Partners in academic endeavour: Characterising student engagement across internationally excellent medical schools

Abstract

There is increasing interest in how student engagement can be enhanced in medical schools: not just engagement with learning but with broader academic practices such as curriculum development, research, organisational leadership, and community involvement. To foster evidence-based practice, it is important to understand how institutions from diverse sociocultural contexts achieve excellence in student engagement.

We analysed 11 successful applications for an international award in student engagement and interviewed nine key informants from five medical schools across four continents, characterising how and why student engagement was fostered at these institutions.

Document analysis revealed considerable consensus on the core practices of student engagement, as well as innovative and creative practices often in response to local strengths and challenges. The interviews uncovered the importance of an authentic partnership culture between students and faculty which sustained mutually beneficial enhancements across multiple domains. Faculty promoted, welcomed, and acted on student inputs, and students reported greater willingness to participate if they could see the benefits. These combined to create self-perpetuating virtuous cycles of academic endeavour. Successful strategies included having participatory values actively reinforced by senior leadership, engagement activities that are driven by both students and staff, and focusing on strategies with reciprocal benefits for all stakeholders.

Keywords:

• Student engagement
• learning environment
• curriculum development
• partnership approaches

Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Harm Peters and the ASPIRE Academy for inspiring and supporting this study. We also thank all participants and participating schools.

Authors’ contributions

At the time of writing, FF was a medical student, KLG a senior educational researcher, and SS and MJC professors of medical education. FF and KLG are joint first authors. All authors contributed substantially to the project and agree to be held accountable for it.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Glossary

Student engagement: Is an active process of enablement, empowerment, and inclusion that results in student participation across diverse areas of academic practice including education, research, organisational governance, and community involvement.

Geolocation information

Europe, Asia, North America, Australia

Data availability statement

Our raw data is qualitative and may contain personally identifying information. We do not have permission to share this publicly.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Flávia Freitas

Flávia Freitas, MD, Medical student, Escola de Medicina, Universidade Do Minho, Braga, Portugal.

Kathleen E. Leedham-Green

Kathleen E. Leedham-Green, MBBS, BSc, MA ClinEd, Senior Education Fellow (Research), Medical Education Research Unit, Imperial College London, London, UK.

Susan F. Smith

Susan F. Smith, BSc, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Medical Education, Medical Education Research Unit, Imperial College London, UK.

Manuel João Costa

Manuel João Costa, BSc, PhD, Associate Professor of Medical Education, Escola de Medicina, Universidade Do Minho, Braga, Portugal.