Building Bridges to Belonging: The Professional Skills Pathway to University Belonging in Kosovo

• In Event: Aligning Education, Skills, and Labor Markets: Comparative Insights from Vocational and Professional Education

Proposal

Since the Republic of Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, it has prioritized university education for national social and economic development. Nevertheless, the higher education sector remains underdeveloped, with only 22% of public university students completing their bachelor’s degrees (Barnhardt et al., 2022; Campbell et al., 2024). With Kosovo’s persistently weak labor market (Bartlett & Uvalic, 2019), the popular discourse attributes students leaving university as employment opportunities arise. A growing body of research shows that students’ Sense of Belonging (SoB) is closely linked to degree completion (Renn & Reason, 2021; Fong et al., 2024). SoB influences many aspects of college success and is a key predictor of program completion, with students who feel they belong more likely to graduate (Hausmann et al., 2007; Pedler et al., 2022). In Kosovo, this suggests that deepening our understanding of SoB could help improve bachelor’s degree attainment.

Our study examines the extent to which SoB is shaped by Kosovan students’ personal and academic characteristics and, uniquely, by their perceptions of the extent to which their professional soft skills are cultivated by their universities. By exploring the link between soft skills and SoB, we highlight locally relevant features of the sector and contribute to the broader SoB literature, which has largely overlooked the role of professional skills in shaping students’ sense of belonging.

In higher education, SoB reflects a student’s emotional connection to their institution, feelings of self-worth and satisfaction, and perceptions of acceptance by peers, faculty, and staff (Ahn & Davis, 2020; Strayhorn, 2018). SoB is shaped by personal background, with distinct effects for students from diverse or marginalized groups, and plays a vital role in driving motivation, behavior, and academic success (Strayhorn, 2018).

Research on SoB is predominantly assessed through self-report instruments, assessing students’ feelings of acceptance, respect, and connection across various domains—from classrooms to the broader university environment (Chiu et al., 2016; Hoffman et al., 2002; Knekta et al., 2020; Leep Hunderfund et al., 2025; Patel et al., 2023; Niu et al., 2024; Matafora et al., 2021). Key predictors include individual background characteristics (Tovar & Simon, 2010; Chiu et al., 2016; Ahn & Davis, 2020) and institutional factors such as perceptions of campus climate, particularly how university policies, practices, and prevailing norms shape feelings of inclusion or exclusion (Caan & Strayhorn, 2018; Patel et al., 2023; Allen et al., 2024).

Universities foster students’ professional soft skills through curriculum integration and experiential learning (Kemp & Seagraves, 1995). To date, various educational development and capacity building initiatives have focused on assessing secondary students’ work-ready competencies (Hoskins et al., 2011); however, limited attention has been paid to soft skills in tertiary education, especially globally. We argue that when college students engage in career-relevant learning experiences, particularly soft skill development (known as “transferable skills”), they gain confidence, form professional identities, and feel more belonged. Therefore, we have developed a soft skills assessment as part of an international, multi-year, donor-funded university-private sector partnership (U-PSP) in Kosovo, which began in 2023.

Data are drawn from the U-PSP's Views on Higher Education and Workforce Preparedness survey in spring 2024 and student directory information, with a 61% response rate. Survey items were co-developed by data teams from three public universities in Kosovo and measurement experts. Responses were recorded on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree), reflecting the Balkan context, relevant literature, and prior research on workforce needs (Finley, 2021).

Our analytic sample includes 188 bachelor’s-level students, evenly distributed across three years of study and predominantly women (60.6%), reflecting Kosovo’s enrollment trends. Our outcome variable measures a student’s SoB, created from five items (α = 0.8037, eigenvalue = 2.27, 45.42% variance explained). Items were standardized, weighted by factor loadings, averaged, and re-standardized to produce the SoB score. The SoB items assess comfort being oneself, feeling valued, and being part of the university community, perceptions of program fit, and confidence in completing their degree.

Independent variables include personal and organizational characteristics (sex, study program, year in school), and four composite professional soft skills variables: adaptive reasoning skills (4 items, α =0.82), interpersonal effectiveness (3 items, α = 0.80), digital data literacy (3 items, α = 0.77), and applied knowledge skills (5 items, α = 0.85). Each composite is the mean of its items. Our analysis utilizes linear regression models with SoB as the dependent variable. Each soft skill variable is entered as a unique predictor into its own model to assess the unique effect of each type of soft skill: adaptive reasoning (Model 1), interpersonal effectiveness (Model 2), digital data literacy (Model 3), and applied knowledge skills (Model 4). Variance inflation factor (VIF) scores ranged from 1.10 to 1.11, indicating no multicollinearity (Long, 1997).

All four models are statistically significant with 14%-25% of the variance in students’ SoB explained, (Model 1: R2 = 0.178, p<0.001; Model 2: R2 = 0.216, p<0.001; Model 3: R2 = 0.146, p<0.01; Model 4: R2 = 0.251, p<0.001). The coefficients for each of the four soft skill variables are statistically significant and positively associated with students’ SoB. Because each model utilized the same sample, we can compare the models with one another. Specifically, applied knowledge (b= 0.734, p < 0.001) had the strongest positive relationships to students’ SoB. Adaptive reasoning (b= 0.606, p < 0.001) had the next most positive relationship to students’ SoB. Interpersonal effectiveness and digital data literacy had somewhat similar positive relationships to SoB, with coefficients of b= 0.587 (p < 0.001) and b= 0.540, (p < 0.001), respectively.

Our findings extend the literature on the phenomenon of SoB by demonstrating its connection to workforce readiness, notably students’ professional soft skills. This examination showcases the nuanced ways that soft skills not only benefit students’ career preparation but may also foster a stronger sense of being valued, connected, and comfortable in their university environment. Due to space limits in this proposal, the full paper will elaborate on the university–private sector partnership project in Kosovo and the literature that informed our factor development and composite measures.

Authors

• Man Phan, University of Iowa

• Cassie L. B. Rader, University of Iowa

• Sabrina Ahmed, The University of Iowa

• Sze Ling Hung, University of Iowa

• Zoie Schares, University of Chicago