Student drop out and feelings of belonging and mattering in UK undergraduate allied health students

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Student belonging is well researched, with links identified between a sense of belonging in students and student experience, satisfaction, and student persistence. Mattering refers to an individual student’s perception that they are noticed and valued, and it is less well researched. This research investigates levels of belonging and mattering across the academic and the clinical environment in undergraduate Allied Health professional students and the correlation with students who have seriously considered dropping out. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey was distributed to undergraduate students enrolled on Allied Health programmes at one UK university. The questionnaires utilised four previously validated Likert scales measuring feelings of: mattering in the university environment (Elliott, Kao and Grant, 2004), mattering in the clinical placement environment (Elliott, Kao and Grant, 2004); belonging in the university environment (Yorke, 2016); and belonging in the clinical placement environment using the Belongingness Scale−Clinical Placement Experience (BS−CPE) (Levett-Jones et al., 2009). Participants were also asked whether they had seriously considered dropping out from their studies. An analysis of the 264 completed questionnaires showed that students who had seriously considered dropping out had significantly lower scores for all four scales. This research demonstrates that feelings of belonging and mattering may impact on the student’s intention to persist with their studies. For students attending clinical placement as part of their studies, attention needs to be given to supporting students to feel that they belong in the clinical placement environment and that they matter to clinical staff and their peers during placements.