UEL Student Issues - Essay Example

?What problems do UEL expect to have in their future professional careers and what are their plan to over come it? Introduction This report looks at what problems UEL student expect to have in their future professional careers and what are their plans to over come them? It will gather data from UEL student and analyse it in more depth. The above question analyses two parts of the research. The first part analyses the data generated from the small scale. The second part includes a personal development plan showing how and to what extent studying for the degree has been beneficial to me as a student. The reason for this is because by being in the corporate market students will be capable to link their responsibilities at work with what they will be learn during their degree course. Today’s technology is significantly changing the way Universities teach and how students learn. There are great possibilities for the academic institutions with change in equipping graduates in competing in knowledge economy. Witte &Steijn (245–264.) describes that; students who want to do Master studies should have work experience before doing so. Dale et al.(1998) shows the other reason is that working before taking on degree builds student’s self confidence and determination for them to take up the studies in order to improve their working skills. In certain areas of work, using a more practical approach and having acquired work experience enables one to have a competitive edge in the job market. Andrea (2010) shows having a working experience is necessary because it is true that some skills may never be taught in a classroom but are acquired though working experience. Methodology In my research I have decided to choose interview and questionnaire. Questionnaires method is one of the most popular concepts of conducting research because it’s easily filled and straightforward. However interview is more complex to analysis as it’s challenging to code and produce graph and chart to display the results. This type of method focuses on conversation between both the interviewee and the interviewer. (Rosemary 2009) quantitative questionnaire and qualitative interview research are the selected data collection methods. The difference between both methods is information to be collected in-depth and the other generated statistics. The questionnaire was simple and it started with few closed questions. The questionnaire was designed in a simplistic fashion. It consists of multiple questions in order to reflect the main aspects, which are; retrieving the demographics and the prospect of student aspect, the problems student would encounter in the future and finally plans and measures student would undertake to improve the chance of employability and reduce risks. The questionnaire was given out to student in my seminar and also in the library of UEL. To analyse the data gathered from the questionnaire will be coded and inputted into Microsoft Excel (Kothari 2001). Consequently the data will be integrated into graphs, tables and charts in order to assess and compare against each other. Interview was conducted after the quantitative data collection in order to gain more qualitative insight the issue. The interview process was subjected to trial to prevent any issue up rising. In order to exclude this, a passive interview method was executed. One to one method of research will be conducted where both interview and the interviewee exclusively focus on the topic being researched (Kahn and Cannel, 1957). The interview was conducted at the same manner as the questionnaire. The reason for using this method is because it’s informal, it also takes less time to process data and it is flexible to use. Holliday (2007) puts it that this method is also effective as there is no moderation or control of data collection environment. Interview is also effective as it provided interactive features if the interviewer had appropriate technology. Personal interaction with the respondent is also beneficial as they feel more relaxed and candid to give beneficial information. Sampling Both the methods have different sampling structures, questionnaires focuses on what student think about university with stratified sampling. The samples would allow me to analyse the student attitudes and behaviour toward their future. On the other hand the interview will be done through quota sampling because it’s non-random and I have selected few students to participate in my interview. Kotler et al. (2007) shows the major factors considered include timeframe, the budget, sample size, the accuracy of data collected and its complexity. Most students leave their contact information with their Universities and therefore they can easily be contacted. These surveys have a great response level since it is easy, faster and cost effective. Surveys are useful in describing characteristics of a large population and there is no better method that provides general capability. The method is also flexible as it can be administered to various locations. Surveys require one to have a large sample size in order to make the results statistically significant to the researcher. Kothari (2001) describes that the researcher is also not limited to the questions they are to ask the respondents. The researcher is also able to interact with the student and this gives the respondent confidence and they feel free to answer and criticise University in case there is a problem they have noted. (Creswell 2003) Interaction also enables the respondent to understand that their information. Surveys need the researcher to have standardised questions making the data collection method more precise (Daivadeenam 2002). Findings Q1 This graph shows that both genders took part in the questionnaire, analysing the future problems that both genders would face in their career. The chart shows half of the student who took part was males and the other females. This chart indicate weather they are confident to get their career job. 57% of the students who participated in the survey responded they are confident and able to secure their career job after graduation. Possibly this is due to fact that student seek internship to gain experience. 34%of the studentsresponded they are not confident.The result suggests majority of UEL student have targets specified. Therefore the result relatively makes it easier in order to comprehend effective and authentic replies from the students. Compare this to the chart below that shows there are more students who are in their final year who took part in the survey, which indicates they show more enthusiasms in their careers then others. This chart shows the current years of students who are participating in the questionnaire. The result shows those students who are in final year participated more in the survey. Out of the 30 students who took part 50% of students said they were in final year and 30% of students said there are in first year of university followed by 20% who was in their second year. It could be argued that student who are in their first year thing about their career paths and Student who are in their final year have to concentrate on finding the right jobs. Thus the students who are in second year find it challenging to keep with pressure and some consider forsaking studying or changing courses. Both charts specifically look at student interpretations on their university (UEL) as well as looking into what would restrict them from prospering in their career. The chart on the left strongly indicates 76% of students said UEL gives them better position in the job market while 23% of students said UEL doesn’t give them adequate education nor a chance in their career. Again on the second chart (right) we can see that 46% of students said after graduating, the job market is their main barriers of pursuing their career. Arguably UEL is ranked low in universities chart in the UK, this worries students future prospects as employers get more demanding due to the current financial crises, students on the other hand as well as considering the grades, and graduates from higher ranking universities. 23% students also said competition and inexperience was their main barriers. The reason behind this would surely be employers are looking for a way to reduce recruitment processes to save money also high unemployment and student who has enhanced education such as Master or PHD has an influence on student’s careers. 4%of students said that other issues limit them such as going to take a gap year and traveling. Lastly, I wanted to get an overview on what student in UEL are planning in their next step after they graduate. As the chart shows out of the 30 students 53% of them said they would get into employment after they graduate.This might be because students feel that they developed the necessary knowledge and qualification to be employed. 30% students opted to continue with their education further in order to be more appealing to employers. While 10% said they will look for internship to gain more skills and 16% opted others path such as any paid jobs. Read More