How students described belonging during their first semester

Updated Sep 07, 2026

Updated, 7 September 2026: We have clarified that the study used retrospective interviews, rather than repeated measurements of the same students. This briefing uses the accessible abstract and publisher method and results passages; we could not review the complete paper.

What the accessible source reports

P. J. A. C. van der Zanden, T. E. T. van Woezik and P. C. Meijer explored first-semester belonging through 11 interviews. The first two authors share first authorship. Interviews in December 2022 and January 2023 used metaphor cards and participant-drawn timelines to prompt recollection.

Students described both gradual change and fluctuations. The analysis distinguished social, academic, university and self-related aspects of belonging. Similar events could be described differently by different participants. These are accounts of remembered experience; the timelines are not a repeated survey series or an estimate of the prevalence of each trajectory.

The paper was published online in Studies in Higher Education on 2 March 2026. The accessible material does not establish that a particular induction activity or survey schedule improves belonging.

How to use this distinction locally

Our suggestion is to label the kind of evidence you collect. A later interview about an earlier experience and a survey completed at the time can each be useful, but they answer different questions. Avoid plotting remembered turning points as if they were contemporaneous measurements.

Invite students to explain what they mean by belonging before choosing categories for their answers. Keep differences visible rather than forcing every account into one preferred story about transition. If you plan an intervention, decide how you will assess its effect separately from the listening exercise.

These are proposed review steps. The separate longitudinal belonging study used repeated surveys and had its own missing-data and sample limitations; it should not be treated as interchangeable evidence.

Reference

van der Zanden, P. J. A. C., van Woezik, T. E. T. and Meijer, P. C. (2026). Stories of transition: sense of belonging in the first semester at university. Studies in Higher Education, 51(5), 1046–1062. Publisher article.