Do University Students Prefer to live in Boarding Places?

First K. Sarujan, Second P.Kogulraam, Third Wijesinghe J.K., Four th Gunathilaka H.L.M.P, and Fifth M.B.Mohanraj

Abstract - This study measures resident student analysis of on–campus & off-campus living and study environments including the Sri Lankan Institute of Information and Technology (SLIIT) residence and their activities to student academic performance. Data were obtained from a stratified random sample of resident students with hostels (individual dormitory) across Malabe and some parts of Colombo. Student perceptions of living and study environments were obtained from a survey. Inferences were made from the sample to the population concerning: student preference of the adequacy of the campus safety, and differences in preference between students living in old-style and new-style hostels and many more.

Keywords: stratified random sample, individual dormitory

I. INTRODUCTION

The research goal of our project is to identify whether the university students prefer to stay at boarding places or come from home. This report includes the details of how the survey was conducted and analysis and the statistics obtained. Three main methods were conducted, and in addition to the three, a minor online survey was also conduction for comparison purposes. The three main were, distribution of surveys, personal interviews and collection of data through telephone calls, the combination of these three results provided an answer to the question “Do university student prefer boarding places?”

II. OBJECTIVE

The research goal of our project is to identify whether the university students prefer to stay at boarding places or come from home. In order to achieve this certain research methods were chosen to obtain data from the specific sample. There were certain challenges faced while collecting data. We were limited to a certain area to be analyzed, so we had only a few ranges of hostels and boarding places available for our research to be conducted. There was also another challenge as some students were not willing to share their personal experiences with us for the research. Qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were chosen as we are interested in the experiences of the student who lives in the boarding places and we were intended to interpret statistical explanations.

To summarize the objective:

Why some students prefer and why some do not prefer hostels,

To find out the problems in hostel life, And are the students satisfied with the facilities.

\III. LIMITATION

The study is limited to those students receiving their tertiary education at the University of Colombo and SLIIT (malabe). First and the second year students can also be included in the study since they must have at least spent the first month in a boarding as to be able to give a good contribution of the prevailing conditions and to our questionnaires. Some surveys, questionnaire and several methodologies was designed to collect data from these students.

IV. LITERATURE REVIEW

There been a limited number of studies on this topic, but articles and website are spread all over the internet without a solid name of an author, therefore it is unable to be obtained due to the copyright law, and as well as the information provided on the internet might not be as well all true, therefore, we have not obtained any information about past researches on the topic “Do university students prefer to live in boarding places”.

V. METHODOLOGY

The research for the project on “Do University students prefer boarding” was conducted in two different methods to collect more accurate data, one was the questionnaire, and the other was the online poll method. Nowadays social media is filled with tons of people from different regions of our country, and we decided to get the opinion from them too so that a broader idea could be obtained on this field, therefore an online poll was made and the links to that poll were shared with many people, to do this, FACEBOOK was chosen as the social media. Facebook was chosen because of its popularity even around the rural areas of Sri Lanka. Data could have been collected internationally, but due to the lack of time, the research had to be restricted within Sri Lanka.The link to the poll was given to many people, and was posted on many groups in to get a clear picture of what students around the island think about staying in boarding.

The link was basically created using an online application on Facebook, which automatically generates a bar chart based on the number of people who has answered the questions. And the questions for the poll were initially made using EXCEL, and then transferred to the application, and finally shared among people.

When consider the questionnaires we can obtain more information than polls that is because we cannot expect every individual to have internet facilities so distributing feedback sheets will allow them to give their opinion.

The questionnaire consists of 13 multiple choice questions, and each has different sets of answers (mostly 5). Distribution of questionnaire was a difficult task due to the fact that limited number of students lived in a hostel, and they could not be identified properly. Many people had to be met and spoken before handing over the questionnaire.

We also had to visit one of our friends (boy) hostel to distribute the questionnaire among them, and since a girl’s hostel could not be visited, one of our friend’s help had to be taken to distribute the questions.

Due to this lacking factor, the above mentioned online poll has to be made too to collect more statistical data on the research.

A. Qualitative methods

This type of research methods involve describing in details specific situation using research tools like interviews, surveys, and observations. It focuses on gathering of mainly verbal data rather than measurements. The qualitative research technique we chose is face to face interview with the university students who reside in a boarding place as well as student who come from home. We chose to use the face to face interviews with the students so that we can directly interact with them and find out what they prefer according to their experiences, boarding places or travelling from homes.

We prepared a few structural questions based on the research topic to interview the students and we gathered data from the information given by them. The questions were simple and based on the student life in the boarding places and their experiences and challenges faced while in a boarding place.

B. Quantitative methods

This type of research methods requires measurable data involving numerical and statistical explanations. Quantitative analysis hinges on researchers understanding the assumptions inherent within different statistical models. It generates numerical data or information that can be converted into numbers. The presentation of data is through tables containing data in the form of numbers and statistics. The quantitative method we used was giving out questionnaires to the university students with specific questions that helped us collect the sample for the

statistical analysis.

The questionnaire we produced had answers for the students to choose from. We handover the questionnaire forms to random number of students and they choose the answers and tick them. Using these data we can create statistical analysis and proceed with the research and present the conclusions.

VI. ANALYSIS

The research, as mentioned was done in three different methods, distribution of Questionnaires, online polls, and over the phone. Through these methods, information were collected from more than 100 people overall, and these information were analyzed, and Microsoft Excel was used to draw bar charts.

Bar charts are one of the most essential ways of analyzing data related to numbers since a direct comparison can be obtained.

By analyzing the data obtained from the survey (questionnaire 1): (questionnaire had to be done twice due to the lack of data)

The number of males answered were, 32, and females answered were 10 (Since the group was unable to go into girl’s hostels, data were collected through phone calls, therefore only a limited number were obtained).

Out of 32 males, 24 males live in boarding, and out of 10 females, 6 live in boarding.

Out of the 24 males, 23 prefers boarding, and out of 6 female, 4 prefer boarding.

From the analysis (total), 28 students prefer boarding due to the fact that is easy to travel from university to boarding or vice versa. 10 students vote that they get more time to study in boarding, 3 vote towards freedom, and 7 were unanswered.

Cost wise (cost of living) majority of the students (48%) say it is manageable, 12% say it is hard to manage, and 26 % say it is fair.

The environment for studies is much suitable says 28 students (majority), 4 says no.

The buildings are well maintained says 24 students, and 10 says negatively.

From this analysis, a conclusion could be drawn that “students prefer boarding more than homes”. But due to the fact that just one results is not suitable enough, many samples were taken, and results given below.

By analyzing the data obtained from the survey (questionnaire 2): (questionnaire had to be done twice due to the lack of data)

A total of 92 people were surveyed.

Out of the total, 75 people stay in boarding and 17 do not.

When asked whether they like to stay in boarding, 50 of them answered yes, and 42 of them answered no.

Majority of the people (46) answered that staying in hostel is because of the travelling difficulty, and then the second was that people get more time to study (41 answered).

In this survey too, majority of the people said that the living cost is fair to manage.

65 people have roommates to avoid loneliness.

From analysis online polls (Extra work to gather more data), it was able to obtain more data and reach a more solid conclusion.

Collected from online polls gives a brief idea of what students think about boarding.

From the total majority of the students prefer to stay at home

And 28 people have voted towards having a roommate, this is due to the fact to avoid loneliness.

And 23 have voted that boarding is fairly manageable.

After the individual analysis, a total and a final analysis (from second surey) was done and the results are as below.

A. Overall analysis (sample size : 92 )

B. Analysis BOYS’ results

C. Analysis GIRLS’ results

D. Reasons for students’ preference

VII. CONCLUSION

From the analyzed data, the conclusion which could be drawn is, people live in boarding because of minor problems such as travelling long distances and time allocation (get more time to study).If not for these minor problems, they would prefer home as a medium of shelter.

Out of overall students, most of the students living at home prefer to stay at boarding places.

And overall students living at boarding places prefer to stay at boarding places.

Majority of boys living at home prefer to live at boarding places.

Majority of Girls living at home prefer to live at boarding places.

Majority of boys living at boarding places also prefer to live at boarding places.

Majority of Girls living at boarding places DO NOT PREFER to live at boarding places.

The answer for “Do University students prefer boarding” is YES they do , but because of the minor problems such that as mentioned, hostel life seems a bit harder than home.

VIII. RECOMMENDATION

Students do not like to live in hostel, but due to some factors such as travelling and to gain more study time, they tend to live in hostels, but yet, students love to be at their homes more than hostel.

So we recommend:

Hostels that allow visitors, Hostels without limitations such as electricity and water

supply, Hostels with proper maintenances, Hostels with calm and clean environments, Hostels closer to campus.

CONTRIBUTION TO THE SOCIETY THROUGH THIS PROJECT

We can inform the boarding owners to maintain their boardings on time,

We can motivate students to stay in boardings by batch meetings.

ACKNOWLEGMENT

We owe a grate gratitude to Mrs. Niranga Amarasingha for encouraging our efforts and giving feed backs on our research without which we would have not done this research successfully.

We are particularly in debt to our friends who helped us distribute our survey forms within the campus.

In addition, we would also like to thank the students who agreed to spend their precious time on answering our survey forms.

Finally, we would like to thank our parents who supported us and stood by our sides through the hard time and encouraged us by giving hope on this research.

REFERENCE