Student engagement and value co- creation: a model of university and student impacts on the quality of educational outcomes Anne Harbisher PhD 2017 Student engagement and value co- creation: a model of university and student impacts on the quality of educational outcomes Anne Harbisher A Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2017 School of Business: Manchester Metropolitan University Acknowledgements I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to Professor Gill Wright at MMU for her advice, guidance and challenge she has given me over the years of this study. I would also like to thank Dr Sai Nudurupati at MMU for his guidance on the research and introducing me to the joys of AMOS. Thank you to the staff at Staffordshire University who have helped me with the setting up the survey and finally to my husband Andy and daughters Maddie and Izzy for keeping normality in my life during this research. Abstract Student engagement is a phrase that is now common in the vocabulary of academics and higher education managers but there is little clarity about what it actually means and how this can be encouraged and harnessed. The theories around student engagement have emerged from the educational discipline and have been quite isolationist. This study integrates these theories with those of value co-creation to give a different and additional perspective that has a valuable contribution to theory and practice. The study uses the UK Engagement Survey from the Higher Education Academy as a basis for developing a model of student engagement. Undergraduate students at a university were surveyed using the amended UKES instrument and a sample size of 891 was obtained. The survey instrument included qualitative open comments that were analysed alongside the quantitative data. SPSS was used to generate descriptive and comparative statistics and exploratory factor analysis, which was further, developed using AMOS into confirmatory factor analysis to specify a model of student engagement. The additional items used from the value co-creation literature significantly enhanced the final model outcomes. The study has made important contributions to the areas of method, in its use of the amended survey incorporating qualitative aspects, of theory in the integration of theories from different academic disciplines and of practice, in the development of a useable model that had implications for use in universities. Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................. 1 List of Figures ............................................................................................................... 3 1 Chapter One - Introduction .................................................................................. 4 1.1 Aims, Objectives and Scope .......................................................................... 6 1.2 Significance of the Study ............................................................................... 7 1.3 Higher Education and Quality – an Introduction .......................................... 8 1.3.1 Higher Education Quality Infrastructure in the UK ................................ 9 1.3.2 Student Engagement ............................................................................ 12 1.4 Methodological approach ........................................................................... 13 1.5 Overview of research findings ..................................................................... 15 1.6 Thesis Outline .............................................................................................. 15 2 Chapter Two - Structure and Development of UK Higher Education ................ 17 2.1 Structure of Higher Education in UK ........................................................... 18 2.1.1 What are Universities? ......................................................................... 18 2.1.2 University Groups ................................................................................. 21 2.1.3 Sector Support and Governance Organisations ................................... 23 2.2 University Sector Development .................................................................. 24 2.2.1 Student Finance ................................................................................... 31 2.2.2 Marketisation of Higher Education ...................................................... 35 2.3 The Student Market .................................................................................... 39 2.3.1 Full time Students ................................................................................ 40 2.3.2 Part Time Students ............................................................................... 42 2.4 University Strategic Directions .................................................................... 44 2.4.1 Competition and internationalisation .................................................. 45 2.4.2 Teaching and Satisfaction .................................................................... 46 2.5 Performance Indicators, League Tables and Guides ................................... 49 2.6 Development of Quality Assurance in Higher Education ............................ 53 2.7 Higher Education and Research Bill 2017.................................................... 56 2.7.1 Teaching Excellence Framework .......................................................... 59 3 Characteristics of University Education, Relationships and Roles. .................... 62 3.1 University Service Characteristics ............................................................... 63 3.1.1 Intangibility .......................................................................................... 64 3.1.2 Inseparability ........................................................................................ 65 3.1.3 Variability ............................................................................................. 66 3.1.4 Perishability and Trialability ................................................................. 67 3.2 The University Service Encounter ............................................................... 67 3.3 The Importance of University Employees ................................................... 69 3.4 Co-Production, Value Co-Creation - Marketing Perspectives ..................... 72 3.5 Co-Production, Value Co-Creation - Education Perspectives ...................... 82 3.6 Relationships and Roles in Universities ....................................................... 85 3.7 Students as Customers ................................................................................ 89 3.8 University Student Consumer Behaviour .................................................... 96 3.8.1 Modelling University Consumer Decision Making ............................... 99 3.8.2 Extended Experience Behaviour Model ............................................. 109 3.9 Chapter Conclusions .................................................................................. 110 4 Quality and Student Engagement .................................................................... 112 4.1 Concepts of Quality in Higher Education .................................................. 113 4.2 Service Quality in the Marketing Discipline .............................................. 115 4.3 Dimensions of Quality in the Education Discipline ................................... 118 4.3.1 Input variables .................................................................................... 121 4.3.2 Process variables ................................................................................ 122 4.3.3 Output variables ................................................................................. 123 4.3.4 Teaching variables affecting learning gains ....................................... 124 4.3.5 The importance of education learning gain ....................................... 124 4.4 Academic Constructs and Definitions of Student Engagement ................ 125 4.5 Sectorial Constructs and Definitions of Student Engagement .................. 138 4.5.1 Higher Education Academy ................................................................ 138 4.5.2 HEFCE and SFC .................................................................................... 142 4.5.3 Quality Assurance Agency .................................................................. 143 4.5.4 The Student Engagement Partnership ............................................... 145 4.5.5 GuildHE and Student Engagement ..................................................... 146 4.6 Institutional Initiatives in Engagement ..................................................... 148 4.7 Student Surveys Linked to Engagement and Quality ................................ 151 4.8 Student Experience Surveys ...................................................................... 152 4.9 National Student Survey ............................................................................ 153 4.9.1 NSS Design and Methodology ............................................................ 156 4.9.2 Use of NSS .......................................................................................... 157 4.10 National Surveys of Student Engagement ................................................. 159 4.11 United Kingdom Engagement Survey ........................................................ 162