Understanding higher education students’ sense of belonging: a qualitative meta-ethnographic analysis

The current literature on ‘sense of belonging’ spans a number disciplines, with no apparent consensus definition between these, complicated by the fact that sense belonging is temporal and context-sensitive (such as during COVID-19). In particular, closer look at how students define needed from an up-to-date perspective to help them feel more connected faculty/campus improve their wellbeing mental health in ‘new normal’ ‘next post-pandemic eras. Therefore, this study explores higher education students’ belonging, concept has not been adequately conceptualised, perspectives. As these perspectives are subjective, interpretive approach required generate rich meanings. This adopted meta-ethnographic synthesise qualitative studies, which allows for comparison synthesis studies into new interpretation through translations. Interpretive resulted one higher-order concept, four main concepts, nineteen sub-concepts conceptualise understanding universities.