Belonging, wellbeing and engagement: perspectives of regional, rural and remote students

In this chapter, we examine student engagement from the perspectives of university students from regional, rural and remote (RRR) areas of Australia. Guided by Kahu and Nelson’s (2018) refined conceptual framework of student engagement, we focus on the psychosocial constructs of belonging and wellbeing. These two mechanisms can explain how students engage differently and how these differences may contribute to immediate and long-term social outcomes. The chapter draws upon the findings of two national projects that explored different aspects of university study for RRR students across Australia. The rich narrative data from both projects were revisited and explored through constructing a series of vignettes to better understand the roles of belonging and wellbeing in student engagement. This enabled close examination of our data and revealed a more nuanced understanding of the complex nature of engagement, including students finding their own ways to belongingness and hence to wellbeing.