This article explores how an integrated concept map of student engagement could improve its use in higher education (HE). In doing so it addresses three problems: (1) there is no consistently accepted understanding of student engagement; (2) no meta-theory integrates engagement's diverse and complex concepts, nor does the literature identify a clear process of what triggers engagement; and (3) no integrated concept map that addresses these problems is available. The first problem is rooted in diverse research perspectives that prevent a widely accepted understanding. The second is tackled by using George Ritzer's meta-theory of social analysis that helps integrate the subject matter of engagement and Jack Mezirow's transformative learning theory (TLT) that explains what triggers engagement and disengagement. The third difficulty is addressed by combining meta theory and TLT to offer for discussion an integrative concept map of this complex construct.