Factors affecting sense of belonging and academic achievement in MPharm students
Authors: Tavares V , Schafheutle E , Willis S 
Published: March 2021

Introduction

Academic achievement in higher education has been linked to academic ability and a student’s experiences at university. Factors affecting the student experience include demographics (age, gender, ethnicity), and contextual factors (living arrangements, sense of belonging (SOB)).1 Whether SOB is relevant to understanding pharmacy students’ academic achievement has not been investigated.

Aim

This study aims to investigate SOB in students on one MPharm programme and its associations with demographic / contextual factors and academic achievement.

Method

A questionnaire was distributed to all MPharm students at one university (n=601). It included a SOB instrument2 measuring five domains (perceived peer support, faculty support, classroom comfort, isolation, empathetic faculty understanding), demographic and contextual factors, and consent to link responses to end of year marks. Mean marks, % rank, one-way ANOVA with Tukey HST post hoc tests, independent samples t-tests and Pearson’s correlation co-efficient were calculated in SPSS v25 to investigate associations between SOB and demographic / contextual factors and academic achievement. Results: Four-hundred-and-forty-seven students responded (74.4%), of whom 80.1% consented to data linkage with assessment marks. Of the respondents, 317 (71.9%) were female, 408 (91.9%) were younger than 21 when commencing their MPharm, and 275 (61.5%) lived with other students. Respondents’ ethnicity was: 128 (32.8%) white, 158 (40.5%) asian, 53 (13.6%) black, 51 (13.1%) chinese. Analysis suggests SOB domains varied significantly in relation to demographic and contextual factors, with perceived peer support and perceived isolation in particular associated with multiple factors investigated (see Table 1).

Analysis of mean % rank (f=8.601, p=0.001) revealed that white students achieved significantly higher (64.6) than asian (51.5, p= 0.002), black (50.4, p=0.006), and chinese (41.9, p=0.014) students. Students who lived with other students achieved a significantly higher mean % rank (58.3), than those who did not (48.3, t=3.251, p=0.001). A positive correlation was identified between perceived peer support (r=0.211, p=0.001) and % rank. Perceived isolation was negatively correlated to % rank (r= -0.192, p=0.001).

Conclusion

Although limited to one UK school of pharmacy, yet with a good mix of student ethnicity, findings suggest important differences in the student experience, and that for some subgroups this may be associated with their academic achievement. This study offers valuable understanding of factors potentially impacting academic achievement, and provides insights to inform targeted interventions aimed at improving the student experience with a view to addressing SOB and achievement gaps. Further research is required to quantify the effect of the factors and their interdependence.

References

1. Mountford-Zimdars A, Sabri D, Moore J, Sanders J, Jones S, & Higham L. (2015). Causes of differences in student outcomes. Report for HEFCE by Kings College London, ARC Network and the University of Manchester. Available at: https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/23653/1/HEFCE2015_diffout.pdf accessed October 2020.

2. Hoffman M, Richmond J, Morrow J, & Salomone K. (2002). Investigating “Sense of Belonging” in First-Year College Students. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 4(3), pp. 227–256.