Student engagement and its value and significance, and its effects on student and institutional outcomes have been extensively explored over many decades. In developed countries, student engagement policies are well-established and implemented at institutional levels.

According to MBA Razia Isaeva there are observable dynamics of student-academia relationships in the post-Soviet countries, exploration of which can enhance the current knowledge on student engagement. Nevertheless, Isaeva points out that the studies in developed countries are contextually different from many of the post-Soviet countries.

– The notable lack of empirical data on how student engagement is organized within higher education institutions in post-Soviet regions makes its development and impact unknown, Isaeva explains.

Isaeva’s study creates value by revealing student engagement in depth in a new context. She investigates the state of student engagement with in-class and out-of-class activities.

She aimed to explore and understand how student engagement enhances student outcomes, how institutional factors impact student engagement, and how student engagement varies across institutions and disciplines in contextually different countries. Furthermore, she studied how students perceive that their experiences could be improved and how an institution could facilitate their participation in quality assurance.

Student engagement is contextual, dynamic and situational

Student engagement can take many forms depending on the way it is positioned in the institution’s mission statement and vision due to its dynamic and situational character.

– It makes student engagement vary across countries, universities, majors, and years of study.

Isaeva states that student learning and development are impacted by institutional variations in finances, human resources, ownership, leadership, and student positioning in the institution’s mission statement.

Students are not accepted as partners in improving the quality

Institutions treat students as informants and demonstrate resistance in accepting them as partners. Isaeva’s studies show that students are not treated equally when it comes to participating in assuring quality.

– It is important that there is consistency in the way students are informed of the results of such participation, Isaeva clarifies.

Such an attitude makes students less sceptical and ignorant of engagement in quality assurance. This issue emerges more critically in post-Soviet universities, where students engaged in the quality assurance process remain a formality.

Information on the public examination

The academic dissertation Student engagement in the post-soviet university: The current state and prospects in post-Soviet countries – Azerbaijan and Estonia by MBA Razia Isaeva will be publicly examined in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lapland on Friday 4th of October at 12 noon in lecture hall D156.

The opponent is Professor Erkko Sointu, University of Eastern Finland, and the custos is Professor Satu Uusiautti, University of Lapland.

The language of the public defence is English.

The public defence can be followed online at https://blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi/ulapland

Information on the doctoral candidate

Razia Isaeva received her MBA degree and BA in International Economic Relations from Khazar University, Baku, Azerbaijan. She has been trained extensively in Western countries, UK, and the United States. She received part of her doctoral degrees at the University of Tallinn, Estonia, and Middlesex University, UK.

She has worked in higher education for more than 20 years, teaching subjects such as management, organizational behaviour, human resource management, creativity, and innovation, and holding top-level administrative positions, managing multi-million international projects.

Further information
Razia Isaeva, risayeva(at)khazar.org; +994506707874

Information on the publication

Razia Isaeva (2024) Student engagement in the post-soviet university: The current state and prospects in post-Soviet countries – Azerbaijan and Estonia. Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 386. ISBN 978-952-337-443-0, ISSN 1796-6310. University of Lapland, Rovaniemi.

Permanent address of the electronic publication: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-337-443-0