A Survey of Students to Identify and Categorize Issues Contributing to Student Satisfaction as Related to Academic Retention and Social Integration
Sean Buenaventura, John Buss, and Supajee Laopanich
by BetterSurf" style="background-color: transparent !important; border: none !important; display: inline-block !important; float: none !important; font-style: normal !important; font-variant: normal !important; font-weight: normal !important; font-size: 14px !important; line-height: normal !important; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif !important; height: auto !important; margin: 0px !important; min-height: 0px !important; min-width: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: baseline !important; width: auto !important; text-decoration: underline !important; background-position: initial initial !important; background-repeat: initial initial !important;">Bangkok University International College
Abstract
Central to understanding the nature of retention and attrition is discovering the key issues that affect the level of satisfaction with the college. This research looked at the factors that may affect student retention by collecting data from a survey of student satisfaction among Bangkok University International College students. Interviews were conducted with 22 second-year students from the 2008 batch of entrants selected using purposive sampling. The result of the survey is a list of issues which is then categorized to assist in creating workable frameworks for predicting and improving student retention specifically for the institution in question.
Keywords: Retention, Student Satisfaction, Social Integration
1. Introduction
Retention is a continuous, widespread concern of colleges and universities worldwide. A high rate of attrition can hurt an institution’s bottom line. The growth, sustenance, and ultimate survival of these institutions are determined by having a higher number of new enrollees and persisting students over the number of dropouts and stopouts. Exactly how to maintain that sustainable ratio continues to baffle academics and administrators alike. While there have been many suggested approaches, Tinto’s theory is perhaps most commonly referred to. Having its origins from Durkheim’s theory of suicide, Tinto’s Social Integration Theory proposed that a student’s persistence in a certain educational institution is determined by two main factors: academic integration and social integration. For faculty administrators, this suggests that their retention efforts place much of their focus on the two factors mentioned above.
Any long-term study of student retention—and attrition—would require many preceding steps to be taken. One of these consists of determining the students’ satisfaction with the institution. In their study of Tinto’s theory, Liu and Liu (2000) have shown satisfaction to be a major determinant of student persistence. It may be considered an integral part of any retention campaign to measure satisfaction. This goes without saying that satisfaction is not the only factor that predicts retention, and since retention is the ultimate goal, other factors such as individual student competency, student-faculty relationships, and family/financial support also have to be looked into. For this study, attention is focused on the level of satisfaction among students.
2. Objectives
1) To identify the issues that cause students’ satisfaction / dissatisfaction with the institution.
2) To initiate a list of satisfaction issues among the students.
3. Research Questions
1) What are some of the issues that cause students to be less than satisfied with the institution?
2) Can a list be made of these issues and the issues categorized to assist in the further study of student satisfaction?
4. Literature Review
Liu and Liu (2000) examined the impact of social and academic integration on college students’ satisfaction and retention in the theoretical context of Tinto. Results showed that academic integration, social integration and academic performance all had positive influences on student satisfaction (with social integration as the most influential factor). Academic integration, academic performance and student satisfaction all influenced student retention and persistence. Social integration was not significant, however. Liu and Liu offer two definitions of social integration to clarify this point. One definition of social integration is the “absence of estrangement and alienation” which is presumed to be “positively associated with persistence.” Yet, when defined in terms of “frequencies of social interaction” with others, the “relationship between persistence and social integration is not necessarily positive.” Neither gender, age, nor ethnicity showed any impact on either satisfaction or retention.
McKay and Estrella (2008) did a study on whether academic and social integration were enhanced for students who took a course in a community service training program which was given by the faculty. Results seem to suggest that the training program could well do so, given that much interaction takes place between the students and the faculty members (conducting the course). Ultimate success relies on academic and social integration, both of which could be determined wholly or partially by communication between said parties. Their results also indicate a strong relationship between the quality of the interaction and the students’ belief about achieving their academic goals.
Tinto (1997) explored a special program of Seattle Central Community College. Called the Coordinated Studies Program (CSP), its aim was to give its students a different kind of classroom experience by linking courses to one another based on some theme rather than the traditional system of separated, individual courses with no significant links to other courses. The other aspect of the CSP is fostering a collaborative environment by having the students learn interdependently. Still in the realm of student persistence, this study redirects attention to the importance of the classroom experience in terms of retaining students. While a great deal of effort in student retention programs deal with the issues outside the classroom (student affairs), this focuses on the issues within the classroom. Research into the CSP showed significant differences in terms of satisfaction with the learning environment, as students enrolled in the special program had a greater amount of satisfaction than those enrolled in the conventional course curriculum.
Kanfer et al. (2010) looked at how to predict academic and job performance by testing college students’ cognitive ability (verbal, numerical and spatial) and non-ability traits (personality, motivations, interests, self-assessment). Both were found to be important predictors of academic performance. Their study, though not directly related to this one, is good to consider for conducting research on the subject of retention.
5. Research Methodology
5.1 Procedure
Purposive sampling was used to select the key informants. The list of students chosen for the interviews was compiled from a survey held previously among this batch of students asking them of their overall experience at the institution. Those who responded being less than happy about studying at the institution were shortlisted and invited to come in for individual interviews. Interviews were conducted with 22 second-year students, 12 males and 10 females from various majors of our faculty which is part of a private university. All were from the batch of 2008 entrants. Every respondent was interviewed by one faculty member. Questions were semi-structured and open-ended. Each was asked about their feelings of being a student at the institution and for any specific examples they could offer. The interviewer, a faculty member of the institution, also asked them about any particular problems or concerns they were having (if any) at the institution. Interviews were conducted in Thai for Thai students and in English for international students. Each interview took about 15 to 20 minutes. From the data, a table was created using keywords and issues that were categorized as either positive or negative (Refer to Table 1 in Results).
5.2 Data Analysis
Data that was transcribed in Thai was translated into English. The translation of the data from Thai to English presented some potential concerns when it came to pointing out key ideas and deciding on keywords. First, a list was made of the ideas given by the respondents. From that list, redundancies were identified along with any similar terms that could be merged into clearer, workable ideas. Great care had to be taken in obtaining specifics out of general issues but without getting too specific. For example, when a respondent says that she is not happy overall with the institution, it is necessary to figure out exactly why. If she reveals that she is unhappy because of a certain part-time instructor, consideration would have to be made of the general issue of relying heavily on part-time instructors instead of focusing on specific attributes of the person in question. Therefore, when composing a questionnaire, it would be necessary to present ideas that are specific enough yet applicable to the greater majority of targeted respondents.
One could point out that perhaps not all key terms and factors are necessarily positive or negative. Furthermore, what may be positive for one person might be negative for another or vice versa. While this may be so in certain instances, and taking into consideration that there could be some risk in deciding unilaterally which goes where, it was imperative for the purpose of the study to make the categorization. Academic or social issues that are neutral are not issues at all and are therefore of no help to the study, assuming that such are of no significant consequence. These only become important once they are labeled either positive or negative. It is necessary to discover which issues are of real concern, meaning the most common and gravest causes of dissatisfaction among students. Aside from the negatives, it is equally important to find their opposites in order to shed light onto the respondents’ overall view and experience. Here, the assumption has been made therefore that no one is totally satisfied nor completely dissatisfied.
6. Results
A qualitative approach was taken to analyzing the data. A total of 18 different issues were listed, such as: Low English level for some Thai instructors, Teaching with slides only but no further explanation, Instructor bias in favor of foreign students over T
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