Student Engagement in Academic, Social and Cultural Activities at Higher Education

Student engagement in academic, social and cultural activities in the context of higher education has become a particularly noteworthy concept in recent years. It is expected that the students engage in these activities provided to them actively. Thus, students can gain many qualifications that will enable them to be successful in their professional and social lives. It is among the duties of universities to provide opportunities for students to engage in academic, social and cultural activities, to direct them and to support their efforts. In order to fulfill this task, it is first necessary to determine the current situation - the level of student engagement. In this study, it was aimed to determine the engagement levels of students in academic, social and cultural activities. The study model was survey and quantitative research method was used. The study group was composed of 451 students who studies at different departments at faculty of education of a state university in 2016-2017 academic year in Ankara. As the data collection tool, the questionnaire of the University Student Engagement in Academic, Social and Cultural Activities (US-EASCA) was developed by the researchers. Expert opinion was received for the content validity; The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient was estimated as .91. The data was analyzed with descriptive statistics. As a result of the study, the level of student engagement in academic activities is moderate; it is low in social and cultural activities. In addition, some other findings are that students do not communicate adequately with the instructor outside the class, but are in constant contact with each other; that the in-class activities do not force them, but they are challenged by the examinations. In order to raise the level of student engagement in academic activities, curricula should be developed to enable students to engage in activities in and out of the classroom. On the one hand, to increase the level of student engagement in social and cultural activities, free activities should be organized and students should be encouraged to engage in them