This article reports on a study which evaluated five dimensions of first-year university students' engagement in Welsh universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study utilises a student engagement scale which was previously used with undergraduate students in Australian universities. Our findings provide insights on five dimensions of student…

Discussion of learner autonomy has often been led by educationalists and policy makers. How do learners interpret the notion? This question, as well as addressing how students' understandings compared to those of their instructors' were the questions that the research sought to answer. The research undertook to explore the notion of the autonomous…

The purpose of the study is to explore various facets of engagement in courses with Learning Assistant (LA) support. LA programmes frequently demonstrate positive effects on student learning and persistence, yet less is known about the nuances of the impact on student engagement. Data collected from students and LAs via online questionnaires are…

The peer-review process used in most academic journals is critical for curating evidence-based knowledge. Although many graduate programmes expect students to engage in the research process, these programmes often do not mandate formal training for the publication process. With few studies examining the graduate student experience in the…

Most of our current university student cohort, known as GenZ, have grown-up in a digitally connected world with access to various technological devices and social-media platforms. While technology can assist to engage students, in the learning environment many students spend a significant amount of time switching between devices engaging in…

Hybrid approaches to teaching, where there is a proportion of online (asynchronous or synchronous) teaching as well as face-to-face synchronous teaching, were adopted almost ubiquitously by UK higher education institutions throughout the 2020/2021 academic year amidst disruption caused by national and international COVID-19 restrictions. One…

Pedagogical research during the COVID-19 pandemic initially focused on emergency remote teaching and subsequently shifted its focus to instructional design, student engagement, and teacher competencies. Existing research in the area highlights the need to go beyond an instrumental approach for e-learning to be truly effective. This includes…

Social support is important for the successful completion of doctoral studies. The aim of this study was to explore how individual differences in supervisory and research community support are related to doctoral experiences (abandonment intentions, perceived engagement, interest, satisfaction, burnout and stress) and doctoral conditions (phase…

COVID-19 had an unprecedented impact on daily living and resulted in many restrictions across all areas of life. Consequently, educational establishments in the UK adapted teaching delivery by moving to online or blended learning during the main 'stay at home' phase and many remained online as ongoing restrictions were announced. Many changes made…

Student-centred learning and teaching (SCLT) has become a widespread approach in higher education and is praised by students, educational researchers and policy makers alike. SCLT is believed to help students become self-directed learners by placing them at the centre of the learning process. Despite the central role currently ascribed to SCLT in…

The seemingly relentless drive across Higher Education (HE) Institutions to integrate both face-to-face and online forms of delivery to create blended approaches to teaching and learning shows little sign of abating. Yet, as blended forms of delivery become increasingly prevalent, existing literature suggests that the perspectives and experiences…

Learner-teacher partnerships (L-TPs) increasingly feature in student engagement research in further and higher education (FHE). This flourishing literature raises important questions about such partnerships, for example, what is their purpose? what roles do partners play, who leads in a partnership and how? Various purposes and roles have been…

This study examines the learning experiences including academic performance and assessments of Foundation students at a British University's campus in Malaysia during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A focus on foundation students is important because First-Year Experience is crucial to their academic success in higher education. Using a…

The objective of this article is to analyse the development and content of research in the global literature on student agency in higher education (SAHE) based on a bibliometric review of 224 articles published in the Scopus database during the period 2000-2022. VOSviewer, Excel, and Tableau software were used to analyse the texts. The review…

Online learning was initially introduced to support face-to-face learning, but now represents a dominant pedagogical approach in Higher Education. The rapid shift from face-to-face learning to online platforms has left many academics feeling pedagogically unprepared. In this research, we initially sought to understand and enhance online student…