Quality of College Life of Dental Students in a Private Dental Faculty in Thailand

Abstract

Quality of college life (QCL) has been a topic of increasing studies in health education administration.  QCL tends to relate to students’ satisfaction and academic achievement.  Measuring QCL could provide valuable information for improving the curriculum, instructions, students’ activities, and university services to respond to the needs and wants of the students. This survey research aimed to examine and compare the QCL of dental students at a private dental faculty in Thailand in 5 aspects: (a) academic life, (b) social life, (c) housing, (d) student friendship, and (e) student services. Data were collected by distributing self-administrative questionnaires to 478 dental students in a private university in Thailand.  Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data of the subjects in general, their perspectives on the study, and QCL while T-test and ANOVA with Sheffe's method were used for multiple comparisons in order to compare differences in QCL between demographic and study variables. The study results reveal that the overall QCL was at a moderate level (M = 3.49, SD = 0.33). The respondents rated their QCL in student friendship at the highest (M = 3.91, SD = 0.43), followed by housing (M = 3.68, SD = 0.49), and academic life (M = 3.53, SD = 0.50). There was a statistical significance at p < 0.05 in the overall QCL among gender, period of study, GPAC, and experience in repeating a class. The findings of this study could improve the curriculum administration, including the curriculum design, instruction, student activities, development, and learning environment and facility arrangement.