Data Project

Data Project: Impact of Weekly Work Hours and Sense of Belonging on College Satisfaction Author’s Name The Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Instructor Name Assignment Due Date Introduction This data project aims to assess the impact of two key factors, namely sense of belonging and working hours per week, on students’ satisfaction with the campus. The study is useful for administrative and policy levels as it highlights the role of belonging, and it encourages the universities to promote programs and resources to maximize the support at academic and emotional levels to promote engagement and retention. At the same time, the potential impact on working hours or poor work-study balance pushes policymakers to establish a support mechanism to reduce the students’ socioeconomic barriers to improve their satisfaction with study and minimize the dropouts or poor academic performance outcomes. The research question guiding this project is stated below: RQ: ‘How do work hours and sense of belonging relate to students’ satisfaction with campus?’ Literature Review Considerable empirical evidence suggests that students with a stronger sense of connectedness or belonging are likely to outperform those who feel more detached in terms of academic performance (Krause-Levy et al., 2021). The relationship between sense of belonging and performance is largely mediated by students’ engagement level and the enjoyment they derive from such engagement, indicating an overall higher level of satisfaction. Besides, belonging-induced satisfaction also tends to translate into comparatively higher levels of retention (Pedler et al., 2021). Hence, the students who feel connected are likely to be more satisfied with their campus than their counterparts with lower levels of connectedness. On the other hand, the intensity of socioeconomic hurdles, which is one of the key determinants of students’ engagement with part-time work, is found to be negatively associated with students’ engagement and satisfaction. For example, Nurmalitasari et al. (2023) have highlighted that more than 48% dropouts are linked to the students’ busy schedule, showing that the socioeconomic barriers remain a key determinant of students’ retention. In the same vein, Nguyen et al. (2024) bridge the gaps between the socioeconomic struggle and mental health, stating that parental income is among the main factors that affect self-efficacy, performance, and satisfaction of the students. Although the role of working hours is not specifically stated in the study, it implies that students with a poor socioeconomic status are expected to work more to cover their fees, which negatively affects their mental health and academic performance. Methods The data is obtained through a student survey considering 45 variables (some of them are outcome and other predictor variables) prominently including college satisfaction, campus behaviour, student demographics, and key experience...