There’s a lot of talk at the moment about a so-called ‘engagement crisis’ in higher education. Colleagues voice concerns about fewer students showing up in person, their struggle to keep up with heavy workloads, and their general disenchantment with university life. Working within the history department at Bristol, as well as with staff and students at Warwick and Nottingham, we’ve been exploring what ‘engagement’ actually means to students today. This isn’t just about whether they turn up, but how (and indeed if…) they participate in and feel part of an academic community. The project grew out of conversations within History UK, and from the start it’s been co-produced with students themselves. For us, that collaboration has transformed the project.
Our student researchers have been at the heart of this work, from shaping our survey questions and leading focus groups, to analysing the data collected and crafting resources to support staff. Their involvement hasn’t just made the research more authentic – it’s fundamentally changed how we, as staff, think about engagement. They bring a particular clarity and honesty that has helped break us out of our staff ‘bubble,’ and have challenged our assumptions and priorities in hugely helpful ways.
As our research has shown, engagement is a huge, web-like issue influenced by various complex, moving parts. And while we can’t solve problems with engagement with a ‘silver bullet,’ we can listen carefully to how a range of issues affect students’ learning and work with them to respond with empathy and creativity.
Early findings
Through surveys and focus groups, we heard from hundreds of students across institutions about what helps (and hinders) their engagement. Across the three institutions, three themes came up again and again: workload, relationships, and learning culture.
Workload
Many students described feeling constantly overloaded – not just by their degree work, but by part-time jobs, financial pressure, and anxieties about employability. Many students reported that their ‘to-do’ lists feel like they are stretching beyond what’s actually possible, and that studying has become just another task to manage efficiently. One student put it bluntly:
there is little space for “irrelevant history”, which feels harsh but is true.’
While as historians we might be outraged at the idea that any history is ‘irrelevant,’ this nevertheless reflects a persistent theme in our data. Students often feel they have to be strategic – focusing only on what seems directly useful for assessment or their future career, rather than something staff might think is intellectually interesting or important. In that context, reading for its own sake or participating in open-ended discussions can feel like a bit of a luxury.
Relationships
Students repeatedly told us that what matters most is the quality of their working relationships with staff. When staff are approachable, enthusiastic, and genuinely care, students notice. When they’re not, students notice that too.
If a lecturer clearly doesn’t care or has put no effort into something, I’m less likely to put effort in back.”
Quite simply, students told us in numerous different ways that engagement breeds engagement. And it goes both ways: when students feel supported by an engaged member of staff and feel like their voice is important, they are far more likely to show up, get stuck in, and take risks in their learning.
Learning Culture
Finally, we heard a lot about the amorphous-sounding phenomenon of ‘vibes.’ Students challenged us on our assumption that engagement was about whether a seminar was interesting. Instead, they told us that it was much more about whether the environment felt safe and welcoming. They made clear that if a seminar feels tense or intimidating (due to, for example, being ‘picked on’ for answers), they are much more likely to withdraw. If it feels warm, collaborative, and inclusive, they said they were much more likely to come along, even if the topic was not their favourite or if the reading was challenging.
Interestingly, students highlighted really small things that make a big difference to them – tutors explicitly acknowledging and working to alleviate social anxiety, structuring discussions so no one dominates, and offering flexible ways to contribute, for example. These details may seem minor, but students were clear that it is this kind of thing that they see as the building blocks of a positive, engaging learning culture.
Collaboration in Practice
Our student researchers helped ensure these findings weren’t filtered through staff assumptions. They co-designed the survey questions and led many of the focus groups, creating spaces where students could speak freely.
At Bristol, for example, our team of four student researchers represented different years, programmes, and backgrounds. They helped shape the questions we asked – and more importantly, how we asked them. As a result, students spoke more openly, and we gathered much richer information about what engagement looks like from their perspective.
Their contributions went far beyond data collection, though. They challenged our language, our priorities, and even our interpretations. When staff saw disengagement as a lack of motivation, for example, our student researchers pointed to overwork, isolation, and structural barriers. They reminded us that the story is rarely one of apathy – more often, it’s about exhaustion and disconnection, and the particular challenges of being a student in our current social and political context. They also helped us channel these findings into simple tips and tricks for staff to use, from the language they use in their feedback and how to make office hours feel accessible, to what an effective icebreaker might look like.
We’re not claiming to have all the answers (if only it were that simple!). Engagement is tangled up with everything from housing costs to institutional culture. But a few principles have started to emerge from our conversations, and specifically from working with our student researchers as part of our practice
. Our findings suggest we need to:
- Make time to think critically about our own teaching – students can tell when we are, and are not, engaged in our practice.
- Keep the channels of communication open, as small acts of connection matter more than we might think.
- Be willing to adapt, recognising that our students (and the world they are learning in) have changed dramatically in just a few years, and we must evolve with them.
Above all, we should care: the pressures of higher education affect everyone, and a bit of compassion, humility, and kindness goes a long way.
Perhaps the most striking finding from this project is that engagement isn’t about mere attendance – it’s about belonging, relationships, and collaboration. Working alongside our student researchers has been a powerful reminder that co-production isn’t just a research method, but a model for good teaching itself. When we work with students, we can learn as much as they do.
In a time when higher education can feel impersonal, precarious, and high-pressured, we argue that sense of shared purpose is more important than ever. If we want students to fall in love with learning again, maybe the first step is for us, as educators, to think about how we might re-engage with them.
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