Taking It Day by Day: Reasons for Daily Changes in University Belonging

Abstract

For emerging adults enrolled in higher education institutions, their sense of belonging to the university largely influences their development. However, not all students experience university belonging in the same way. There is a dearth of work identifying how students make meaning of their everyday experiences and how those experiences affect their daily university belonging. Our article draws on a mixed-methods study of students’ sense of university belonging to investigate how daily experiences within university contexts shape and influence their university belonging. We found five categories of daily experiences (e.g., non-academic interpersonal interactions, community-building events, academics, campus resources, emotions and stress) which affected students’ university belonging. The results suggest that signals of university belonging exist in all facets of university life, helping us further understand the reasons behind students’ university belonging fluctuations.