The legacy of apartheid with regards to a poor education system continues to have negative effects on today’s students. Students in university, due to a number of reasons, continue to experience stress as in many other parts of the world. At the same time, sense of community conveys itself as a concept that is very influential and shows some positive characteristics when it comes to wellbeing. This study makes an effort to understand the experiences of students in student organisations with regards to their experiences of stress and sense of community. This is given the peculiarity of their experience and their involvement and participation in the university. Amongst other things, the study shows the benefits that are associated with active membership in student organisations, factors that contribute to stress amongst these students, their experiences of strain, their ways of dealing with stress and their sense of community towards the university community at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. This is an exploratory (non-experimental) study. As such, there are some inferences and generalisations that cannot be made. It is further recommended that more efforts be made to understand the student community and what contributes to student success, failure and wellbeing over and above the factors that are well known and well researched
