A sense of belonging among Australian university students

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to explore what students perceive as essential factors influencing their sense of belonging. Gaining insight into what students perceive as influencing their sense of belonging enables design of interventions to foster that sense of belonging. Two hundred and nine students from a university in Sydney responded to the question: ‘What would help you to feel that you belong at Macquarie University?’ Results showed students most frequently identified people as instrumental in feeling that they belonged at university. Students also reported that places where there is respect, and where others are accepted, contributed to their feelings of belonging. Lastly, opportunities to interact with other students, such as within clubs, societies and at events, were reported by students to contribute to their feelings of belonging. Findings of the current study are discussed in relation to existing literature, to develop approaches that may enhance university students’ sense of belonging.

KEYWORDS:

• Sense of belonging
• university students
• Australia

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Amber Loomis, Gail White, Jen Smith, Lilia Draganov, Nicole Saunders, Sonal Singh, Tatiana Lozano and Xuan Luu for their valuable and constructive suggestions, assistance with collecting the data, and help in offering the resources in running this study. Our gratitude is also to our students for their participation in this study and the anonymous reviewers whose comments have greatly improved this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Evianne L. van Gijn-Grosvenor http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0321-2450

Penelope Huisman http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1275-4438