(2010 figures from the Directorate Institutional Research and Planning, UFS). Lecturers were also invited to voluntarily complete an anonymous questionnaire online or in printed format.
Questionnaire survey The questionnaires, based on recommended guidelines,[13] were available in Afrikaans and English, the languages of instruction at UFS, where a parallel language policy is followed.[14] Undergraduate students’ and lecturers’ perceptions regarding statements about Generation Y students were determined employing a modified 4-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = agree; 4 = strongly agree). For reporting purposes, responses 1 and 2 were grouped together to indicate disagreement, and responses 3 and 4 to indicate agreement with statements.
The questionnaires for students and lecturers were similar, with the exception of the sections on demographic and personal information. Pilot study A pilot study included 10 third-year students and two lecturers from the Schools of Medicine, Allied Health Professions and Nursing, respectively. No changes to the questionnaires were required after the pilot study. Data analysis Statistical analysis of quantitative data was done by a biostatistician using the SAS programme[15] to calculate frequencies and percentages for the categorical variables and means, and standard deviations or percentiles as appropriate for the numerical variables. Associations between categorical variables were determined using contingency tables with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the differences in percentages and chi-square tests or Fisher’s exact tests where the expected numbers in the cells of tables were small. A p-value