Student Engagement - Identity, Motivation and Community

Claus Nygaard, Stuart Brand, Paul Bartholomew, L. Millard, Claus Nygaard, Stuart Brand, Paul Bartholomew, L. Millard

• Publisher: Libri Publishing
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781907471650
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Student Life

Today, Higher EducationInstitutions (HEIs) are bombarded by pressures and challenges demandinginnovative responses. Although international higher education continues toexperience considerable growth, there still is a need to review the learninglandscapes of mature higher education systems. In such times, and especiallywhen the financial demands on prospective students change, the relationshipsbetween the student and the university, or more crudely between the customerand the provider, are modified and expectations are likely to rise. Inresponse to these challenges, a common central theme has been the need toimprove 'student engagement'. Yet this is a term which is widely used but oftenmisunderstood or misinterpreted. As Student Engagement: Identity, Motivationand Community shows, student engagement needs to be addressedsystematically and strategically, requiring far more than the adoption of a'consumer' approach to student learning, or palliatives such as the cosmeticboosting of student numbers on university committees. The underlying challengesrequire empowering students across institutions to make change for themselves, so creating 'active citizens'. All the chapters of this ground-breaking book havebeen co-written by staff and students from a single Higher EducationInstitution (HEI), yet the contributions are firmly located in the widerliterature and avoid both myopic introspection and inappropriategeneralisation. The case studies describe approaches based on partnership andnot on transaction, but they also show that the challenge is not just toinstitutions and decision makers in the sector but to the student bodiesthemselves. They indicate that both institutions and student representativebodies alike need to question some of the long held dogma on how universitiesand students should interact.