European University of Lefke (EUL) Guidance and Psychological Counseling Department Faculty Member Assist. Prof. Dr. Anıl Görkem and her work on “Investigation of General Belonging Feelings of University Students According to Demographic Variables”, which he prepared with her graduate student Gamze Hasanoğlu, was published as a book chapter in “Current Researches in Educational Sciences”.

Görkem conveyed information about the study and stated that they aimed to determine the relationship between the sense of belonging of university students and the variables of the place of birth, grade point average, education level of parents, and the environment in which they spent the most time.

Including all stakeholders in the decision-making process by universities contributes to the development of a sense of belonging

Speaking about the scope of the research, Görkem said, “It consists of third and fourth year students studying at universities in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. The sample of the study was 324 females (57.3), 241 males, who were studying at the faculty of science and literature, law faculty, education faculty in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year in TRNC. (42.7) creates a total of 560 university students ”.

Görkem stated that as a result of the analysis of the data obtained from the study, there was a significant difference between the place of birth of the university students, the education status of the mother, the educational status of the father, the environment in which they spent the most time and the general sense of belonging, and the overall sense of belonging was positive. She stated that a very high level of relationship was found and when the relevant literature was scanned, it had similar content with the findings obtained from the present study. Saying that “the acceptance level, rejection level and general sense of belonging scores of the students are at a moderate level”, Görkem said that making the school environment more student-friendly in the results and suggestions presented in the research can contribute to reducing the feeling of rejection and increasing the sense of belonging and that universities have a transparent management. She added that it can contribute to the development of a sense of belonging by adopting the understanding of the company and involving all stakeholders in the decision-making process.