The engagement–capability gap in higher education: evidence from UK and Türkiye students

Purpose This study examines students’ self-reported digital and soft skills, together with learning-related communication practices in higher education, and explores whether these profiles differ by programme and year of study in the United Kingdom and Türkiye. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from the United Kingdom (N = 85) and Türkiye (N = 122). Items captured learning resource use, communication practices, digital skills (DigComp 2.2-aligned) and soft skills on 5-point Likert scales. Differences across domains were examined using Friedman tests (Kendall’s W). Associations were examined using Spearman correlations with 95% confidence intervals. Item-level group differences by programme/year were tested using the Kruskal–Wallis test with BH–FDR correction; significant items were followed by Dunn post-hoc tests (BH–FDR). Findings Students reported high engagement with digitally mediated learning resources and communication but lower confidence in organising digital resources, digital collaboration, creating/editing content, protecting personal data and problem-solving. After BH–FDR correction, no year-of-study differences remained significant, and only 1 of the 21 item-level programme comparisons remained significant, limited to video-call use in the United Kingdom; effect sizes were otherwise small to moderate. Across samples, face-to-face interaction remained the highest-rated mode of learning. Future research should replicate these patterns across more institutions and incorporate performance-based digital tasks to assess applied capability. Originality/value This study provides cross-contextual evidence of an engagement–capability gap in higher education, the UK and Türkiye samples. Students report engaging in digitally mediated study practices but have lower confidence in their digital skills. The findings support scaffolded, curriculum-embedded digital production tasks and performance-based measures to assess capability.