The impact of student engagement within a university setting: a social exchange perspective

Abstract

The growing significance of the Australian tertiary education sector (Ibisworld, 2010) has created a number of managerial challenges facing higher learning institutes. This manuscript provides a conceptual framework encapsulating how student-university relationships can be modeled and the impact this is likely to have upon the range of outcomes stemming from the relationship. By drawing upon social exchange theory (Thibaut & Kelly, 1959) and in particular tapping emotional value (Barlow & Maul, 2000) it is proposed that current student interactions with the university can predict future intentions. By drawing upon these conceptual areas this research outlines a potential new direction for research into how services marketing literature within the context of the higher education sector can be modeled. This has a wide number of managerial and scholarly implications and a number of these are discussed.