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The Multi-Engagement Model: Understanding Diverse Pathways to Student Success at Research Universities. A Report of the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Project

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Title: The Multi-Engagement Model: Understanding Diverse Pathways to Student Success at Research Universities. A Report of the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Project
Language: English
Authors: Igor Chirikov, John Aubrey Douglass, Gregg Thomson, University of California, Berkeley. Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE)
Source: Center for Studies in Higher Education. 2025.
Availability: Center for Studies in Higher Education. University of California, Berkeley, 771 Evans Hall #4650, Berkeley, CA 94720-4650. Tel: 510-642-5040; Fax: 510-643-6845; e-mail: cshe@berkeley.edu; Web site: http://cshe.berkeley.edu/
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 151
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Higher Education, Success, Employment Potential, Organizational Effectiveness, Learner Engagement, Undergraduate Students, Student Experience, Research Universities, Educational Trends, Comparative Analysis, Pandemics, COVID-19, Context Effect, Time Perspective, Observation, Trend Analysis
Abstract: American higher education is under increasing pressure to demonstrate its effectiveness in enhancing student success and employability. Traditional metrics used by researchers and policymakers--such as time to degree completion, postgraduate employment, and income--have predominantly overlooked the diversity of student pathways during and after college. This narrow focus has prompted calls for a more comprehensive framework that emphasizes a broader spectrum of pathways to student engagement and success. This study introduces a Multi-Engagement Model as an analytical framework, offering a holistic perspective for understanding the undergraduate student experience at large research-intensive universities in the United States. To help build a more informed understanding of the effectiveness of research universities' efforts in undergraduate education, the Multi-Engagement Model focuses on the interplay between five forms of student engagement: academic, research, extracurricular, civic, and career. This report provides an exploratory empirical analysis of multi-engagement trends in major U.S. public research universities, leveraging over 10 years of survey and institutional data collected by the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium. This empirical analysis consists of two parts. The first part explores the scope of multi-engagement and its relationship to learning outcomes and student plans, based on a subset of the SERU data from four pre-pandemic years (2016-2019), encompassing over 263,000 responses. The authors specifically focus on the pre-pandemic period to understand the "baseline" of student multi-engagement before the disruption caused by the pandemic and campus closures. The second part analyzes the changes in student engagement over time across the five areas of multi-engagement--academic, research, extracurricular, civic, and career. The analysis compares the level of student engagement before, during, and after that pandemic, using over 806,000 SERU survey responses collected between 2012 and 2023 from 22 U.S. public research universities. The SERU dataset reflects the experiences of students at predominantly residential universities, where most live on-campus or nearby. These institutions are also distinguished by high retention and graduation rates, typically ranging from 82% to 94%, which provides a strong foundation for examining patterns of student engagement and success.
Abstractor: ERIC
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: ED671927
Database: ERIC
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  Data: Center for Studies in Higher Education. University of California, Berkeley, 771 Evans Hall #4650, Berkeley, CA 94720-4650. Tel: 510-642-5040; Fax: 510-643-6845; e-mail: cshe@berkeley.edu; Web site: http://cshe.berkeley.edu/
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  Data: American higher education is under increasing pressure to demonstrate its effectiveness in enhancing student success and employability. Traditional metrics used by researchers and policymakers--such as time to degree completion, postgraduate employment, and income--have predominantly overlooked the diversity of student pathways during and after college. This narrow focus has prompted calls for a more comprehensive framework that emphasizes a broader spectrum of pathways to student engagement and success. This study introduces a Multi-Engagement Model as an analytical framework, offering a holistic perspective for understanding the undergraduate student experience at large research-intensive universities in the United States. To help build a more informed understanding of the effectiveness of research universities' efforts in undergraduate education, the Multi-Engagement Model focuses on the interplay between five forms of student engagement: academic, research, extracurricular, civic, and career. This report provides an exploratory empirical analysis of multi-engagement trends in major U.S. public research universities, leveraging over 10 years of survey and institutional data collected by the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium. This empirical analysis consists of two parts. The first part explores the scope of multi-engagement and its relationship to learning outcomes and student plans, based on a subset of the SERU data from four pre-pandemic years (2016-2019), encompassing over 263,000 responses. The authors specifically focus on the pre-pandemic period to understand the "baseline" of student multi-engagement before the disruption caused by the pandemic and campus closures. The second part analyzes the changes in student engagement over time across the five areas of multi-engagement--academic, research, extracurricular, civic, and career. The analysis compares the level of student engagement before, during, and after that pandemic, using over 806,000 SERU survey responses collected between 2012 and 2023 from 22 U.S. public research universities. The SERU dataset reflects the experiences of students at predominantly residential universities, where most live on-campus or nearby. These institutions are also distinguished by high retention and graduation rates, typically ranging from 82% to 94%, which provides a strong foundation for examining patterns of student engagement and success.
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      – Text: English
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        PageCount: 151
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Higher Education
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Success
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      – SubjectFull: Employment Potential
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      – SubjectFull: Trend Analysis
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