Evaluating the Sense of Belonging of Undergraduate Computing Students in the UK and Ireland

Sense of Belonging, or belongingness, is an individual’s personal conviction regarding their acceptance as a valued member within an academic community. The significance of student belongingness lies in its correlation with various outcomes including motivation, persistence, mental health and well-being. However, the experience of belongingness is subject to variations influenced by factors such as race/ethnicity and gender. Previous research has demonstrated notable statistical differences in the belongingness experienced by computing students who identify as women or as part of other minoritized groups. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we observed a decline in be- longingness among male and female students who do not identify as minoritised, while an increase was observed among women who identify as minoritised. Although students have returned to campus, current surveys reveal that the belongingness levels among men and women who do not identify as minoritised have not fully recov- ered to pre-pandemic levels. Additionally, a statistically significant decrease in belongingness is observed among men who identify as minoritised. This emphasizes the necessity for continued efforts to restore student belongingness to its pre-pandemic state and shed light on the positive impact that moving to a virtual environment appeared to have on sense of belonging of minoritised women. We have been studying the sense of belonging of undergraduate students in the School of Computer Science at University College Dublin since 2017. We have recently extended this work across Ireland and Northern Ireland, and would now like to expand further into Scotland, Wales and England.