Eighty-eight per cent of the students at AU who responded to the questionnaire indicate in the survey that they generally feel very comfortable with their degree programme. Eighty-seven per cent responded that they were generally satisfied with their degree programme.

The students' comfortableness and satisfaction are closely related to their experience of having an academic identity and being part of an academic community. Seventy-seven percent say that their course is an important part of their identity. Seventy-six percent believe that their degree programme has contributed to making them feel that they are part of an academic community. 

And what is the difference between being part of an academic community in contrast to a social community?

"Being a student at a university is also about getting your subject under your skin by being socialised through the subject’s norms and terminology. And by understanding what scientific practice means for the relevant degree programme," explains PhD student Anna Bager-Elsborg from the analysis group at the Centre for Teaching and Learning.

Nerdy pleasure

She continues:

"So the difference is that the community is centred around the content of the degree programme and that your fellow students are academically interested in the same as you are. And that you perhaps also have some teachers who are passionate about the same things as you are passionate about as a student. That is the nerdy pleasure of being part of an academic field."

Anna Bager-Elsborg explains that there are three aspects in particular that are significant for the students' feeling of academic well-being; a suitable balance between the academic and social life of the degree programme, the physical surroundings where it must be possible to meet with fellow students outside of teaching – and last but not least, the experience of being among welcoming fellow students.