Problem Durumu

University students’ well-being has increasingly moved beyond being addressed solely through individual support services and has become a core educational issue that directly influences the quality of learning processes and the sustainability of students’ university experience. Rising levels of psychological distress, academic burnout, and dropout intentions indicate that student well-being cannot be explained only through individual resilience, but rather should be understood as a multidimensional construct shaped by instructional, relational, and institutional dynamics. In this context, student well-being is being repositioned as a central outcome of higher education, alongside academic achievement.

The literature conceptualises university students’ well-being as a multi-layered structure encompassing psychological, emotional, social, and academic dimensions, with increasing emphasis on integrative models that combine hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives (Baik & Larcombe, 2023; Hossain et al., 2023). Empirical studies demonstrate that well-being is strongly associated with academic engagement, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and intention to persist in higher education, while academic and social demands encountered during the transition to university render this domain particularly vulnerable (Duraku et al., 2024; Mascia et al., 2023). These findings highlight that student well-being cannot be reduced to individual characteristics alone and must be examined in relation to pedagogical and relational processes.

At the centre of these relational processes are faculty–student relationships. Research indicates that supportive, accessible, and respectful interactions with faculty members strengthen students’ psychological well-being, reduce stress levels, and foster more positive attitudes toward university life (Trolian et al., 2022; Xu et al., 2024). High-quality interactions are shown to enhance students’ academic engagement and learning satisfaction, while perceived faculty support plays a critical role in students’ feelings of being valued (Hathaway & Hamilton, 2025). However, existing studies remain limited in their ability to explicate the psychosocial mechanisms through which faculty–student relationships are translated into student well-being outcomes (Holles, 2023).

In this regard, sense of belonging emerges as a central psychosocial mechanism for explaining the link between faculty–student relationships and student well-being. Numerous studies have shown that students who feel accepted and perceive themselves as part of the academic community report higher psychological well-being, academic motivation, and learning satisfaction (Pedler et al., 2022; van Kessel et al., 2025). Conversely, weak sense of belonging has been associated with increased risks of loneliness, anxiety, and academic maladjustment, which negatively affect persistence in higher education (Nguyen et al., 2025). Despite this evidence, the literature has predominantly treated sense of belonging as an outcome variable, with limited attention to its mediating role in the process linking faculty–student relationships to student well-being within comprehensive models.

The European higher education context further accentuates this research gap. While policy frameworks such as the European Universities Initiative emphasise the strengthening of a shared European sense of belonging, student experiences continue to vary substantially across countries and institutional contexts (Lee et al., 2024; Galán-Cubillo et al., 2025). Nevertheless, quantitative and integrated models explaining the interactive relationships among faculty–student relationships, sense of belonging, and student well-being within the European higher education context remain scarce. This underscores the need for structural models that explicitly position sense of belonging as a mediating mechanism. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between faculty–student relationships and university students’ well-being through the mediating role of sense of belonging, using structural equation modeling.

Method Resaerch Design This study will adopt a correlational survey design to test a theoretical model examining the relationships between faculty–student relationships, students’ sense of belonging, and general well-being in higher education. The design will allow for the investigation of direct and indirect associations among latent variables without manipulating the educational context, with particular emphasis on the mediating role of sense of belonging. Research Sample The study sample will consist of undergraduate students enrolled in public universities in Türkiye. A two-stage sampling approach will be planned. First, a geographically diverse sampling framework will be outlined; however, as commonly reported in large-scale educational research, institutional access conditions will determine the final participating universities (OECD, 2019a, 2019b). In the second stage, data will be collected from institutions that grant access, using an online survey administered on a voluntary and anonymous basis. Ethical approval will be obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee of XXX University prior to data collection. Data Gathering Instruments Faculty–student relationships will be measured using the Student Version of the Teacher–Student Relationship Inventory (S-TSRI; Ang et al., 2020), adapted to the higher education context following established cross-cultural adaptation procedures (Hambleton & Patsula, 1999). Students’ sense of belonging will be assessed using the Sense of Belonging Scale developed by Imperial College London (2021), and student well-being will be measured using the General Well-Being Scale Short Form (Longo et al., 2017; Odaci et al., 2021). All instruments will employ a five-point Likert-type response format. Confirmatory factor analyses will be conducted to evaluate construct validity prior to hypothesis testing. Data Anlaysis Data analysis will be carried out using structural equation modeling (SEM). Given potential deviations from multivariate normality, Robust Maximum Likelihood estimation will be employed (Satorra & Bentler, 2010). Model fit will be evaluated using standard fit indices, including RMSEA, SRMR, GFI, CFI, and IFI, based on recommended cut-off criteria (Byrne, 1998; Hu & Bentler, 1999). The mediating role of sense of belonging will be tested using bootstrap procedures with bias-corrected confidence intervals (Preacher & Hayes, 2008).

Expected Outcomes The study is expected to provide empirical evidence for the relationships between faculty–student relationships, students’ sense of belonging, and general well-being in higher education. It is anticipated that more supportive, accessible, and respectful faculty–student relationships will be positively associated with higher levels of student well-being. In addition, students who perceive higher-quality interactions with faculty members are expected to report a stronger sense of belonging to their university. It is further expected that students’ sense of belonging will function as a significant mediating variable in the relationship between faculty–student relationships and general well-being. This finding would suggest that the positive influence of faculty–student relationships on student well-being is partially explained by students’ feelings of acceptance, inclusion, and connectedness within the academic community. Such results would align with relational and psychosocial models that emphasise belonging as a key mechanism linking interpersonal experiences to well-being outcomes. At a broader level, the expected findings are anticipated to contribute to the European higher education literature by extending current research that often treats sense of belonging as an outcome rather than a mediating construct. By modelling belonging as a central explanatory mechanism, the study is expected to offer evidence-based insights for student-centred teaching practices and institutional policies aimed at promoting inclusive and sustainable learning environments.

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