STEM Student Engagement with University Resources Builds Social Capital and Sense of Belonging: An Asset-Based Focus Group Study

Background. Attrition from STEM programs remains a persistent challenge for universities globally. To better support student success and socio-academic integration, universities have developed a range of curricular and co-curricular resources. Much emphasis has been placed on the benefits of these resources; however, less is known about how students recognize, access, and realize these benefits. Guided by a capital-mediated agency model, this asset-based focus group study examined how university-provided resources support undergraduate STEM students’ use of capital. We conducted four parallel focus groups with 21 students at a Norwegian university and analyzed narratives using thematic analysis. Results. Students described using both curricular and co-curricular resources to build personal/emotional, social, and human resource capital that helped them navigate academic and personal challenges. Curricular resources, including mandatory assignments, fieldwork, and laboratory activities, supported disciplinary training and opportunities to develop relationships with peers. Co-curricular resources, including tutoring rooms and student organizations, similarly provided academic and emotional support. Although students often initially accessed resources to address academic challenges, they frequently described emergent social benefits. Recognition of these social benefits appeared to link resource use with decisions to invest in them. Across participants’ accounts, social capital and sense of belonging appeared to operate reciprocally: relationships formed through resource engagement fostered belonging, while belonging strengthened students’ willingness and capacity to continue engaging with peers, resources, and their academic communities. Conclusions. These findings extend the capital-mediated agency model by identifying students’ recognition of resource benefits as a meaningful process linking their use to investment. They also position students’ sense of belonging as an emergent and reciprocal outcome of engagement with both primarily academic and social resources. For institutions and instructors, the findings suggest that simply providing resources may be insufficient and that students must be able to recognize their relevance, access them, and use them in ways that generate meaningful academic and, critically, social outcomes. Designing and evaluating university resources to support these processes and build social capital may create learning environments that better support student agency, resilience, belonging, and persistence in STEM.