A research on joining clubs among aep students

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY ADVANCED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM ENG100 COURSE *** A RESEARCH ON JOINING CLUBS AMONG AEP STUDENTS Class Advanced Finance 59B Group WE BARE BEARS Nguyễn Phương Thảo Nguyễn Thù[.]

ADVANCED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

ENG100 COURSE ***

A RESEARCH ON JOINING CLUBS AMONG AEP

Instructor: Ms Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen M.A.

Ha Noi, 2018.

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

NEU: National Economics University

AEP: Advanced Educational Program

GYC: Generation of Youth Club

BSK: Event Management Department of AEP (Ban sự kiện AEP) AEPW: AEP World Magazine

ETS: English Club for Talented Students

DES: Debate Empowering Sociality

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Abbreviation i

List of Figures ii

Table of contents iii

I Introduction

1 Title

2 Background

3 Rationale and purposes

4 Research questions

5 Scope

6 Research methodology

7 Research outline

II Literature review

1 Some basic definitions

2 Positive effects of joining in student club

3 Negative effects of joining in student club

III Research design

IV Findings

A Perception of AEP’s students

B Positive effects of being a member in AEP clubs

C Negative effects of being a member in AEP clubs

D Some possible solutions

V Conclusion

References iv

Appendix v

Nowadays, in most universities in Vietnam, the activities of students clubs areincreasingly organized, attracting many students to participate with the aim of givingstudents the ability to improve their knowledge and help them become more active andconfident; training soft skills The number of clubs in high schools or universities areincreasing sharply In NEU, there are 36 clubs and organizations includingvolunteering, academic, cultural, art, economic, sports, event-organizing forstudents In AEP, there are 9 clubs with a lot of purposes, causing confusion for thestudent to make a decision Therefore, this research will deeply analyze about AEPstudents’ motivation to participate in a club, as well as positive and negative effects ofinvolving in a student organization.

3 Rationale and purposes:

This research’s objects are AEP students of NEU, especially freshmen Beingsupposed as proactive and possess-opportunity ones, students of AEP differ fromstudents from standard program in three main aspect: educational environment,studying curriculum, and outdoor activities Joining a club when entering universitybecome an important issue for every AEP students Many researchs have been

conducted with the topic related to how student club affects the students, the effects ofextra activities on students’ academic performances, as well as the advantages and thedisadvantages of university clubs in general… The topic of our group’s research israther different When study, we not only point out the two-side feature of universityclubs to the students, but also focus on analyzing the perception of AEP students tothese issue The main beneficiary of our research is students in AEP, especiallyfreshman who have a special concern about joining a club during university time, sothat we care much about their thoughts and opinions as well as concentrate onanalyzing all things according to their demands and expectations

From those reasons above, this research is carried out to investigate themotivation of AEP students to join clubs, examine the negative side of joining clubsand suggest some solutions that could help to improve the situation Thence, lessonswill be given to AEP students in particular and to NEU students in general

4 Research questions:

These questions below will be answered in this research:

1) What are the motivations of AEP students to join a club?

2) What are the negative effects of participating in the clubs duringuniversity time?

3) What are some possible solutions for AEP students to balance betweenacademic life and club tasks?

5 Scope:

The target of this study are students intake 57 to 60 from Advanced EducationalProgram of the National Economics University (NEU), especially on AEP studentswho are freshmen We focus on the motivation of them to join a club and somepositive as well as negative effects they gained while being in those clubs so as toanswer the research questions

Sample: This research will be made on 260 people who are freshmen, sophomore,

junior and senior in NEU

Primary data

 Questionnaires

A list of questions will be made to gain a deeper understanding of some aspects

of AEP students who joining clubs such as the motivation, the reasons, the positiveand negative sides, … The survey would use Google form as a platform and it will beconducted on 200 students

 Interview

The interview will be conducted with members of some clubs in AEP program.The main purposes of the interview are to figure out the interviewees’ expectations,reasons, motivation, opportunities and challenges relating to joining club Initialquestions will be based on the guiding questions Further interviewing will be tookplace if responses need further clarification and information

In order to elicit this depth of response from the informants, two crucialelements of interview technique will be adopted First of all, each interview will belong enough to give the interviewees as much comforts as possible Equally important,the interviewers should allow informants the freedom to recall and share their mindabout joining clubs

The interview will be recorded

Secondary data: documents from the Internet

6.3 Data analysis

Document analysis is something that will happen concurrently with interviews

as they will provide the basis for refining interview questions

Another stage of data analysis involves developing the issue from the process ofdrawing conclusions and verifying

Collectively, the interviews and document study will provide detailed accounts

of the definition, purposes, activities of university clubs and opportunities as well asdifficulties of working in these clubs, particularly event-organizing ones

7 Research outline/ Structure:

This research is about university club problems, we divided our research into 5parts The first part will be the introduction of our research topic: a brief backgroundabout ‘student clubs’ in Vietnam, purpose of this report, scope of the survey and theresearch methods were used in order to gather figures and approach the targets.Secondly, the literature review will enrich knowledge of university clubs in general byshowing the facts and the benefits and drawbacks that students have to face with whileinvolving in a student organization Next is the research design in which describe ourmethod of research tools After collecting the answers from AEP students, we willshow the results through Findings part All the numbers and answers will be presentedthrough charts, this will help us to answer the research question which has been made

in the introduction Furthermore, lessons will be suggested for AEP students as well as

NEU students so as to improve the situation Finally, the conclusion will summarizethe process and result of this report, list down some limitation of the report andpropose some further studies.

II LITERATURE REVIEW

Taking part in extracurricular clubs or organizations has become popular amonguniversity students College club is defined, by Wikipedia, as an official anduniversity-authorized group financially supported by universities or faculties of at leasttwo people that are united by mutual interest or objective Normally, university clubsfall into 5 main categories, including academic, recreational, diversity/cultural,community service clubs and student-run event planning board

Numerous studies have been conducted to determine the impacts ofinvolvement upon students’ development (Terenzini et al., 1996) This review willinitially look at general definitions of some terms that are directly related to the effects

of clubs, namely mental and physical health, academic performance, networking andsoft skills Then, it will discuss the positive and negative sides of joining a universityclub, particularly among AEP students

Various definitions of mental and physical health are used in the field; however,the most precise interpretation have been mentioned by WHO It is said that mentalhealth is a state of well-being where each person can show great productivity, easilydeal with pressure in life and contribute to the community Meanwhile, physical health

is believed as a crucial element for overall well-being and is considered to be “themost visible of the various dimensions of health” (cited in the definition of physicalhealth by WHO, 1948)

As defined in Investopedia, soft skills are interpersonal skills that describe theapproach of one person to life, work, and relationships with others Soft skills areactually a cluster of some character traits including language and communicationskills, teamwork, leadership abilities, time management, etc…

Networking is interpreted as the exchange of information or services amongpeople or groups of people, particularly the result of relationships for certain purposes,such as employment or business (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2012).

According to the Cambridge University Reporter (2003), academic performance

is frequently attached to examination performance This term refers to theories andskills the students have learned and is normally measured by assessments, namelystandardized tests, performance assessments and portfolios (Santrock, 2006) The finalassessment would be done through grading system such as course grade and GradePoint Average (GPA)

2 Positive effects of joining student clubs

Clubs at university in general or joining clubs brings about several advantages The first positive aspect of joining club is that student would have a highchance to enhance their soft skills “Soft skills” are essentially “people skills” —they’re the skills that allow us to effectively interact with others, like communication,attitude, and work ethic” (2018 on Bentley.edu ) By participating in a studentorganization, they can not only learn these skills but also broaden, develop andimprove skills that they already have A member of a club will be taught the bestmethod to communicate with both individuals and large groups, as well as, the way towork with others Therefore, students could gain themselves emotional intelligence(EQ) which according to Akers, M and Porter, G (Apr 2018): “For most people,emotional intelligence (EQ) is more important than one’s intelligence (IQ) in attainingsuccess in their lives and careers As individuals our success and the success of theprofession today depend on our ability to read other people’s signals and reactappropriately to them Therefore, each one of us must develop the mature emotionalintelligence skills required to better understand, empathize and negotiate with otherpeople - particularly as the economy has become more global Otherwise, success willelude us in our lives and careers.”

Equally important, another advantage of student organization lies in networkingopportunities that students would get Nothing better than meeting new people, makingconnections and building relationships for a student (freshman, sophomore, senior andespecially graduated student) because these networks would all help down the linewhen students looking for a job Since people are all participating in the same club,that means they share at least a few of the same interests As a result, theserelationships would be valuable Corbett, M (2017) mentioned: “Many of ourorganizations are professionally-focused and host several events with alumni or paneldiscussions with local professionals These events are excellent opportunities for thestudent leaders, and can often lead to potential internship or employment opportunities

in the future”

3 Negative effects of joining student clubs

Although it is difficult to ignore the overwhelming evidence that studentinvolvement enhances a long list of benefits, there is a widely held belief that studentclubs require too much time (Huang & Chang, 2004; Mehus, 1932) Researchers arguethat the time students commit to extracurricular activities will ultimately distract fromacademic work which can negatively impact academic performance

The goal of each student as he or she enters college is to receive furthereducation and earn a degree Reeves (2008 – Education Leadership) determined thatparents and teachers might fear students may lose their focus on academics when theybecome too busy with out-of-school activities Attending too many practices, meetingsand running events may cut into homework time When students get overscheduled,they might be spreading themselves too thin, which may lead to spending less timestudying and preparing for class

Sharing the same idea, Amanda Wilks, the Contributor of Websitecollegeraptor.com stated that: ‘Once you get involved in a student organization, there’s

no turning back There is more than likely that you have to participate in weekly andmonthly meetings and contribute with your own efforts to any available projects.’(October 18, 2016 on College Raptor)

Since these activities will have a huge impact especially outside the campus,many students feel compelled to attend to their project to the detriment of their studies.The article pointed out that once a student joins such an association, there are highchances that he will have to sacrifice more personal and study time This liabilitycomes with placing the extracurricular duties above college education Thus yourinvolvement in your lectures and student organization will become stronger, butsometimes the lack of time will force you to compromises.

Another potentially negative aspect of extracurricular activities forconsideration is the bad effect on the students’ mental and physical health Thompson(2008 – Business Week Online) further discussed this concept when stating "The level

of commitment is much more important than the specific activity" Not only can scheduling impact academics and level of commitment, it can also impact the studentemotionally and physically which could lead to stress, fatigue and bum-out Balance inactivities of the adolescent's choice is recommended

over-Students who are over-scheduled in too many activities find that the benefits ofparticipating in out-of-school activities may actually decrease Overscheduled childrenmay be tired, irritable and show little interest in participation Over scheduling toomany physical activities may result in some students pushing themselves too far withthe potential of having a serious sports-related injury as students may need time forrelaxation and recovery from intense athletic training ‘Many are intensely stressed andconsumed by those pursuits, such that they appear to have substantially less time forrest and leisure than their counterparts did two decades ago, even as they spend muchless time in the library or laboratory.’ (William Hurst, April 11, 2016)

Last but not least, financial problem is also a factor should be taken intoconsideration when a student joins a club According to Black, C (2014): ‘Thestudents will waste their money with the transportation, food and contribution Theywill spend their money on the gasoline when they need to have a meeting And whenthey leave home, they need to their money to eat the food outside the house.’Extracurricular activities often cost money to participate in some type of arranged

"pay-to-play" fee Whether it is paying the school activity fee or paying for private

lessons or trying to further develop skills at summer camps, some families just are noteconomically able to be involved with out-of-school activities.

In conclusion, involvement in a student club in the university has both benefitsand drawbacks This section provided a review of the literature that exists regardingthe benefits of involvement in student organizations This also discussed the argumentsthat exist in favor of and against student involvement in extracurricular activities Theliterature also provided examples of previous research to gain insight into the designmethodology for this study Results of these studies have produced varying resultsindicating a need for further research

III RESEARCH DESIGN

To conduct this study, the first step was to choose a suitable topic Many ideashave been considered and then the best topic chosen was “Joining clubs among AEPstudents” This topic was chosen due to the fact that joining clubs plays an importantrole in university time of every student

After choosing a relevant topic, a ‘research proposal’ was established whichdescribes in details the program for our research includes background of clubs inVietnam in general and then statement of our purposes After carefully considered, 3main research questions were set out which represent the main purpose of our topic.Afterwards, scope and plan of research method were given

To demonstrate our understanding of the subject area, we conducted a literaturereview In this section, we defined our research topic, provided knowledge aboutpositive and negative effects of joining a club from previous study Our source based

on dictionaries, books, newspaper and especially the Internet

Subsequently, a list of carefully structured questions, chosen after aconsiderable testing was established in 2 main forms: online survey and interview,with a view to eliciting reliable responses from participants to find out what a group ofAEP students think about joining clubs in AEP The online survey was done byGoogle Form and officially published in facebook group ‘Goc Hoc Tap AEP’ Thesurvey is also posted in the researchers’ facebook account and sent to more than 100friends via Facebook Messengers After 3 days, 260 respondents were gained 15 AEPstudents randomly from many clubs had been interviewed to have an overall viewing

on what they feel about the effects of clubs on their university life The interview wasrecorded and presented in the section below From all the figures collected, researchfindings was carried out Microsoft Excel and existing data was used for statisticalanalysis The result will lead to further suggestion to improve the current situation

To begin with, according to the figure 4.2, 146 out of 260 students who did thesurvey determined that they were not participating in any clubs at that time (slightlymore than 56%) Come at the second place, there are 105 people, which is accountedfor 40.4%, admitted that they were the member of a club (or more than one clubs)then It is worth noting that, the AEP students intake 60 is the largest proportion(53.5%) of the people did the survey as is shown in figure 4.1 Like it has been saidabove, clubs and organizations are being the crucial part in students’ university life,according to estimation, it seems like clubs are likely to be less attractive than they

used to be This might be caused because there are too many students’ organizations.

As a result, first year students might feel overwhelmed with the overload of clubs

53.5 31.2

8.1 4.2 3.1

Figure 4.1: The categories of AEP’s students intakes

First year students Second year students Third year students Fourth year students Others

2 Perception of students to clubs in the center for Advanced Educational Program:

DKC AEP Sports Club AEP Music Club The Department of Vietnamese Communist and Youth

DES AEP World Magazine

ETS Club GYC Club BSK AEP

in AEP at this time, which are: BSK AEP, The Generation of Youth Club (GYC), AEP

World Magazine, Debate Empowering Sociality (DES), English for Talented Students(ETS), the department of Vietnamese Communist of Youth, AEP Music Club, AEPSports Club and DKC club Figure 4.3 shows that 85 out of 260 students (accounts for74.6%) have the awareness about GYC club whilst those for BSK AEP is 84 students(73.7%) According to Ms Nguyen Anh Ngoc (Accounting 59B): “These twoorganizations are the most population club among AEP’s students because both ofthem are in charge of holding events for AEP’ students, for instance: FutureSchooling, Welcome ceremony for new intake (CSV), AEP’s Got Talent, A Night ToRemember, Xuan Hoa Heat.” That the reason why the number of students know aboutthese two clubs are the most in the survey data However, as can be seen clearly in thefigure 4.4, there are only about half of the people that know BSK AEP and GYC club(86 students in contrast to 169 students) are now the member of these two clubs Inspite of that, the figures for each are 43 students and still be the largest proportion inthe chart (about slightly under 38%).

DKC AEP Sports Club AEP Music Club The Department of Vietnamese Communist and Youth

DES AEP World Magazine

ETS Club GYC Club BSK AEP

Figure 4.4: Percentages of member of AEP's clubs in students

do-ing the survey

The second well-known group of clubs are AEP World Magazine, AEP MusicClub, The department of Vietnamese Communist of Youth and Debate EmpoweringSociality (DES) The statistics for these clubs, in the given order, are 58.8%, 51.8%,50.9% and 45.6% Last but not least, there are more than 42 students claimed that theyhave heard about English for Talented Students, AEP Sport Club and DKC club (morethan 36%)

Nevertheless, in the figure 4.4, there are only two of these organizations: AEPWorld Magazine and The Department of Vietnamese Communist of Youth have thepercentage of the member among the students doing the survey are above 7% In alittle more detail, the data on these clubs are respectively 15.8% and 7.9% On theother hand, there are only few students who did the survey said that they were joining

in ETS club, DES club, AEP Music club, AEP Sports club and DKC (account forabout under 2.7% each club) Mr Le Hoang Khanh (Corporate Business 59) believesthat these entire clubs have one thing in common: their majors are so specific that onlypeople who care about their fields might know about them and that is the reason whythe awareness of these clubs is that slight

3 Motivation of joining clubs

We asked 114 members of Advanced Educational Program’s organizations inour survey that why they chose that (those) clubs In other word, what is themotivation of them when they decided to sign in a club? The bar chart below presentedthe number of reasons why a student wanted to join in a (or many) club

Others

I have too much freetime

I want to learn new skills

I want to have new experiences

I am influenced by my friend/ acquaintances

I love to make new friends

of BSK AEP) remembered the moment when she decided to join in BSK AEP, “To behonest, I was a freshman at that time I really needed an organization to take part in Iwas young and I wanted to gain myself experiences and new skills Then I saw them.

At this time, as the president of BSK AEP, I am really appreciated and proud of myselfand BSK AEP too”

Another important element is “influence of friends and acquaintances” (56.1%).Followed these people are 57 students (50%) who joined clubs and organizationbecause they wanted to make new friends Ms Dieu Linh (member of BSK AEP)shared with us: “My sister also studies at National Economics University and she is themember of GYC but frankly speaking, we are not going well Then I chose BSK AEP

so that I do not have to work with her and follow my passion of holding events” Mr.Phi Quang Dat (Finance 59A) much appreciates the role of making friends of students’organization because he had faced many difficulties in talking to strangers: “Joiningclub makes me feel easier to make friend because we are all the same members of abig family.” Also, “having too much free time” is an explanation that 19 people chose(16.7%) while 16 people feel hesitated to show their answers

As mentioned above, finding out the motivation of AEP students to join club isone of the purposes of our research From all the data, we could conduct that studentsmostly decided to join clubs because they thought they could benefit from these clubs.Therefore, that brings us to the next part of the survey: the advantages of joining clubs

B Positive effects of being a member in AEP clubs

1 Joining AEP clubs brings about soft skills

The figure 4.6 demonstrates the information on the soft skills that studentsbelieve they have achieved when being in a club We give them eight options and theycould choose more than one

No skills are brought Responsibilities Problem-solving skills Time-mangement skills Leadership skills Negotiation and conflict resolution

Verbal communication skills

Teamwork skills

Figure 4.6: The soft skills brought by AEP' clubs

As we can see, teamwork skills take the highest proportion (86.8%) This kind

of skills is important and necessary for not only students’ study but also affects andplays a crucial part in future career “Teamwork helps solve problems Collaborationwithin a group can help solve difficult problems Brainstorming is a good opportunityfor the team to exchange ideas and come up with creative ways of doing things Byworking together, teams can find the solutions that work best.” (www.yti.edu,

“Reasons teamwork is important in the workplace”, 2015) Moreover, it is undeniablethat, team working is supportive and get the work done faster

Equally important, other benefits of joining a club respectively lie inresponsibilities (79.8%) and verbal communication skills (70.2%) When a studenttake part in a club, that also means he (or she) has to communicate and work withseveral people Almost every clubs give tasks to their member and that is the perfectway for a student to practice to be more responsible Great thing always comes withgreat responsibility In addition, leadership skills (49.1%) is also a positive aspect ofjoining clubs Mr Phi Anh (member of GYC club) told us: “I was a shy boy I cannottalk to anyone when I first went to the university However, after joining in GYC club,

I have learnt a lot I know how to communicate with others Sometimes, I was giventhe leader position for some projects The first time was very hard for me However,nothing teaches you more about responsibility than being in charge of somethingimportant Time after time, I become more responsible.”

The next positive aspects chosen by students are “problem solving skills” and

“negotiation and conflict resolution skills” There are more than 120 students, whichaccounts for 58.8% and 53.5% (in the given order above), believed that the twomentioned skills are brought after they joined in clubs It is estimated that 30% of amanager’s time is spent dealing with conflict and problem at workplace In an informalstudy conducted with 6000 complainants at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,75% of respondents indicated that they just want the problem to stop(www.mediate.com, John Ford) In other words, effective problem solving skillsenable people to analyze problem, identify problem severity and assess the impact ofalternative solutions Participating in students’ organization would help members towork more efficiently with other students (in the short-term), and might also be useful

to work with colleagues (in the future career) “Additionally, they practice reachingconsensus by seeing a problem and negotiation from a professional, not personal,perspective” (Tara Duggan, 2016)

To terminate, there are also 61 students agreed that they achieved management skills when being in a club Ms Hong Phuong (Accounting 58A)confirmed that her life and studying after joining ETS club were enhanced a lots,especially in punctuality

We also gave the AEP’ students a 5-point-rating scale from 1 (the least helpful)

to 5 (the most helpful) about the level that students think those skills are helpful

According to the figure 4.7, the number of students agreed that all skills mentioned areuseful make up the highest proportion (over 80% in total) and in another questionshown in figure 4.8, 61.4% of respondents believed these skills would help them more

in the future career In contrast to, there are 5 students who thought that those areunnecessary (under 4% in total) and 27 people feel hesitated to choice

2 Joining clubs broadens networking