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The Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE), 2014

Study number (SN): 0030-01

CITATION

ABOUT THE STUDY

The central aim of Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE) is to develop a valuable source of information about students’ experiences of higher education in Ireland. The results of the survey are intended primarily to add value at institutional level, and to inform national policy. A detailed online survey was offered to first year undergraduates, final year undergraduates and postgraduate students on taught programmes. Data are presented as responses to individual items and as calculated scores for eleven indices that relate to broad aspects of student engagement, such as Active Learning and Higher Order Thinking. The survey is the first national survey of students in Ireland and the first system-wide survey of its kind in Europe. The ISSE has formative links with the US National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE). Thus, Irish data can be evaluated in the context of other jurisdictions in addition to the national or sector contexts.

Student engagement may be defined as students’ involvement in activities and environments that are likely to generate high-quality learning. Students are ultimately responsible for their own learning but this depends on institutions and staff creating an environment that encourages and promotes student involvement in educationally-relevant activities. Student engagement with higher education is seen as being enhanced through exposing students to a high quality learning environment. Measuring engagement can provide a means to develop a fuller understanding of the student experience above and beyond that ascertained through surveys of student satisfaction alone.

More than 19, 800 students from thirty institutions responded to the survey which was undertaken in February – March 2014. Following a national pilot in 2013, this dataset represents the first result of fieldwork in 2014.

MAIN TOPICS

• Higher Education
• Student Behaviour
• Student Engagement
• Student Participation
• Students (College)

COVERAGE, UNIVERSE, METHODOLOGY

Population

The survey was offered as a voluntary census survey to all first year undergraduate students, final year undergraduate students and postgraduate students pursuing taught programmes in state-funded higher education institutions. 

Observation units

• Individual
• Institutions / Organisations 

Temporal coverage

From: 02/2014 to: 03/2014

Each participating institutions selected the most appropriate three week period for local fieldwork from the overall national fieldwork period.

Time dimension

Repeated cross-sectional study on an annual basis

Geographical coverage

Country: Ireland

Methods of data collection

• CASI (Computer Assisted Self Interviewing)

Sampling procedures

All members of the target cohort (first year undergraduate, final year undergraduate, taught postgraduate higher education students) were invited to participate in the survey.

Response rate

The national response rate (2014) was 15.6%. The response rates for the subgroups are as follows:

DATA AND DOCUMENTATION: FILES’ DESCRIPTION

Data (available through ISSDA application process)

Documentation (available for download)

LINKS

ISSE website: www.studentsurvey.ie

Coates, Hamish, and Alexander C. McCormick. "Engaging University Students." International Insights from System-Wide Studies.Springer, 2014. Available at: http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-4585-63-7

ACCESS INFORMATION

Accessing the data

To access the data, please complete a ISSDA Data Request Form for Research Purposes, sign it, and send it to ISSDA by email.

For teaching purposes, please complete the ISSDA Data Request Form for Teaching Purposes, and follow the procedures, as above. Teaching requests are approved on a once-off module/workshop basis. Subsequent occurrences of the module/workshop require a new teaching request form.

Data will be disseminated on receipt of a fully completed, signed form. Incomplete or unsigned forms will be returned to the data requester for completion.

Copyright

The dataset is generated from a national collaborative partnership of the Higher Education Authority, participating higher education institutions and the Union of Students in Ireland.

Acknowledgements

Any work based in whole or part on resources provided by the ISSDA, should  acknowledge: “The Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE), 2014" and also ISSDA, in the following way: “Accessed via the Irish Social Science Data Archive - www.ucd.ie/issda”.

Citation requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical citation

Irish Survey of Student Engagement. (2015). The Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE), 2014. [dataset]. Version 1. Irish Social Science Data Archive. SN: 0030-01. www.ucd.ie/issda/data/isse/isse2014

Notification

The user shall notify the Irish Social Science Data Archive of all publications where she or he has used the data.