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© Proceedings of the Ruhuna Quality Assurance Sessions 2021 (RUQAS 2021)
st
21 September 2021

aim of the survey is to improve the soft skills, encourage your participation and identify any barriers or
difficulties in participating in such activities. Thus, please respond to this as early as possible”. In

order to collect responses, the systematic random sampling method was used across the student

population within which four sub samples were taken from four strata representing four academic
Levels, I, II, III and IV (special degree students). In each stratum, responses were obtained from at

least 15% of the total number of registered students.

Responses were collected over 7 days. The questionnaire consisted of 10 questions (Table 1).
Questions related to personal information on students were excluded from the survey to avoid ethical

issues. The responses were analysed by calculating percentages to identify the key trends. The

Wilcoxon rank test was used to determine the significant differences of student participation in ECA
among the four academic levels with the aid of the SAS statistical package.

Table 1: Questions used in the online survey

No Section Question

1 What is the current academic level of the degree program you follow?
Section 1
2 Have you participated in any extra-curricular activity (ECA)?
3 Name of the ECA
Section 2
4 Category of the ECA (competition, community activity, sport, etc.)
(repeated up
5 Role you played in this ECA
to 4 times)
6 Scope of the ECA (faculty level, university level, etc.)

7 Have you joined any society in the faculty? Mention the names of the
societies.

8 Do you think that ECA are important? Write the reason for your answer.
Section 3
9 Any barriers/difficulties that you have faced in attending such ECA in the

faculty/University?
10 Your suggestions to increase the participation of students in ECA?

Results and Discussion

Of the total number of participants, Level I, II, III and IV students represented 26.03%, 37.67%,

23.63% and 12.67%, respectively. As a whole, 62.33% of the students participated at least in a single

ECA. The level of participation significantly (Chi-Square = 25.59; df = 3; P<0.0001) varied with the
academic level. Involvement of Level I students in ECA, was lower than other three levels (Figure 1).

The highest percentage participation was detected with Level III students (72.46%) while Level II and

Level IV participation was similar (70%). Of the students who participated in ECA, 58.79% showed

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