The study found that 78.9% of the students graduated, however, 66.8% of them was completed within a planned schedule. It was found that female students graduated at a higher rate than males. While students from the Northeast of Thailand, where the university located, finished only 66.4%. Moreover, only one third of students, enrolled in non-regular program, graduated. Students of science and technology programs and Nongkhai Campus graduated at the lower rate 56.6% and 59.8%, respectively. Analysis of the relationship between student personal factors and graduation, such as gender, home region, high school grade point average, admission system, study program, and studied faculty, all related statistically to the graduation at the 0.01 level of significance.
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PERSONAL FACTORS AND GRADUATION OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF KHON KAEN UNIVERSITY IN ACADEMIC YEARS 2003-2012 Mr Somphot Thinpru somthi1@kku.ac.th Mr Supap Chaiya chaisupap@kku.ac.th Mrs Netnapa Janejaroen cnetna@kku.ac.th Miss Natwadee Patoombal natp@kku.ac.th Miss Piranut Aimthong piraai@kku.ac.th Miss Phawadee Anusuren amonruedee@kku.ac.th Mrs Jurairat Sirimungmoon sjurairat@kku.ac.th Miss Nutchanat Phanturaj nucpun@kku.ac.th Bureau of Academic Administration and Development, Khon Kaen University, Thailand Abstract Student graduation is an important indicator of an achievement of academic curriculum management of higher education institutes Delayed graduation will affect the academic budget, time and planning Therefore, the relationships between admission systems and graduation of undergraduate students of Khon Kaen University (KKU), during academic years 2003-2012, was studied The purpose is to study the relationship between personal factors and graduation of undergraduate students enrolled in 2003-2012 academic years at the KKU Secondary academic data set of 53,277 full-time students, retrieved from the student enrolment system, was analysed by using simple statistics and Chi-Square test The study found that 78.9% of the students graduated, however, 66.8% of them was completed within a planned schedule It was found that female students graduated at a higher rate than males While students from the Northeast of Thailand, where the university located, finished only 66.4% Moreover, only one third of students, enrolled in non-regular program, graduated Students of science and technology programs and Nongkhai Campus graduated at the lower rate 56.6% and 59.8%, respectively Analysis of the relationship between student personal factors and graduation, such as gender, home region, high school grade point average, admission system, study program, and studied faculty, all related statistically to the graduation at the 0.01 level of significance Key words: Graduation Analysis, Khon Kaen University, Personal Factors, Relationship 592 Introduction Higher education is important for the country to develop graduates ready to work in all fields Those graduates must be qualified and potential and meet the needs of both regional and international societies and in line with the National Economic and Social Development Plan in order to develop the country sustainability One of the major problems in the production of graduates of higher education institutions is the educational waste by dropping out of the students due to the resignation and due to the fact that students cannot graduate caused by poor grades and it also takes more time to complete the course This is a waste of time, money and planning for higher education institutions There are a number of undergraduate students at Khon Kaen University who not graduate each year This is a waste of education in no small amount, in both budget, time and management which may not meet the projected target The problem is urgent for the university to tackle in order to drive the university's development strategy to achieve its goals effectively Therefore, the study of the correlations between the personal factors and the graduation of undergraduate students was conducted The research objective was to study the relationships between personal factors and graduation of undergraduate students, enrolled in 2003-2012 academic years, at the KKU Method This research was based on secondary data set of the student enrolment database of the KKU The population was 53,277 undergraduate students enrolled in the academic years 2003-2012 at the KKU A unit used to analyze is an individual student The conceptual framework was defined and there are independent variables: gender, home region, high school GPA, admissions system, study program, program groups and faculty The dependent variable is nominal scale graduation: 1) on time graduation, 2) delayed graduation and 3) failed to graduate Statistical analyses, descriptive statistics, Crosstabulation and Chi-Square test, were carried out with IBM SPSS Statistics Results 3.1 Characteristics of undergraduate students enrolled in the academic years 2003-2012 at the KKU Most of the students are female (59.3%) and are frequently from the Northeast (91.1%) The KKU has a policy of recruiting students in the Northeast which approximately 50-70% of the total number of students enrolled each year Other students entering via additional admission systems such as the Central Admission However most of them are students from the Northeast Based on our data, it is noticeable that the greatest amount of the students is with the high school GPA of 3.01-3.50 (35.5%), followed by those with the high school GPA of 3.51-4.00%, (31.2%) This might be resulted from the policy of Khon Kaen University quota admission system conducted prior to other admission systems therefore potential students were selected Most of them studied in the regular program (76.3%) and in the field of health sciences (38.0%) The majority of the students studied in the Faculty of Engineering (15.2%) followed the Faculty of Science (11.7%) (Table 1.) 593 Table Characteristics of undergraduate students enrolled in the academic years 2003-2012 at the KKU 594 Characteristics Gender Male Female Total % (N) 40.7 59.3 100.0 (53,277) Region Central Eastern Northeastern Northern Western Southern Total 4.4 0.9 91.1 1.7 0.7 1.2 100.0 (53,277) High School GPA 2.00 and lower 2.01-2.59 2.51-3.00 3.01-3.50 3.51-4.00 Total 2.3 21.9 35.5 31.2 100.0 (53,277) Admission System Northeast Quota system Central Admission Special Entrances Other Total 37.3 29.4 20.8 12.1 100.0 (53,277) Study Program Regular International None-Regular Total 76.3 1.2 22.5 100.0 (53,277) Program Groups Sciences and Technologies Health Sciences Humanities and Social Sciences Nongkai Campus Total 35.5 38.0 17.8 8.9 100.0 (53,277) Table Characteristics of undergraduate students enrolled in the academic years 2003-2012 at the KKU (Continued) Characteristics % (N) Faculties Science 11.7 Agriculture 6.6 Engineering 15.2 Education 5.4 Nursing 2.8 Medicine 4.2 Humanities and Social Sciences 11.2 Associated Medical Sciences 2.8 Public Health 3.2 Dentistry 1.0 Pharmaceutical Sciences 2.3 Technology 2.2 Veterinary Medicine 1.4 Architecture 2.3 Fine and Applied Arts 1.6 Nongkhai Campus 8.9 Law 3.1 College of Local Administration 0.9 International College 0.2 Management Sciences 12.6 Total 100.0 (53,277) 3.2 Graduation of undergraduate students, enrolled in the academic years 2003-2012 The study found that most of the students graduated (78.9%) Although the graduation rate is relatively high, however, only 66.8% of them were graduated on time and 21.2% of them failed to finish, as shown in Table Table Percentage of graduation patterns of undergraduate students, enrolled in the academic year 2003-2012 Graduation % On time 66.8 Delayed 12.1 Failed 21.2 Total 100.0 (53,277) 595 3.3 The graduation of undergraduate students, enrolled in the academic years 2003-2012 at the KKU, classified by student characteristics Based on student characteristics, it was found that female students graduated at a higher percentage in comparison with male while 29.3% of male was unsuccessful The students from the Northeast completed only 66.4%, which is in a second place of the lowest rank except that of the Eastern region Although most of the students studied at the KKU were from the Northeast but the percentage of graduates is relatively low and the percentage of ungraduated students is up to 21.4% This may be due to the fact that most of the students are from the Northeast (91.1%) where the KKU situated or they chose the wrong course unmatched their academic capability Students enrolled by the special admission graduated on time only 51.1% and failed to finish up to 32.5% It is worth to stress that this phenomenon occurs due to the special entrance is the last choice for students who failed the first two admissions, Northeast Quota and Central Admission Even more, not all faculties recruit students thru the special admission, the program they inevitably selected/accepted might not academically fit them well and consequently affected their performance The students enrolled in the study program of non-regular curriculum managed to graduate at a lower rate (49.4%) and dropped out up to 34.0% They might not qualify for the enrolled program or their academic knowledge might not meet the studied program Students with a lower proportion of graduation are those who enrolled in the faculties of sciences and technologies group (56.6%) and faculties of Nongkai Campus (59.8%) (Table.3) At the KKU, there are students enrolled in the non-regular programs in Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Science Both non-regular programs and regular programs use the same curriculum and standard Moreover the curricula of engineering program contains such subject as mathematics and physics, which influence the number of graduates At Nongkai Campus, graduation rate is less than 60% since most of the students at Nongkai Campus did not pass the main campus selection They are more likely that their academic performance is less if compared to students enrolled in the regular programs at the main campus The students with a high school GPA range between 3.01 and 3.50 and range between 3.51 and 4.00 graduated with the higher rate, 69.7% and 80.6% respectively Higher school GPA means that these students are skillful and be able to graduate obviously Students‘ graduation is associated with the faculty they studied at the KKU The number of students enrolled in the health faculties such as Faculty of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine graduated with high percentage (>=80%) The main motives for enrolling in this government-funded faculties group are a lucrative job market In the faculties group of humanities and social sciences, students of College of Local Administration completed the program at a higher rate (90.6%) The college provides funds for students and its educational administration is semi-private-run hence the advisors supervise their students closely resulting the higher 596 rate of graduation On the other hand, International College, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Faculty of Law, the graduation failure rate is relatively high, 37.3%, 26.5% and 20.0% respectively These faculties require specific academic expertise to complete the curriculum Table The graduation of undergraduate students, enrolled in the academic years 2003-2012 in the KKU, classified by personal student characteristics Graduation Patterns Chi-square Total (%) Variables On Time Delayed Failed test Male 55.4 15.4 29.3 100.0 (21,655) Female 74.7 9.9 15.4 100.0 (31,582) Central 72.8 9.1 18.1 100.0 (2,357) Eastern 66.2 13.0 20.9 100.0 (455) Northeastern 66.4 12.3 21.4 100.0 (48,558) Northern 68.5 13.5 18.0 100.0 (890) Western 76.1 10.2 13.7 100.0 (372) Southern 71.2 10.9 18.0 100.0 (645)