs? Embedding care may be one of the most effective ways to enhance student engagement in today’s learning landscape. Generation Z expect learning environments that are human, responsive, and emotionally intelligent. They thrive when teaching acknowledges their realities and supports their cognitive and emotional needs.

We are now looking for academics across institutions who are interested in exploring care-centred innovation in their own classrooms. We invite you to join us. Together, we can build learning rooms where students succeed.