Effect of University Administrative and Academic Processes on Student Engagement: An Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

Student engagement is among the emerging discourses in education research. It is a significant factor in students' academic success and involves the student and the university's contributions. The literature extensively reports the studies that establish and explore the relationship between academic processes and student engagement; however, administrative processes are less focused. This study empirically tested the effect of administrative processes (admission, facilities management, counseling, and governance) and academic processes (teaching, learning, assessment & feedback, research & development) on student engagement. A survey instrument comprising 73 items was used to collect the data from 368 students of two private universities in Lahore, Pakistan. Except for the demographic fields, all items were gauged over a 7-point Likert scale with 1-7 (strong disagreement to the strong agreement). The reliability score of the pilot was 0.96, and of the final data, 0.92. Descriptive statistics were applied to explain the demographic characteristics of the sample. Smart PLS was used to draw structure equation models (SEM) by computing Partial Least Square (PLS) regression scores. Results have predicted strong and positive relationships between administrative processes, academic processes, and student engagement. PLS-SEM showed that both administrative processes and academic processes almost equally affect student engagement. The discussion of results revealed that administrative processes, though equally important as academic processes, but previous research shows less focus on it. The study concluded that emotional engagement is the least focused area by the administration as well as academia. The study suggests the private universities in Lahore to focus on improving their focus on developing emotional engagement of their students to reap loyalty and organizational commitment of their students.

Academic Resilience and Students’ Engagement: A Comparative Study Between Public and Private Higher Education Institutions

“…In the Pakistani context, SE is studied with variables such as "university administrative and academic processes" (Iqbal & Asghar, 2020); exploring SE as a mediating factor for developing "student-teacher relationships and students' development" among high school students (Siddiqui, 2018); demographic predictors with SE and students' performance among high school students (Sattar, Ullah, Rehman, & Ismail, 2020). Many other researchers studied AR among secondary school students with variables such as academic performance (Arif & Mirza, 2017;Sarwar, Inamullah, Khan, Anwar, 2010); how to foster AR among secondary school students (Mirza & Arif, 2018); and AR concerning L2 learning (Mahesar, & Jokhio, 2021).…”

Administrative Processes Efficiency Measurement in Higher Education Institutions: A Scoping Review

“…In recent years, the globalization of the markets and the advancement of science and technology have led to rapid changes in virtually all aspects of human life [1][2][3]. This scenario has required organizations, including Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), to embrace more innovative business practices and to improve their processes through the implementation of systems and methods of quality assurance to meet current and future demands [4][5][6][7]. Also, universities are vital in educating students for disciplinary knowledge, but also to develop the right skills that meet labor market needs [8].…”