Factors influencing student engagement in public universities of Pakistan

Abstract

This qualitative study explores students’ perceptions toward factors influencing student engagement in public universities of Pakistan. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine undergraduate students from three public universities of Pakistan. These students were nominated by their respective universities and known as the most actively engaged with their campuses. The interview sessions were guided by the interview protocol and each interview session lasted for 40-45 minutes which was recorded and later transcribed verbatim. Each interview transcript was then emailed to respective participants for validation. The validated interview transcripts were analysed thematically using NVivo12 software. The initial analysis revealed a total of 59 codes (nodes) were discovered which later were grouped into 22 categories. Further analysis of the 22 categories revealed five advanced themes called behavioural, cognitive, emotional, psychological, and social engagement. This study discovered that behavioral, emotional, cognitive, social and psychological were first to fifth dimensions that mostly stated by the students. The findings of this study indicated that student engagement was a dynamic component for student development and quality learning outcomes while it was the most avoided component from the perspective of Pakistani public universities. The five dimensions revealed from this study can become core dimensions to develop a quantitative instrument to measure student engagement in public universities of Pakistan.