This discussion paper presents the rationale for basing the Irish National Student
Survey on widely used measures of student engagement and student satisfaction, the
National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Australasian Study of Student
Engagement (AUSSE). The first part of this paper briefly discusses the literature that
relates to the centrality and importance of engagement to student achievement and
outcomes in higher education. This is followed by a brief overview of the literature
pertaining to another central outcome in higher education, student satisfaction. The
second part of the paper outlines the rationale for basing the Irish National Student
Survey on the AUSSE and the steps that would be required to pretest the instrument
prior to full use in the Irish higher education sector.