THE QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG MAHIDOL UNIVERSITY’S UNDERGRADUATES AT SALAYA CAMPUS

Abstract

This study is a quantitative research with the objectives to study and compare the quality of life among Mahidol University’s undergraduates at Salaya Campus. The samples are Mahidol University’s undergraduates who study at Salaya campus of the Academic Year 2020. Taro Yamane method was applied to calculate the sample size from the population number of 6,681 resulted in 707 subjects randomly selected using the stratified random sampling method in accordance with the proportion of the population in each group of the studying subject. Questionnaires were used to collect the information divided into two parts: 1) the demographic information including: gender, group of the studying subject, year of study, cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA), monthly allowance, and accommodation during study; 2) the quality of life level in five aspects based on the concept from Hendershott, Wright, and Handerson. The questionnaire’s reliability is 0.97 assessed using Cronbach’s alpha-coefficient. The demographic information was analyzed using frequency and percentage, and the levels of the students’ quality of life were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The study found that the overall quality of life level of Mahidol University’s undergraduates at Salaya campus is at a good level. The results for the study of each aspect of the quality of life revealed that the academic, accommodation, interpersonal relationship, and the university’s services are all at good levels. However, the result for the social life aspect is at the medium level. The comparative study of the students’ quality of life level with each aspect of the demographic information were analyzed using the t-Test and One-Way ANOVA method. Then, the Scheffe Post Hoc Comparison method was applied to analyze the significant differences found. The study found that students with different year-of-study, group of learning subjects, cumulative GPA, and accommodation during the study resulted in different levels of their quality of life with the significance at 0.05. The different gender and monthly allowance did not affect the undergraduates’ quality of life. Academic institutions should provide support for the quality of life in accordance to the needs of all groups of students and the changes in society, economics, and technology especially the activities of the social life aspect.