Investigating the relationship between well-being, engagement and learning experiences among South African publicly funded students in higher education

Abstract

Student engagement and positive learning experiences are important determinants of academic performance in higher education. While the role of well-being is also acknowledged, it is not comprehensively addressed as an antecedent for both engagement and learning experience. In fact, interventions to improve academic performance in higher education tend to ignore well-being support. A further problem relates to the dominance of literature from the Global North predicated on relationships between well-being, engagement and learning experience among students with much higher levels of socio-economic status. This stands as a severe limitation in identifying the right kinds of interventions towards ensuring better learning outcomes for African higher education students. Using structural equation modelling, we explored the relationship between psychological and social well-being with student engagement and learning experiences among a sample of 6877 South African higher education students (females = 54.7%; mean age = 23.83; SD = 4.89). Our findings showed that both facets of well-being were positively related to student engagement and learning experiences highlighting psychological and social well-being promotion as a clear responsibility of higher education systems.