Measuring academic engagement among university students in Romania during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many aspects of personal and professional development, outlining different unprecedented behavioural changes among diverse age population, worldwide. In the context of the lockdown restrictions, the aim of the present study was to explore the extent to which emergency states and higher institutions closure affected academic engagement among studying youth. In this direction, data were collected from 227 undergraduate students (N=227) enrolled in different fields of study in public universities in Romania. The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students (UWES-9S) (Schaufeli et al., 2006) was used to assess Romanian students’ academic involvement in the particular context of remote learning imposed by coronavirus outbreak. An additional open question was introduced in the present study, to analyse personal experiences and activities undertaken by students during the stay-at-home period. The main findings of our research were discussed in relation with students’ average degree of academic engagement, the psychometric properties assessment, the resilience stories and its effects on students’ mental health and academic involvement. Emphasis was given to a deeper understanding of students’ responsiveness and proactiveness concerning behavioural, cognitive, and emotional engagement in their remote academic learning and non academic life.