University Student Satisfaction and Student Engagement: Example from Croatia
- AIOR Admin
- 3 hours ago
- 1 min read
Ivana Jadrić, Reić Ercegovac
University of Split, Croatia
Studying student satisfaction and the factors that can shape it is crucial for understanding the determinants of academic success and the quality of the student experience. In this context, student engagement has been identified in previous research as a variable that is significantly associated with satisfaction with studies. The aim of this study was to examine differences in student satisfaction and engagement with regard to field of study and gender, and to determine the relationship between different dimensions of student engagement and satisfaction. The study was conducted on a sample of N = 337 students from different Croatian universities, where the main focus was placed on the Higher Education Student Engagement Scale. The results showed that female students achieved higher results in social engagement with peers and affective engagement, which indicates greater emotional involvement and a pronounced focus on social relationships. With respect to the field of study, arts and humanities students showed higher cognitive engagement compared to STEM students, while social science and humanities students also showed higher engagement compared to STEM students in social engagement with teachers. Despite the differences in engagement, neither gender nor field of study was a significant predictor of student satisfaction. The analysis of interrelationships showed that cognitive and affective engagement were the most important predictors of satisfaction, together explaining 47% of the variance in this variable. The findings highlight the key role of the quality of student engagement in shaping student satisfaction and indicate the importance of developmental teaching practices that encourage cognitive engagement and students' emotional connection to the learning process.
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