What gives doctoral researchers a sense of belonging?

By Dr Ai Tam Le, Lecturer in Graduate Researcher Development, Researcher Development Academy, Deakin University

A sense of belonging is a basic human need and has been associated with various positive academic outcomes for undergraduate students (Allen et al., 2024).

At the graduate research level, the UK’s Postgraduate Graduate Research (PGR) Experience Survey 2025 reported that sense of belonging is one of the key drivers of satisfaction for PGRs; yet it has received one of the lowest scores, prompting the report to suggest that “any action to help improve ‘sense of belonging’ and ‘valuing/responding to feedback’ would appear to have a strong potential to positively influence the overall quality of the PGR experience” (AdvanceHE, 2026).

But what does it mean to belong, and what contributes to making someone feel like they belong, in the context of a doctorate?

In our review of the literature on sense of belonging in doctoral education (Le and Rivera Munoz, 2026), belonging generally refers to feeling included, valued, or part of a group, an organisation, or a system. In the doctoral context, the sense of belonging manifests in diverse connections and relationships and is associated with three groups. The first group refers to broad, abstract communities such as academia, academic culture or intellectual community. These are imagined communities of scholars to which a person longs to belong as they navigate their path of becoming a researcher. The second group refers to a more concrete person or identity, such as campus, department or faculty, research group or lab, or peers in the program. The third group refers to a country or new culture, often reported by studies of international candidates.

We also found that factors contributing to a sense of belonging fall into five overlapping dimensions.

• Academic domain: matters associated with academic affairs of the candidates, such as interactions with supervisors, academic support and opportunities for academic engagement and development or academic achievement and progress.
• Social connections and experiences: social interactions, often outside of the supervision relationship, such as interaction with peers or staff at the department, social experiences in general.
• Culture: the candidate’s academic habitus or departmental culture.
• Personal domain: factors that belong to the personal realm of the candidate, influenced by their demographic characteristics, goals and values, or financial situation.
• Physical location and space: campus presence (are they physically on campus) and physical workspace.

There are three important takeaways about sense of belonging in the doctoral context.

First, sense of belonging is multidimensional.

Its multidimensionality is reflected in the different categories of relationships and factors that influence sense of belonging. This multidimensionality suggests different entry points for fostering or undermining a sense of belonging. The university can directly influence some of these (by providing academic support, a physical workplace, and improved supervision) and benefit from understanding how personal factors (demographics, values, interests, financial situation) may influence a sense of belonging.

Second, sense of belonging is intersectional.

Factors influencing belonging may overlap or occur in tandem, creating a compounded effect on the candidate, be it positive or negative. For example, people from certain demographic backgrounds (personal factors) may feel more likely to be alienated by the culture of the department/academy (culture) and have less satisfactory interactions with staff or supervisors (social and academic experiences). On the other hand, someone who has access to a positive departmental culture may have good social interactions and experiences, which help them make good academic progress. A question that emerges from this intersectionality is whether we can compensate for the lack of belonging in one dimension by supporting other dimensions.

Finally, the local departmental context has an important role in building a sense of belonging.

Interactions matter, particularly interactions at the department level. This is a reminder for researcher developers working at a central unit like myself not to lose sight of the importance of the local departmental or school context where the bulk of sense of belonging is developed.

Finally, we are left with three important questions about sense of belonging in the doctoral context.

First, how do we measure sense of belonging in a way that captures and reflects the complexity of this concept?

Understanding sense of belonging has never been a straightforward matter (Allen et al., 2021). We need to pay attention to what we measure when it comes to belonging because the result will decide where we put our attention. A survey question that asks someone to rank how they feel about a sense of belonging at their institution not only overlooks the nuances of the concept but also the politics of belonging – who gets to decide who belongs (Ajjawi et al., 2025).

Second, how do we make room for doctoral researchers’ voices and their contributions?

In his book on belonging, Geoffrey Cohen (2022) defines sense of belonging as “the feeling that we’re part of a larger group that values, respects and cares for us—and to which we feel we have something to contribute” (p. 5, emphasis added). This view emphasises that belonging is fostered by a two-way relationship: what a community does for a person and what they can do for their community. How, then, can doctoral researchers contribute to the research culture within the department or scholarly communities and what would be its impact on their sense of belonging? This remains an open research question.

Third, can and should we teach competencies to belong?

Belonging is a dynamic feeling and experience that emerges from four interrelated components (Allen et al., 2021). 1) Perceptions, or a person’s subjective feelings concerning their experiences of belonging. 2) Motivation, or the fundamental need for people to be accepted, belong and seek social connections. 3) Opportunities for belonging to occur (group, people, places, time, and spaces). 4) Competencies to belong: A set of skills and abilities needed to connect and experience belonging. Thus, providing opportunities to foster belonging (organising a weekly lunch catch-up for lab members) may not be enough if a person lacks the skills or motivation to take them up. This raises the question of whether we can – and should – foster the skills to belong when we strive to cultivate a sense of belonging.

Acknowledgement: This post is written based on the article mentioned, a presentation at the 2026 Quality in Postgraduate Research conference in Adelaide and insights from conversations with Dr Claudia Rivera Munoz.