Date of Award
8-7-2023
Publication Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Psychology
Keywords
Maclean's;NSSE;social psychology;student engagement;student satisfaction;university choice
Supervisor
Kenneth Cramer
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Research suggests that higher levels of student engagement are positively correlated with higher levels of student satisfaction. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) benchmark measures have been found to be significantly correlated with institutional outcomes related to student satisfaction, such as graduation rates and retention. Although there has been an extensive amount of research conducted on ranking HEIs, student satisfaction, and student engagement, there remained a noticeable gap in the literature: the examination of the ranking of Canadian institutions’ student satisfaction, student engagement and positive student outcome variables. As such, we offer a novel study in the context of Canadian universities (N = 49) that examines Maclean’s magazine rankings of Canadian universities based on the analyses of data obtained from student satisfaction indices (as published by Maclean’s Magazine University Rankings) and NSSE (as reported by macleans.ca) concurrently to examine (1) if NSSE engagement indicators can predict Maclean’s student satisfaction at public institutions across Canada and (2) whether there are significant differences between (a) higher versus lower ranked universities, (b) universities with good reputations versus universities with poor reputations and (c) larger enrolment versus smaller enrolment universities. Canonical correlation analyses identified significant predictors of student satisfaction, although predictors differed based on academic year (i.e., first- versus senior-year students). The significant predictors were then utilized in Mann-Whitney U Tests for comparisons between universities. Results revealed that universities based on overall rank yielded the most difference followed by the size of institution, whereas there was little difference between universities based on their reputation.
Recommended Citation
DeBlock, Denise, "Engagement, Satisfaction, and Positive Student Outcomes: The Most Prevalent Factors at Canada's Public Universities" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 9298.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/9298