Belonging – what makes it and breaks it?
The link between belonging and student success is well established. A sense of belonging was strongly associated with both academic and social engagement at university a decade ago as part of the Higher Education Academy’s “What works?” programme. In fact, it was stated as the key variable in whether students persist with their studies and are successful. This “sense of belonging” while at university can make or break students’ overall experience and their success.
The isolating experience of studying throughout Covid-19 has pushed ‘belonging’ back to the forefront at universities, supported by the work of the UPP Foundation Student Futures Commission that has highlighted the importance of helping students regain their sense of ‘belonging’ at their university.
In the autumn of 2021 Pearson and Wonkhe embarked on a year-long study of belonging and inclusion. The aim? To better understand which areas impact students’ sense of belonging and support the sector in its efforts to “build back” student experience and engagement.
During November 2021 in partnership with 15 students’ unions, 13 in England, one in Scotland, and one in Wales, we distributed a student survey on belonging and inclusion, achieving 5,233 responses with a good demographic spread.
The survey explored a range of possible dimensions of the experience of belonging – feeling “settled in”, personal priorities and academic confidence, the way the course is run, sense of connection and inclusion on the course, connections outside the course (extra-curricular activities), inclusion in the university, sense of safety, being valued and empowered, feelings of happiness and loneliness. The results showed clear associations between sense of belonging and all these different factors.
Overarching findings from the survey
- 69% of respondents agree they belong at their university. Just under one in ten (9%) disagree they belong – and it’s this group we report as “students who do not feel they belong.” One in five (22%) neither agree nor disagree.
- The state of students’ self-assessed mental health was most consistently and dramatically associated with their sense of belonging across all the different areas we explored. However, we can’t say for sure whether belonging influences mental health or whether it’s the other way around.
- Demographic differences (factors like prior education, ethnicity, or gender) did not have a significant impact on students’ sense of belonging in most groupings.
- Mental health, academic confidence or ‘deserving to be at university’, inclusion and feeling connected were clearly associated with a sense of belonging.
- Students with disabilities had lower mental health and lower levels of belonging. They generally scored lower for every area we asked about.
- Overwhelmingly, students think that developing closer and more friendships will help them to feel a greater sense of belonging.
Areas of interest
Mental health
It isn’t a huge surprise to find that students with lower levels of self-assessed mental health are less likely to feel a sense of belonging than students with average and above levels of mental health.