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This special issue of Student Success celebrates the work of Professor Ella Kahu and her substantial contribution to the advancement of our collective understanding of student engagement. In June 2024 Professors Karen Nelson and Chi Baik, and Dr Cat Picton sat down with Ella for a reflective conversation about her work, and additional insights in her theorising and research on student experience and engagement. In this special issue, we present the interview transcript in three parts and showcase Ella’s key publications. The publications discussed in this section explore innovative practices that promote engagement. From the exploration of student interest as a key driver for first-year students in a regional Australian university to the critical role of tutor-student relationships, these publications shed light on the various elements that contribute to a vibrant and engaging educational experience. The integration of communication tools such as Discord and Teams alongside traditional learning management systems like Moodle demonstrates the evolving nature of student interaction and community building in both face-to-face and online environments. In addition, the incorporation of personal experiences in critical reading and writing pedagogies highlights the importance of connecting academic content with students' lives. Together, these publications offer a range of strategies that educators and institutions can employ to cultivate an engaging and supportive educational environment that support student learning across diverse contexts. Publications Journal articles: Heinrich, E., Thomas, H., & Kahu, E. R. (2022). An exploration of course and cohort communication spaces in Discord, Teams, and Moodle. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 38(6), 107–120. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.7633 Kahu, E. R., & Gerrard, H. (2018). The use of personal experience as a strategy for critical reading and writing. A practice report. Student Success, 9(3), 71-77. https://doi.org/10.5204/ssj.v9i3.470 Kahu, E. R., Nelson, K., & Picton, C. (2017). Student interest as a key driver of engagement for first year students. Student Success, 8(2), 55-66. https://doi.org/10.5204/ssj.v8i2.379 Kahu, E. R., & Picton, C. (2019). The benefits of good tutor-student relationships in the first year. Student Success, 10(2), 23-33. https://doi.org/10.5204/ssj.v10i2.1293 Kahu, E. R., Thomas, H. G., & Heinrich, E. (2022). “A sense of community and camaraderie”: Increasing student engagement by supplementing an LMS with a Learning Commons Communication Tool. Active Learning in Higher Education, 25(2), https://doi.org/10.1177/14697874221127691 Book chapters: Kahu, E. R. (2023). Fostering student engagement: The importance of relationships and belonging face-to-face and online. In Baik, C & Kahu, E. (Eds.) Research handbook on the student experience in higher education pp. 58-73 https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802204193.00012 Kahu, E. R., Thomson, A., & English, B. (2020). Identity and belonging of mature-aged students engaged in distance learning: A reflective conversation. In S. Mawani & A. A. Mukadam (Eds.), Student empowerment in higher education: Reflecting on teaching practice and learner engagement (Vol. 1, pp. 213-230). Logos Verlag. Conference presentations: Kahu, E. R., & Gerrard, H. (2018, April). Engaging online students in citizenship through weekly critical reflections. In Conference proceedings: Inception to infinty (pp. 36-39). Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand Kahu, E. R. (2021). The importance of whanaungatanga: Building relationships with first-year online students. In Proceedings of STARS: Students Transitions Achievement Retention and Success Conference [Online]. https://www.tec.govt.nz/assets/Publications-and-others/The-importance-of-Whanaungatanga-online_Massey-Uni.pdf

This special issue of Student Success celebrates the work of Professor Ella Kahu and her substantial contribution to the advancement of our collective understanding of student engagement. In June 2024 Professors Karen Nelson and Chi Baik, and Dr Cat Picton sat down with Ella for a reflective conversation about her work, and additional insights in her theorising and research on student experience and engagement. In this special issue, we present the interview transcript in three parts and showcase Ella’s key publications. The section, dedicated to “The First Year Experience,” presents a collection of articles authored or co-authored by Ella Kahu that delve into the multifaceted nature of this formative stage. The articles explore the unique challenges and opportunities faced by students, particularly those who are mature-aged and studying at a distance, as they navigate the transition to higher education. From examining the engagement of mature distance students and their sense of belonging and interest, to investigating the emotional rollercoaster of a mature-aged student’s first semester, these studies offer valuable insights into the student experience. This part also addresses the impact of external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic on student well-being and engagement, highlighting the resilience and adaptability of students during unprecedented times. Through qualitative and mixed methods research, including innovative approaches like photo elicitation, the articles in this section provide a rich understanding of the first-year student experience. They underscore the importance of institutional support, the influence of emotions and personal circumstances, and the power of engagement in shaping student success. Publications: Journal articles: Kahu, E. R. (2012). From “loving it” to “freaking out” and back again: The engagement of a mature-aged distance student in their first semester at university. Refereed Proceedings of Doing Psychology: Manawatu Doctoral Research Symposium. https://mro-ns.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/4960 Kahu, E. R. (2014). Increasing the emotional engagement of first year mature-aged distance students: Interest and belonging The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 5(2),45‐55. https://doi.org/10.5204/intjfyhe.v5i2.231 Kahu, E. R., Ashley, N., & Picton, C. (2022). Exploring the complexity of first-year student belonging in higher education: Familiarity, interpersonal, and academic belonging . Student Success, 13(2), 10-20. https://doi.org/10.5204/ssj.2264 Kahu, E. R., & Picton, C. (2020). Using photo elicitation to understand first-year student experiences: Student metaphors of life, university and learning. Active Learning in Higher Education, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787420908384 Kahu, E. R., Stephens, C., Leach, L., & Zepke, N. (2013). The engagement of mature distance students. Higher Education Research & Development, 32(5), 791-804. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2013.777036 Kahu, E. R., Stephens, C., Leach, L., & Zepke, N. (2014). Linking academic emotions and student engagement: Mature-aged distance students’ transition to university. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 39(4), 481-497. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2014.895305 Kahu, E. R., Stephens, C., Zepke, N., & Leach, L. (2014). Space and time to engage: Mature-aged distance students learn to fit study into their lives. International Journal of Lifelong Learning, 33(4), 523-540. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2014.884177 Kahu, E. R., Thomas, H. G., & Heinrich, E. (2022). “A sense of community and camaraderie”: Increasing student engagement by supplementing an LMS with a Learning Commons Communication Tool. Active Learning in Higher Education, 25(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/14697874221127691 McKay, L., O’Bryan, S., & Kahu, E. R. (2021). “My uni experience wasn’t completely ruined”: The impacts of COVID-19 on the first-year experience. Student Success, 12(3), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.5204/ssj.1762 Picton, C., Kahu, E. R., & Nelson, K. (2018). “Hardworking, determined and happy”: First-year students’ understanding and experience of success. Higher Education Research and Development, 37(6), 1260-1273. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1478803 Picton, C., & Kahu, E. R. (2022). “I knew I had the support from them”: Understanding student support through a student engagement lens .Higher Education Research and Development, 41(6), 2034-2047. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2021.1968353 Conference Presentations: Kahu, E. R., Nelson, K. J., & Picton, C. (2016, 29 June-2 July). “I’m excited!” Student expectations prior to starting their first year at university. Paper presented at the Student Transitions Achievement Retention and Success (STARS) Conference. Perth, Australia. https://research.usc.edu.au/esploro/outputs/conferencePaper/Im-excited-Student-expectations-prior-to/99450312702621 Picton, C., Kahu, E. R., & Nelson, K. J. (2017, 2-5 July). Friendship supported learning – the role of friendships in first-year students’ university experiences. Paper presented at the Student Transitions Achievement Retention and Success (STARS) Conference. Adelaide, Australia. https://research.usc.edu.au/esploro/outputs/conferencePaper/Friendship-supported-learning--the-role/99450777002621?institution=61USC_INST

This special issue of Student Success celebrates the work of Professor Ella Kahu and her substantial contribution to the advancement of our collective understanding of student engagement. In June 2024 Professors Karen Nelson and Chi Baik, and Dr Cat Picton sat down with Ella for a reflective conversation about her work, and additional insights in her theorising and research on student experience and engagement. In this special issue, we present the interview transcript in three parts and showcase Ella’s key publications. Understanding student engagement has become essential for retention and success in higher education. This first part of the issue brings together three influential articles that have contributed to advancing our conceptualisation of student engagement. The first article, Framing Student Engagement in Higher Education (Kahu, 2013), offers a foundational review of prevailing perspectives on student engagement and proposing a comprehensive framework to address existing definitional and conceptual gaps. Building on this foundation, the second article by Ella and Karen Nelson, Student Engagement in the Educational Interface: Understanding the Mechanisms of Student Success (Kahu & Nelson, 2018) introduces the “educational interface”—a metaphor for the space where student and institutional factors interact, affecting engagement. This article refines our understanding of engagement by identifying key psychosocial constructs that mediate this interaction. The third article, Pathways to Engagement: A Longitudinal Study of the First-Year Student Experience in the Educational Interface, a collaborative study by Ella Kahu, Karen Nelson, and Catherine Picton, (Kahu et al., 2020) employs longitudinal research to trace the first-year student experience within this educational interface, providing empirical support for the framework and underscoring the importance of self-efficacy, belonging, emotions, and wellbeing in the engagement process. Together, these articles deepen our understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects of student engagement, providing educators and policymakers with insights to shape more effective engagement strategies. Journal articles: Kahu, E. R. (2013). Framing student engagement in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 38(5), 758-773. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.598505 Kahu, E. R., & Nelson, K. (2018) Student engagement in the educational interface: Understanding the mechanisms of student success. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(1), 58-71. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1344197 Kahu, E. R., & Picton, C., & Nelson, K. (2020). Pathways to engagement: A longitudinal study of the first-year student experience in the educational interface. Higher Education, 79(4), 657-673. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00429-w

This special issue celebrates the work of Professor Ella Kahu and her substantial contribution to the advancement of our collective understanding of student engagement. In June 2024 Professors Karen Nelson and Chi Baik, and Dr Cat Picton sat down with Ella for a reflective conversation about her work, and additional insights in her theorising and research on student experience and engagement. In this issue, we present the interview transcript and showcase Ella’s key publications from her early theorising on the student engagement framework, through her collaborations with Professor Karen Nelson and the development of the educational interface to a series of empirical articles, exploring different dimensions of the student experiences, including students’ expectations of university, student belonging and metaphors of learning and life. This special issue will take you on a journey of the evolving scholarship and practice of Professor Ella Kahu. Part One presents the conceptual foundations of the framework of student engagement. Part Two explores the first-year student experience. Part Three delves in to teaching practices that promote student engagement. This PDF is the full issue (Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

This special issue of Student Success celebrates the work of Professor Ella Kahu and her substantial contribution to the advancement of our collective understanding of student engagement. In June 2024 Professors Karen Nelson and Chi Baik, and Dr Cat Picton sat down with Ella for a reflective conversation about her work, and additional insights in her theorising and research on student experience and engagement. In this special issue, we present the interview transcript and showcase Ella’s key publications from her early theorising on the student engagement framework, through her collaborations with Professor Karen Nelson and the development of the educational interface to a series of empirical articles, exploring different dimensions of the student experiences, including students’ expectations of university, student belonging and metaphors of learning and life. This special issue takes us on a journey of the evolving scholarship and practice of Professor Ella Kahu. Part One presents the conceptual foundations of the framework of student engagement. Part Two explores the first-year student experience. Part Three delves in to teaching practices that promote student engagement.

The Academic Student Success Advising (ASSA) project enacted an integrated academic and pastoral approach to advising using McIntosh’s (2023) fundamental principles of advising. This research conducted at two Australian universities explores how shared principles of advising can provide an underpinning structure to pan-university advising approaches as a mechanism of student development. Forty staff were interviewed, exploring understandings and experiences of advising. Data were analysed through the four key advising themes: inclusive, personalised and integrated, developmental, and student-centred. The findings suggest that staff perceive value in integrated advising approaches that connect students’ academic and pastoral experiences through an ‘advising as teaching lens’ and that link areas of the university to enhance student success. Recommendations highlight the value of investing in staff understandings of advising to enhance student development, the intentional embedding of co-curricular skills, and the continued need to develop systems to track advising outcomes.

Belonging is critical to first-year student success and persistence in higher education. However, differing definitions make it challenging to fully understand why belonging is significant. Foregrounding student voice, this research explored how first-year Australian university students talked about their belonging. Using Kahu and Nelson’s (2018) framework of student engagement as a lens, 18 students were interviewed weekly throughout the year. Students talked about belonging in three distinct but interrelated ways: familiarity, interpersonal belonging, and academic belonging. While all were important for student wellbeing and engagement, academic belonging, students’ sense that university, their discipline, and courses were “right” for them, was critical for perseverance. Unlike interpersonal belonging which tended to build through the year, academic belonging fluctuated for many students. The findings suggest framing belonging merely as about relationships limits understanding of this important construct. Contributing to scholarship by bringing a refreshed perspective to the nuances and complexity of belonging, the research suggests higher education providers need to monitor and foster academic belonging in first-year students.

Teacher-student relationships (TSR) are an important influence on the student experience at university. Existing research, predominantly with lecturers, highlights that these relationships have academic and affective dimensions. Studies demonstrate good TSR increase student motivation, engagement, and learning. The current study adds a student voice to this topic, focussing on their views of tutoring staff, who undertake much of the face-to-face teaching in universities. The qualitative study followed 19 students through their first year at an Australian university. The students identified four characteristics of a ‘good’ tutor: helpful, caring, likeable, and hands-on. Students talked about multiple benefits of having a good tutor including increased help-seeking, studying harder, more interest in class, and improved well-being and belonging. The importance of the tutor role is underestimated and institutions would do well to better support these valuable staff.

Much has been written about the challenges faced by first year students at university. This paper adds to that literature by exploring student interest, known to be associated with persistence and learning. Using data from a qualitative study following 19 students through their first year at a regional Australian university, the paper examines the antecedents and consequences of student interest. Findings show the students’ existing individual interests and goals interact with the teaching environment to trigger situational interest. Situational interest then enhances behavioural and cognitive engagement and leads to better learning and grades. Perceived relevance of the learning task is shown to be a particularly important determinant of student interest. Students’ emotions, self-efficacy, and their sense of belonging are also important factors in explaining the links between student interest, the teaching environment, and student engagement.