Engaging University Students : International Insights from System-wide Studies

This book provides university teachers, leaders and policymakers with evidence on how researchers in several countries are monitoring and improving student engagement―the extent to which students are exposed to and participate in effective educational practices. It captures insights from international implementations of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), developed in the United States. In the last half decade NSSE has been adapted and used in several other countries, producing the largest international collaboration yet involving educationally relevant data on students’ engagement in higher education.

Leaders of established national collaborations draw on their experiences with hundreds of institutions to contribute their insights. Framed by their cultural and educational contexts, they discuss issues concerning first-year learners, international students, part-time and distance learners, as well as teaching and leadership in support of student learning. Each chapter outlines strategies based on national case studies and presents perspectives supported by concrete examples of how these have played out in diverse settings. The book suggests mechanisms that can be used by institutions, ministries and quality agencies around the world.

Hamish Coates is the Founding Director of Higher Education Research at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and a Program Director with the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management, based at the University of Melbourne. He conducts research and development across many areas of higher education, nationally and internationally. Over the last decade, he has led a large number of projects that have influenced research, policy and practice, including the OECD’s 17-country Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes Feasibility Study (AHELO) and the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE). His research and publications focus on the measurement and evaluation of tertiary education inputs, processes, contexts and outcomes. Active interests include large-scale evaluation, tertiary education policy, institutional strategy, outcomes assessment, learner engagement, academic work and leadership, quality assurance, tertiary admissions, and assessment methodology.

Alexander C. McCormick holds a faculty appointment in the Indiana University School of Education’s Educational Leadership and Policy Studies department, where he teaches the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. He also directs the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), housed in the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research. Through his work with NSSE, he aims to enrich the United States discourse about quality in higher education, while also providing institutions with tools they can use to diagnose and improve undergraduate teaching and learning. His research interests centre on assessment and accountability in higher education, and also organizational change and improvement in higher education. Prior to joining Indiana University, he served as Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he directed a major overhaul of the Foundation’s widely-used Classification of Institutions of Higher Education and also served as director of survey research.