Students’ sense of belonging and their socio-economic status in higher education: a quantitative approach

Abstract

& Methods (WISERD). He has recently completed a project for the WISERD Civil Society Centre funded by the ESRC large grant ES/L009099/1: 'Researching Civic Participation in Wales, in place and over time'. Students' sense of belonging and their socio-economic status in higher education: a quantitative approachThis study aims to explore the main aspects of sense of belonging, including academic and social engagement, life satisfaction, thoughts of leaving university, demographic characteristics and socio-economic status by applying quantitative measurement. Having considered the concepts of disadvantaged or nontraditional groups deployed in previous studies, a survey questionnaire was designed to investigate how certain factors are related to students' belonging.Statistical analysis of data from 380 participants reveals that students' sense of belonging and retention are crucially influenced by both academic engagement and social engagement, but independently. This study also addresses a lack of research about how the critical factors for disadvantage operate to determine belonging and retention in higher education. The findings should prompt a reevaluation what we consider to be the sources of 'disadvantage', such as social class, age and ethnicity.

Conceptualizing Thriving: An Exploration of Students’ Perceptions of Positive Functioning Within Graduate Education

“…This finding accentuates the importance of recognizing graduate students as existing within both the context of graduate school and the greater world beyond (Sprung and Rogers, 2020). In addition to achievement and engagement in an academic sense (e.g., Larivière, 2013), this study illustrates the ways that relationships, family, health, and financial responsibilities impact a student's ability to thrive (e.g., Rummell, 2015;Dericks et al, 2019;Ahn and Davis, 2020;Blanchard and Haccoun, 2020). These findings are important for anyone who works with graduate students in a professional sense as it highlights the need for success promotion (Schreiner, 2010) and for institutions of higher education to provide support that reach beyond solely academics.…”

“…Relatedly, access to adequate funding has been shown to impact program completion and students' ability to engage in important academic tasks, such as publishing (Larivière, 2013). Financial instability, anxiety associated with time to completion, workload, access to career development opportunities, campus culture, and availability and access to support mechanisms have all been found to impact the graduate student experience (Rummell, 2015;Declou, 2016;Giamos et al, 2017;McAlpine and Austin, 2019;Ahn and Davis, 2020). Moreover, students encounter these various stressors in tandem with the mandatory requirements of rigorous academic programs (Breen, 2019; Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, 2006; e.g., comprehensive examinations, thesis defense), while also functioning within a higher education environment that calls for high student productivity (Saliba and Slater, 2012).…”

From Face-To-Face to the Online Space: The Continued Relevance of Connecting Students With Each Other and Their Learning Post COVID-19

“…For example, a sense of belonging has been associated with academic achievement (Abdollahi and Noltemeyer, 2018), retention (Han et al, 2017) and persistence (Lewis et al, 2017). To have a sense of belonging has been shown to be particularly important for marginalized groups such as students with a disability (Moriña, 2019) and students with low socioeconomic status (Ahn and Davis, 2020b).…”

Supporting students during the transition to university in COVID-19: Five key considerations and recommendations for educators

“…The second “student success sense” in the five-sense model is students' sense of “ connectedness ” or “belonging” to both the academic environment and peer support networks (Chester et al, 2013; Lizzio, 2006). However, there is a plethora of literature that demonstrates how students generally struggle to establish a strong sense of belonging in the early days of university study (e.g., Christie et al, 2008), which can impact the rest of their university experience (e.g., Ahn & Davis, 2020; Humphrey & Lowe, 2017; Read et al, 2003). The challenge of students' developing a strong sense of belonging at university is likely to be heightened by COVID-19 due to unique situational issues, including an increase in students undertaking caring roles, the heightened financial precarity of students, and a lack of social connectedness (Lederer et al, 2020).…”