Do religion and belief have a place in ‘the student experience’?

In recent years, the concept of the ‘student experience’ has acquired totemic status in higher education (Sabri 2013). Shaping both national policy and higher education research, this has coincided with a burgeoning interest in many aspects of student life, including choice and access to higher education (e.g., Reay et al. 2005), experiences of learning and curriculum (e.g., Clegg 2011; Quinn 2006), mental well-being (as evidenced in the creation of the charity Student Minds), and progression and attainment (Richardson 2008). Students of different social backgrounds, ethnicities, national origins, and ages have all received considerable attention from researchers in higher education, to name but a few lines of inquiry.