Student engagement : identity, motivation and community

Today, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are bombarded by challenges demanding innovative responses. Financial pressures on prospective students increase, modifying relationships between student and university. Rising student expectations require a review of the learning landscapes of higher education systems. A response commonly adopted is the improvement of 'student engagement', a term widely used but often misunderstood or misinterpreted. Student Engagement: Identity, Motivation and Community argues that student engagement must be addressed systematically and strategically. It requires more than the adoption of 'consumer' approaches to student learning, or palliatives such as the cosmetic boosting of student numbers on university committees. Students must be empowered to make change for themselves, creating 'active citizens'. Discussions of student engagement often involve terms such as partnership, student-centered learning and co-creation of learning. Yet, as Student Engagement: Identity, Motivation and Community demonstrates, these are not simple concepts and delivering them in reality is a considerable challenge for universities. All the contributions of this ground-breaking book, co-written by staff and students from a single HEI, are firmly located in the wider literature and avoid both myopic introspection and inappropriate generalization. They describe approaches based on partnership not transaction, and they show that the challenge is not just to institutions and decision-makers in the sector but also to the student bodies themselves. They indicate that institutions and student representative bodies alike need to question some of the long-held dogma on how universities and students should interact. The chapters of Student Engagement: Identity, Motivation and Community are clustered into three themes: the first reflects the changing nature of student, staff and organizational identities, arguing that universities that develop a partnership culture will benefit from highly engaged students; the second discusses motivation for students and staff to engage in student engagement activities; and the final chapters discuss the power of student engagement in creating the learning community. Together these approaches enable the creation of a sense of belonging, which evidence shows is essential to student retention and success. The glass ceiling in student engagement / Liam Burns -- Foreword to Student engagement: identity, motivation and community / Professor Craig Mahoney -- Why student engagement matters / Luke Millard, Paul Bartholomew, Stuart Brand Claus Nygaard -- Student engagement with learning resources in art design: seeding possibilities / Sian Everitt Vaughan and Grace Williams -- The effects on student engagement of employing students in professional roles / Paul Summers, Daisy Pearson, Samuel Gough and Jan Siekierski -- Graduate interns: a changed identity as a consequence of a hybrid role / Mercedes Chambers and Luke Nagle -- Social media and employability: creating new resources with students / Mark Ashfield, David Harte and Vanessa Jackson -- All aboard: using the student advisory board to engage students with university decision making processes / Sophie Rowe, Emily Cooper and Lynn Fulford -- Student employment and the impact on student motivations and attitudes towards university / Ixchelt Acevedo Montesinos, Derek Cassidy and Luke Millard -- Differential student engagement: lessons learned / Caroline Hutchings, Nicola Bartholomew and Oonagh Reilly -- Problem-based learning: student and tutor perspectives / Kathleen Donnelly and Naomi Francis -- Media industries beyond the curriculum: motivating blended professionalism for enhanced student engagement and employability / Kerry Gough, Jamie Morris and Amie Hession -- Student engagement: enabling academic success through dynamic partnerships / Wal Warmington, Trevor Hodge, Sheikh Sela and Anil Kainth -- By appointment to Birmingham City University students: promoting student engagement through partnership working / Amanda Andrews, Joanne Jeffries and Bernie St Aubyn -- Social media: an effective way to build a community and develop partnerships to promote student engagement? / Emma Flint and James Roden -- Beyond the curriculum: deepening reflective practice and widening student engagement / David Chapman and Atief Ishaq -- Engaging student as practitioners through experiential learning / Hannah Phillips, Tom Craig and Christie Phillips -- Lightening up the dark side: a partnership approach between a students' union and the university / Paul Chapman, Sarah Blatchford and Elgan Hughes.