Undergraduate student engagement at a Chinese university: a case study

Student engagement in higher education has been a topic of discussion for decades, as student engagement directly indexes student retention, achievement, and career development. While previous research emphasizes the importance of effective teaching practices to increase student engagement in higher education, faculty and staff report institutional and professional challenges to increase interactions with students. This study highlights cases of successful teacher-student relationships that engendered positive student emotions and advanced student engagement in higher education settings. Using the thank-you note messages provided by students in a Thank-a-Teacher initiative, data were analyzed qualitatively through the theoretical principles of humanizing pedagogy (del Carmen Salazar, 2013). The findings indicate that the enactment of humanizing pedagogy through conveying emotions and forming positive teacher-student relationships made a meaningful impact on student motivation, engagement, and growth. Implications for the transformation and liberation of higher education through affect-driven pedagogy are discussed.

Student engagement in higher education has been studied from various perspectives, but few studies have compared teachers’ and students’ perspectives on the subject. Considering that student engagement may be reduced to a performativity scarcely related to learning outcomes and that a good deal of it may be invisible to teachers, further studies are needed to contrast teachers’ and students’ views of student engagement in higher education. This article presents the results of a quantitative study about definitions and indicators of student engagement carried out with 118 students and 45 teachers of Law, Education and Nursing from two Catalan public universities (Spain). The results confirm the performativity associated with the concept by both teachers and students, and reveal that students may appreciate silent and invisible engagement more than teachers. The results also show that teachers may conflate signs of student engagement with good academic results and learning, risking an oversimplification of both student engagement and learning.

This study investigates university students' competence and engagement with Generative AI applications, analyzing usage, perceived autonomy, and AI formal learning as predictive mediators. The study used a cross-sectional survey design to collect data from 262 students across various disciplines. Analysis using PLS-SEM revealed that GenAI competence is a powerful, direct driver of students’ engagement (β = 0.255, p < 0.001), accounting for 64.5% of its variance (R² = 0.645), with the direct path showing a small to medium effect size (f² = 0.117). This relationship is significantly mediated through three distinct pathways: GenAI utilization (β = 0.155, p < 0.001), Perceived Autonomy (β = 0.121, p = 0.005), and AI Formal Learning (β = 0.092, p = 0.005).

Student volunteering in the higher education context has been studied vastly over the last years. Kahu provided three valuable perspectives on student engagement including the behavioural, the psychological, and the sociocultural perspective on why and how students engage. This study adds a recognition perspective to student engagement, which has so far remained an under-researched topic. In this study, we apply a recognition-sensitive social theory and symbolic interactionist perspective on the topic of student engagement. Empirically, we explore the perspectives of engaged students and lecturers at the largest Austrian university, using semi-structured interviews with N = 18 participants in two fields of practice: student unions and peer mentoring. In the findings, the study identified six categories of student engagement recognition: (1) general expectations relating to recognition, (2) recognition through formal validation in the curriculum, (3) recognition through valorisation using awards, certificates, and confirmations, (4) recognition through bonus points, (5) recognition through institutional support, and (6) the process of recognition. The findings give a differentiated insight into an important and unsolved policy issue in higher education using interview data to show how student volunteering can be recognised in higher education. We conclude the article with recommendations for higher education policy and future research.

We live and work in challenging times. Now that it seems certain (post Browne, 2010) that the fees students pay for their higher education experience will double (or worse), we can't be surprised that the emphasis on 'the student experience' of higher education will intensify. Whether students are saddling themselves with ever-increasing amounts of debt to afford that higher education experience, or whether it is parents who foot the bill, the spotlight continues to focus ever more sharply on student satisfaction, alongside all available measures of the quality of student engagement in higher education. We already have league tables in which the reflection of the student experience as gained from the National Student Survey features prominently. And with diminishing budgets for teaching, class sizes are likely to continue to grow - in those disciplines where higher education survives least scathed. So how can we meet the challenge of 'getting students engaged'?

Evaluation of teacher behaviour from the perspective of students is beneficial to higher education institutions striving to improve student engagement. This article aims to identify and close the gaps in teacher behaviour to improve student engagement in higher education. Through a survey of 838 students in four higher education institutions in Sarawak, Malaysia, this study found that teacher behaviour had a positive and significant impact on student engagement. By empirically scrutinising students’ expectations and performance evaluations of teacher behaviour, the findings revealed that significant expectation-performance gaps in teacher behaviour exist as students, across public and private universities, had expectations of teacher behaviour that were significantly higher than the actual performance of their teachers. This study demonstrated the importance of enhancing the quality of interactions and promoting interactive dialogic relationships with students in higher education to garner greater student engagement.

The introduction of digital textbooks in higher education has revolutionized student engagement and educational outcomes through interactive learning strategies. This study examines the effectiveness of digital textbooks in enhancing student engagement compared to traditional print textbooks. Using a mixed-methods design, the research involves undergraduate and postgraduate students from various disciplines. Preliminary findings suggest that digital textbooks with features like multimedia, annotations, quizzes, and collaborative tools significantly boost student engagement and cater to diverse learning styles. The study also reveals a positive correlation between digital textbooks and academic performance, emphasizing the potential for deeper understanding and long-term knowledge retention. The research advocates for higher education institutions to incorporate digital textbooks to modernize resources, improve learning outcomes, and increase student satisfaction by leveraging digital technology to meet evolving educational needs.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) operate primarily as policy-governed service systems where quality, accountability, and measurable outcomes are critical. Though student engagement has conventionally been conceptualised as a pedagogical or psychological construct, this paper reframes engagement as a policy outcome resulting from institutional service quality. This study draws on service marketing and transformative service research to understand and investigate how key service quality dimensions like administrative support, core educational quality, physical environment, support services, and transformative quality impact student engagement in higher education. Considering HEIs as public service providers, it argues that student engagement indicates how effectively policy expectations, accreditation requirements, and institutional strategies are converted into meaningful experiences and public value. This reconceptualization advances services marketing scholarship by connecting quality, engagement, and policy governance, and provides practical insights for policymakers, accreditation agencies, and higher education leaders dedicated to improving system performance, student outcomes, and societal well-being.

This chapter summarises the major themes of this 2023 Advancing Student Engagement in Higher Education: Reflection, Critique and Challenge edited collection, drawing upon the key themes and outlining areas for future research in the field. Student engagement is important for educational developers, as it is important for students to work with staff to improve education. The process of engaging students in educational change brings a gigantic amount of learning and skills development for both parties, where dialogue, co-production and the resulting artefacts can make outstanding developments for the future of higher education. This book responds to the need to develop aspects of current and historic higher education, which are not suited to modern citizens’ and society’s needs. Although student engagement as a priority is accepted by many, the focus differs from university to university, as well as nation by nation. Looking forward, readers are encouraged to continue with critical reflection through asking who is engaging, how we are engaging and how sustainable our practices are. This chapter concludes that the structures, processes and assumptions of higher education need to be questioned and developed, to continue ensuring our universities support students, staff and wider society to succeed.

This article reviews International student engagement in higher education: Transforming practices, pedagogies and participation

Over the past decade in Australia there has been an increasing focus in higher education on identifying cogent approaches for assisting first-year university students in their transition into the university setting. In recent years, an emerging body of literature has given emphasis to the efficacy of a range of strategies for engaging first-year undergraduate students. This article reports on a range of effective school-based university orientation and engagement activities that have been informed by the current body of knowledge on student engagement in higher education. Discussion gives emphasis to the impacts of a range of strategies on the early learning environment experiences of first-year students within the School of Human Services and Social Work at Griffith University, Australia. Attention is also drawn to some of the implications for best practice in the orientation and engagement of first-year students at the levels of the institution, academics and students. Finally, the article identifies how the school-based initiated strategies suggest a broad set of possibilities for engagement and change.

Higher education has seen a revolution, because to digital pedagogy, which offers creative ways to engage students, and improve their educational experiences. This article examines how digital pedagogy affects student engagement, highlighting how it may be used to develop interactive, personalized, and flexible learning environments. Through the use of digital tools, teachers may provide real-time feedback, facilitate collaboration, and serve a variety of learning requirements. Its efficacy must be guaranteed, though, by addressing issues like digital fatigue, technological obstacles, and unequal access to resources. The article's conclusion provides solutions for these problems, emphasizing the value of a blended learning strategy, and fair access to technology.

Given the persistent challenges in promoting pro-environmental behavior and student engagement in higher education, particularly in environmental courses, this study examines the effects of creative teaching strategies—specifically icebreaker games and activities—on cognitive understanding, attitudes, and pro-environmental behaviors among first-year university students in environmental education. Grounded in the Green Competency framework and game-based learning theory, the study addresses an empirical gap concerning the sustained impacts of active learning approaches. A Solomon four-group experimental design was employed with 200 students enrolled in the Environmental Society course at Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT). Pre- and post-tests assessed changes across the three learning domains. ANOVA and Scheffé post hoc analyses revealed statistically significant improvements in cognition, attitudes, and behaviors among students exposed to the intervention, particularly those receiving both pre-testing and innovative instruction. Regression analysis indicated that cognitive understanding was the strongest predictor of pro-environmental behavior (β = 0.531, p < 0.001), while demographic variables showed no significant influence. The findings demonstrate that well-designed icebreaker activities can enhance student engagement and foster lasting behavioral change when aligned with course objectives. This study contributes to the sustainability education literature by linking active pedagogy, emotional engagement, and behavioral outcomes and offers practical implications for student-centered curriculum design in higher education.

Fostering equitable collaboration: a study on Slido’s impact on student engagement in higher education

Student Engagement in Higher Education