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This article presents empirical evidence on how second-year students’ sense of belonging and overall experience can be improved through a carefully designed extracurricular activity as an effective approach to practically integrate academic and social dimensions of belongingness. Data were collected at multiple points for this exploratory study that involved a self-administered questionnaire survey with 50 participants followed by a post-activity focus group to explore the effect of cultural awareness on second-year students’ belongingness. Informed by Tinto’s student integration model and extant belonging literature, our findings highlight the importance of all three elements of belongingness – social, academic and informal – to co-exist in the design of the extracurricular activity for effectively addressing several challenges associated with second-year undergraduate students’ belonging, overall experience and retention. Our study aligns with the best practice approach of ensuring a connection between an extracurricular activity, course material and skill development for a globalised workforce. The study offers important implications for universities about how to benefit from this approach in seeking to meet the distinctive needs of second-year students and developing well-targeted programmes to increase their satisfaction and academic achievements, and ultimately retention – a weakness still seen in the literature.

Sense of belonging in second-year undergraduate students: the value of extracurricular activities