Building belonging for regional student retention in higher education: A case study

<p dir="ltr">Belonging has been identified as important to student retention, engagement, achievement and wellbeing in higher education. It has been challenging for universities to foster, particularly in non-traditional student cohorts and in regional areas. This article aims to identify how belonging has been experienced and supported on four regional campuses of one Australian university (University of Wollongong) enrolling a high proportion of non-traditional students. It focuses on belonging’s role in the students’ successful progress beyond the first year of their university studies. The study examines the experiences of students through focus groups discussing what aspects of their campuses had contributed to students’ success. This study extends previous work on belonging by describing how belonging is successfully cultivated in regional campuses through specific staff and student interactions that had built a culture of community and support, and how the belonging that resulted contributed to student retention. The study’s findings demonstrate how principles from theory and research about practices that support student belonging can be successfully enacted in a university setting with students from regional and equity backgrounds.</p>