College athletes across north America are often known on their respective college campuses for their athleticism, and spend a considerable amount of hours weekly engaging in their respective sport through practices, meetings, travelling and meals, to name a few. It is no wonder it is difficult for these students to feel fully engaged and connected on university campuses as students. Female college athletes in particular, who often are not athletes in revenue-generating sports, often feel left behind as students and isolated as athletes. The purpose of the current study was to examine female collegiate athletes’ experience with belonging in a university setting. This qualitative inquiry utilised consensual qualitative research to explore 14 female student athletes’ experience of belonging on a university campus. The results of the data analysis yielded the following domains or themes: athletic team culture, athletic department culture, campus support and involvement, female athlete identity, and individual athlete experience. The most salient finding was that these female athletes suggested that their sense of belonging on campus was almost exclusively related to their experience as an athlete and their athletic team.

School belonging, at both a school and university level, has been well documented as a predictor of academic and psychosocial success. The construct has been examined by scholars in a variety of different professional disciplines (e.g., education, psychology, sociology) and continues to be consistently researched. Although significant contributions have been made in the field, there are still additional areas of investigation needed, as well as interventions that need to be designed and explored. The current article was designed to review the theoretical foundations of belonging, conceptualise school belonging with respect to how it is presented in the literature, discuss the key variables related to school belonging, present a summary of the predictors of school belonging, discuss school belonging in a university setting, and posit future directions for research.