Predicting university students’ sense of belonging in higher education environments using data from the King’s College London Wellbeing Survey 2024/25.

This preregistration will lay out the research plan of a project investigating factors that predict university students’ sense of belonging, in higher education environments. Data will be drawn from the 2024/25 wave of the King’s Wellbeing Survey disseminated to students in King’s College London. This survey aims to capture the experiences of students at King’s College London to understand and improve student wellbeing. The dataset contains comprehensive information about student demographics and their associated facets of student life, including financial circumstances, accommodation, disability, mental health and wellbeing, and social engagement. Student belonging, measured by the Yorke Belonging Scale, has been extracted as the outcome variable of interest. Hierarchical linear regression analysis will be carried out to determine the significance of hypothesised predictors of student belonging, while controlling for the possible influence of demographic variables and students’ general mental wellbeing, as measured by the GP-CORE14. Hierarchical linear regression models will be built based on trends observed in the 2024/25 King’s Wellbeing Survey Report, where factors predicting mental wellbeing were reported. The moderating effect of ethnicity and self-reported disability status on the relationship between predictors of interest and students’ sense of belonging will also be investigated. Our study aims to better understand facets of student life that impact students’ sense of belonging when enrolled in higher education, along with how membership to certain demographics may exacerbate any current issues faced. In this way, we hope to highlight clear targets for policy changes and improvement in universities in order to better support students’ experiences.