The Involvement, Engagement and Satisfaction of Higher Education Students: A Literature Review

Abstract

Students in Higher Education (HE), like academics and support staff members are critical roles players. This study provides insights into how students experience involvement, engagement, and satisfaction in Higher Education institutions. This study is qualitative in nature and the authors examined extant and relevant literature in analyzing, defining, explaining, and understanding the phenomenon of student’s involvement, engagement, and satisfaction in Higher Education. The exploration was guided by two critical literary review questions posed, namely: “What are the educational experiences of students in the Higher Educational institutions?” and “How does involvement and engagement of Higher Education students influence their satisfaction?” The databases of the Educational Resources Information Centre, Google Scholar, Springer and Research Gate were used to search for literature online. Search keywords included the following: (a) Educational experience of students from involvement to engagement and (b) student satisfaction. Selections were made on the basis of the abstracts of the different documents found. Based on the discussions, it was found out that students’ experiences are grounded in the environment where teaching and learning take place. Effective teaching methodologies support students to become good learners when the necessary environment is created for students to learn. The literature recommended that to attain the educational goals of higher educational institutions, higher educational managers could identify and improve areas of educational environment that affect students’ satisfaction levels.