“…Students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, those who are mature, or those who are first generation, experience similar financial and social challenges when integrating to university life, which are independent of their international/home student status (Taylor & Scurry, 2011). It is expected, however, that ethnic, linguistic and cultural differences around notions of "belonging" and "fitting in" can add a further layer of complexity to international students' transition to HE (Cena et al, 2021;Hale et al, 2020). Informed by the extensive widening participation research, we argue that it is particularly important to explore student support in the Covid-19 context since the closure of physical campuses has required students to engage with online studies from their "home" environments, thus disrupting the traditional campus experience.…”