Students, community and belonging: an investigation of student experience across six European countries

ABSTRACT

Despite existing empirical work that explores the multiple ways in which students develop a sense of belonging in higher education, there is a dearth of comparative research about the extent to which the concepts of community and belonging are central to what it means to be a student and how students in different national contexts (beyond Anglophone countries) construct community and belonging. Drawing on qualitative data from students from six European countries, we provide an account of conceptualisations of community and belonging. Specifically, this paper extends discussions around community and belonging in higher education through comparative inquiry. Notwithstanding the individualised and consumerist framing of students accompanied by market reforms in higher education across Europe, it shows that the notion of community and/or belonging features prominently in students’ narratives. We also demonstrate how a sense of community and belonging is experienced on different levels. Crucially, the emphasis placed on community in students’ sense of belonging varies by the country, pointing towards the continued influence of distinctive national traditions, structures and norms of higher education. Our analysis contributes to wider debates about the development of a European Higher Education Area and its impact on European homogenisation.

KEYWORDS:

• Students
• community
• belonging
• higher education
• Europe

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all those who gave up their time to participate in a focus group. We are also grateful to Predrag Lazetic, Sara Gil, Jakub Krzeski, Maite Santiago-Garabieta and Alicia Garcia Fernandez for their contributions to this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funding from the European Research Council (through a consolidator grant – EUROSTUDENTS_681018 – awarded to Rachel Brooks).