Impact of hostel students' satisfaction on their academic performance in Sri Lankan universities: an empirical study in two universities in eastern province

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of hostel students' satisfaction on their academic performance in Sri Lankan Universities. On one hand, the study identifies the components of hostel satisfaction related with academic performance and on the other hand the positive relationship between the hostel students' satisfaction and their academic performance. The study focused on seven (7)dimensions related to hostel students' satisfaction and one dimension (Grade Point Average) related to their academic performance. The selected sample for the study contained 367 final year hostel students from two universities in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka using random sampling method. A questionnaire survey was administered during a one month period from 10t h April 2013 to 9t h May 2013. The level of measuring variables was interval and the relevant statistical techniques for these measures were univariate analysis, vicariate analysis and independent samples t-test.

Data analysis was conducted by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Eight hypotheses were tested to assess the empirical relationships among variables.

The overall average hostel student's satisfaction was 3.29 with significantly greater P values and the average GPA of the hostel students was 3.054 with significantly greater than the normal pass. Looking at the overall association among the variables it was observed that there is a weak positive correlation between the student's GPA and overall satisfaction factors (R = 0.119). Consequently, a factor analysis was carried out. Subsequently, factors such as accommodation, food, safety and security, library Facilities and inmate cooperation were found to be significantly influencing hostel student's academic performance as measured by their GPA. Finally, these findings may lead to making some recommendations to improve the present level of satisfaction of students in hostels which might lead to an increase in their academic performance. Therefore, this study attempts to bring a validated framework to inform a suitable university accommodation policy for the Sri Lankan universities.