ABSTRACT
Student engagement is an idea that has grown in relevance and sophistication in higher education research and practice in the last few years. The idea represents a culmination of around thirty years of research into student learning, being developed as an efficient means of organising knowledge about key aspects of the higher education student experience. While it retains this function today, increasing use and theoretical elaboration has amplified its salience in conversations about student learning and development. For reasons to be discussed, engagement has become a highly useful mechanism for interpreting the relationship between students and institutions and, more generally, the qualities and dynamics of university education.
