Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE), 2017 data published

16 March 2018

We are happy to announce that data from The Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE), 2017 are now available in SPSS format. This is the fourth wave of data from the ISSE study, with data already available from 2014, 2015 and 2016.

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 Collaborative Learning and Higher Order Learning.  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. Note that a substantial revision of questions deployed in 2016 results in the fact that 2017 and 2016 data may be compared directly, but do not fully compare to data from previous years.

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 35,800 students from twenty seven institutions responded to the survey which was undertaken in February – March 2017.

 

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