A Students as Partners approach to analysing student engagement data for teaching and learning

About this initiative

Student engagement is an increasingly vital question in third level education. Data from UCC students in the Irish Survey of Student Engagement measures key aspects of engagement including social, personal, and academic development which, in turn, are directly related to broader issues such as quality of educational experience and staff student engagement. While valuable in certain contexts, this form of analysis does miss a valuable opportunity to involve the affected populations and include interpretation and analysis from students themselves. This project used a Students as Partners methodology to analyse responses to the 2023 Postgraduate Irish Survey of Student Engagement. Five postgraduate students worked with the project team to closely analyse the survey responses in five key areas: Research Skills, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Supervision, Financial Considerations, and Work-Life Balance.