When people talk about creating a student-centred university, they often focus on faculty members, academic programmes, mentors or support services. Yet one crucial player is frequently missing from the conversation: HR.
HR departments shape the culture and processes that directly or indirectly influence the student experience. Together with hiring managers, we make decisions about who joins the university, how we support and develop them, how we evaluate performance and who we promote. If HR is not intentionally involved in building a student-centred environment, that environment cannot become truly sustainable.
HR is more than just personnel
In many universities, HR is still seen as an administrative division, focused on paperwork, contracts and routine operations. But if we want to shift the culture, HR must act as a business partner in transformation, not merely an executor of tasks.
- Making student experience a core part of academic work
- Work with students for an inclusive university culture
- Can well-being programmes attract world-class talent to an institution?
In our practice, we began asking one simple question at every stage of the employee life cycle: “How will this HR decision impact students?”
This question has reshaped how we hire, appraise and onboard staff, moving HR from being about employees to being about student experience.
What HR can do right now
Here are several actions we have implemented, along with the results for our campus culture.
1. Hiring with student experience in mind
Even non-front-line roles often interact with students. We include soft skills such as empathy, active listening and resilience as core requirements in job descriptions, not as “nice-to-haves”.
For example, during recruitment for a student services team member, candidates were asked to describe how they would respond to a distressed student. Those demonstrating calm, empathetic and practical responses were shortlisted, even if they had slightly less formal experience. This approach helped new hires build trust with students from day one, reflected in post-induction student feedback noting a “more supportive and approachable” atmosphere.
2. Value-focused interviews
In interviews with prospective employees, we ask questions such as:
- “What does a student-centred approach mean to you?”
- “Can you describe a situation where you supported someone in difficulty?”
- “How would you respond if a student approached you with concern rather than a formal request?”
We look for concrete examples of empathy, problem-solving and adaptability, and prioritise candidates who demonstrate these qualities. This is because their behaviour directly affects student experience. For instance, a recent hire described supporting a first-year student through financial difficulties, which translated into higher levels of trust and confidence from students interacting with that staff member.
3. Onboarding through the lens of campus culture
New staff participate in student orientation week sessions led by student affairs staff, explaining common challenges, support pathways and how student services operate. They also shadow colleagues in student-facing roles for a day to observe interactions first-hand.
This process increases awareness and sensitivity, lowering barriers between staff and students. Staff report feeling more confident and capable when addressing student needs, and students have noted more empathetic and timely responses to queries.
Beyond services: building a culture
Universities often focus on services: comfortable housing, digital platforms or quick responses. While these matter, true student-centredness is a culture. Every staff member should feel that their work contributes to someone’s education and future.
HR can support this culture by:
- Communicating the university mission through training and internal communication
- Building feedback systems where students’ voices influence staff development
- Establishing recognition practices for staff who demonstrate exceptional care for students
- Forming teams where engagement with student life is valued alongside operational efficiency
These measures help create an environment where staff see themselves as contributors to student success, not just task completers.
A student-centred university does not start with a polished strategy document, it begins with the people you hire, develop and support. HR is not just about staffing; it is about shaping the environment where students learn, interact and thrive.
When HR becomes a strategic partner, everything changes: from onboarding to everyday campus atmosphere. Every HR decision then becomes a decision that touches a student’s life.
Igor Kim is general manager at the department of student services at Nazarbayev University.
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