Do student engagement patterns differ across national higher education systems? The comparison of US, Chinese, and Russian high-level research-intensive universities

ABSTRACT

Originally developed in the US educational context, the student engagement concept has become increasingly recognised internationally. It suggests a particular approach to the evaluation of higher education quality and institutional practices for enhancing student growth. However, the lack of cross-national research on student engagement patterns in various national contexts restricts the implementation of engagement practices in different national contexts. This study uses the data of an undergraduate survey conducted in the USA, China, and Russia (n = 166,919) to explore whether the associations between student engagement and four personal characteristics of students (gender, field of study, year of study, and plans after graduation) are consistent across nations. This research disclosed that the USA, China, and Russia do not vary with regard to the associations between personal characteristics and student engagement dimensions.

KEYWORDS:

• Student engagement patterns
• gender differences
• student characteristics
• cross-national study
• structural equation modelling

Acknowledgments

The author expresses gratitude to the team of the SERU-I Consortium and especially Igor Chirikov, the Director of the SERU Consortium, to the coordinators of the surveys in Russian universities, and to Tatiana Semenova who worked as the coordinator of the Russian part of the Project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2023.2183883.

Additional information

Funding

Support from the Basic Research Program of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) is gratefully acknowledged

Notes on contributors

Natalia Maloshonok

Natalia Maloshonok is a senior research fellow at the Center for Sociology of Higher Education, HSE University in Moscow. She earned the PhD in Sociology in 2014. Her focus lies on student experience at a university, undergraduate and doctoral studies, gender stereotypes in education and Web survey methodology.