As a former student at BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology), I can remember the transitional experience from grade school. Actually, following high school, I first attended university for two years, and failing in my second year in Engineering (I did not even qualify for Engineering in the first year; instead I began with general sciences which helped improve my grades to enter the Engineering faculty). Only with my post-secondary experience I understand the stress college bound students go through nowadays; hence, my reason and purpose as to my interest in this topic in question.
Going to college is big business, and the biggest investment next to buying property, especially for college bound students. Most students are inclined to overload on their course credits, thinking to rapidly complete the curriculum at once. Stress originates from their families at home to perform better, otherwise they receive negative emotional receptions about ending up in a working environment they do not wish to end up. Secondly, in class, stress begins with competition from their fellow students, who they fear shall regard them as an incompetent student, if they do not achieve higher standards. “Students report experiencing academic stress predictably, with the greatest sources of academic stress being found in taking and studying for exams and with respect to grade competition and the large amount of content to master in a small amount of time (Abouserie, 1994, Kohn and Frazer, 1986”. Finally, and similarly, students feel stress from the teachers, who they also fear would regard them as incompetent, and are intimidated to speak to their teachers regarding their school problems.
Stress has been a constant factor existing in our daily functioning (Holmes & Rahe, 1967; Viner, 1999). Students’ stress can also affect other’s environments besides their own, be they fellow students, friends or family members. Stress level surveys have been conducted on or off campus to voluntary students to determine what leading factors on a semester basis lead to elevated stress. One leading factor responsible to college student stress is the required workload.
PURPOSE
The purpose of the survey is to examine rising stress levels to students at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) in the Building Technology program, a 2-year technical diploma program in the School of Engineering. Such a category was chosen because it is the most demanding department as far as the heaviness of course workload.
Stress evaluations need to include extensive topics even if they seem unrelated to a topic at hand, because several factors lead to stress. General topics of what college students are asked on surveys include, but are not limited to, are:
- Age group
- Gender
- Ethnic background
- Faculty
- Program
- Weekly hours of study (hours devoted to each course)
- Weekly hours of socializing with friends
- Weekly hours exercising
- College accommodations
- Classification (1st year or 2nd year)
SAMPLE
Each different program has its own student capacity. The purpose of the survey is to examine rising stress levels to students in the School of Engineering Technology (2 year technical diploma). Such a category has been chosen because it is the most demanding department as far as the heaviness of course workload. Out of these departments, the surveys were distributed to correlate among age, stress frequency, and time allotted to weekly activities that is a common survey at BCIT.
A total of 125 surveys were sent to each student, to which 95 students have responded (76.0 %). This is roughly the number of students who have lasted full-time throughout the program). To render tracking results easier and consistent with students from diverse departments, the surveys were also only sent to full-time students. Part-time students would have been difficult to track conjunctively with full-time students, and stress levels would not be comparable.
As only a few strategically designed surveys cannot determine the stress level with increased course workloads, further organizational surveys need to be conducted. No single assessment can absolutely guarantee college stress levels, which swings to the conclusion that authorized organizational surveys of various governing boards provide accurate data. The greatest difficulty in obtaining data can be based on the willingness of college students to participate in stress surveys, and how honest they are willing to be with such surveys. Emotional attitudes toward colleges and their respective course programs in question could also determine the data collected. Introductorily, providing surveys to each class at the end of the year or semester (similar to course evaluations) shall improve stress results. Surveyors then shall be able to focus on the leading stress factors in order to assist faculties with better curricula and career preparation.
MEASURE
The surveys were distributed to post-graduate (or alumni) students who following completion of their programs and have passed and graduated within the optimal course time (the ideal program time allotted to each program). The results were collected by the BCIT Institutional Planning and Analysis Office which has assigned each student an identification number to ensure confidentiality. To provide ample time because of personal commitments, students were given up to 60 days to submit the completed surveys. Surveys were hand-delivered to each student with explicit instructions to answer each question and submit electronically. The survey consisted of 21 questions, each with stress-related categories, which the IPAO felt were the highest contributing factors to stress development. The survey results were collected based on each student’s attitude regarding the course load in each of their respective programs, plus the categories listed above entailing a student’s personal factors leading to stress.
DATA ANALYSIS VERSUS WRITTEN REPORTS
A few intense years of academic, or even practical, studies do not fully prepare students to be career ready, which add to other stress factors. Once graduating students begin their promised careers, they suddenly lack memory of what they studied endlessly learned. However, on a positive note, students whom have survived years of intense academic study, even though they did not exactly graduate with flying colors, they have proven to themselves their capability of learning, which is an important tool in the real world.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion to the contributing of college student stress levels, rather than collect data for routine evaluation over a number of general topics, each survey shall provide students with opportunities for improvement in course material and arrangement. Considering the workload students experienced over the years, it is no surprise the fine line among students ages have faces higher degrees of stress.
See graphs below for representation of the diverse students stress levels over a typical 2 year period in the Building Technology program:
WORK CITED
The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale. Understanding The Impacts Of Long Term Stress”. Volume 11, August 1967.
BCIT Student Outcome Reports For Full-Time Students. “Results For The 2008 – 2010 Surveys of the 2006 – 2008 Graduates”. August 2011.
Abouserie, R. (1994). Sources and levels of stress in relation to locus and control and self-esteem in university students. Educational Psychology, 14, 323 – 330.
