1. Siobhán Nic Fhlannchadha, PhD siobhan@thea.ie
Taking a collaborative approach to successfully measure student engagement in higher education: An Irish case study
Siobhán Nic Fhlannchadha, PhD

2. Background
1st yr
Final yr
Taught Masters
Research Masters
PhD
29%
30%

3. The partnership

4. The partnership

5. The partnership

6. The partnership

7. Why? Key reasons for success of survey: Philosophy Partnership
Student engagement with college life is important in enabling them to develop key capabilities such as critical thinking, problem-solving, writing skills, team work and communication skills.
Key reasons for success of survey:
Philosophy
Partnership
Why?

8. How is it run?

9. Promotion Online promotional materials
Significant increase in number of online and social media resources, such as:
Editable documents
Variety of sizing

10. First ISSE Questions address:
US National Student Survey of Engagement (NSSE)
First ISSE
Questions address:

11. The questions Questions address:
UK Postgraduate Research Experience survey (PRES)
The questions
Questions address:
Research Infrastructure & Facilities
Motivations
Supervision
Responsibilities and Support
Research Culture
Other Transferable Skills
Progress and Assessment
Career Aspirations
Research Skills
Overall Experience

12. Example respondent profile

13. Analysis
No single indicator reflects the complex dimensions of student behaviour and institutional performance.
Comparison of individual scores across institutions is inappropriate given that the differences with respect to mission, resources, profile and response rates.

14. Effective methods for embedding participation in the survey have been developed:
Incentives
Giveaways
Mobilising class reps
Engaging members of faculty
Using social media
A large and rich dataset is being amassed annually
Bedding down

15. Future developments Embedding participation
Building on student partnership
Incentivising participation
Ongoing review and improvement of the survey
**Analysis of the data**
**Using the results**

16. More information
survey-results/