A Sense of Belonging in a University Community: A Study of Undergraduate Students

摘要

A good learning environment requires, among other things, a healthy and vibrant community in which all members feel they belong, can address all their social, spiritual and learning needs and can also feel proud about and own it. The purpose of the study was to investigate the extent to which students felt they belonged to the university and also determine the utility of the sense of community index instrument in this population. The original 12-item sense of community index developed by Perkins, Florin, Rich, Wandersman & Chavis was used. The results indicated: 1) a low sense of belonging, 2) a weak internal consistency of the scale r = .63 and 3) a two-factor structure. The findings are discussed in relation to the students’ perception of what their involvement in university administration should be, the nature of the scale itself and the sample in general. A major limitation is that only a small set of students from one department was involved and therefore caution should be exercised in its interpretation and generalisation. A need for future work is delineated.