Cât de “prezenţi” sunt studenţii la şcoală? Angajamentul academic al studenţilor din zona transfrontalieră Ungaria-România How “Present” are Students in School? Students’ Academic Engagement in Hungarian-Romanian Cross-border Region Section Studies

Abstract

The issue of school dropout is increasingly found in research conducted in all European countries. The increased interest for this subject is justified in terms of the European objectives for 2020. If we look closely to school dropout and we define it as the final step of a long process of disengagement, then the attention of researchers should also be directed to the analysis of levels of commitment, student attachment to school and student academic integration. One of the main difficulties encountered in studies addressing this topic is the conceptual definition. In this study we use several scales to measure academic engagement and we identify three dimensions of student’ engagement, based on the conceptualization found in the scientific literature. Using data from HERD research project conducted between 2011 and 2012 in Hungary-Romania cross-border region, this paper shows that there are differences between universities found in this region, and also differences regarding some individual characteristics of students. Our main result refers to the characteristics of students’ groups at the university level and we argue that engagement is a result of a continuous process, closely linked to the choice of academic paths. In the final section of the paper, there are presented the main limitations of the research and directions to be followed in future studies.