ACADEMIC RESILIENCE AND STUDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The current study, which was confined to Rawalpindi and Islamabad in Pakistan, focused on and compared students' levels of academic resilience (AR) and student engagement (SE) as well as the difference between those levels in Public and Private HEIs. Survey data was gathered using the Academic Resilience Scale (ARS- 30) and the Students' Engagement Scale. The sample was chosen using stratified random sampling, which divided the population into Public and Private HEIs. A sample of undergraduates from the Department of social sciences (DSS) was chosen. Descriptive and inferential analyses were used for data analyses. The study's findings showed that undergraduate students at HEIs, both public and private, had significant levels of AR and SE. Additionally, there was no statistically significant difference between undergraduate AR levels at public and private HEIs. The levels of SE in public and private HEIs were found to be significantly different.