Do you think you belong at university? Has COVID-19 changed this?

When thinking about the student experience one of the most prevalent aspects is how deeply a student feels they are part of their university. Pre-pandemic research consistently stated that students with a higher sense of belonging to their university report better mental wellbeing. With student mental health in crisis, there has been an influx of interventions that target sense of belonging to improve student mental health. Additionally, although it is not yet fully known how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed things, research is showing a marked decline in students' mental wellbeing during the pandemic.

This study investigates students’ mental health by studying the relationship between the sense of belonging to a university and COVID-19 concern and the impact they each had on mental health. An online questionnaire measuring sense of belonging to university, COVID-19 concern, and mental health was self-administered by UK undergraduate students during the Omicron variant wave in the UK. These scores were analysed to investigate how sense of belonging and COVID-19 concern can predict different mental health conditions.

Results suggest that there is no relationship between COVID-19 concern and sense of belonging. It was also found that those with higher COVID-19 concern and a lower sense of belonging to university have worsened mental health. These findings will be crucial for universities, enhancing the development of their current student support mechanisms as well as informing their responses to future pandemics.