University Student Satisfaction and Skill Acquisition: Evidence from the Undergraduate Dissertation

Abstract

One of the main objectives of the Undergraduate Dissertation is to evaluate the skills associated with a degree. Student satisfaction with the training and skills acquired can be an indicator of the quality of higher education. This paper aims to analyse student satisfaction with Undergraduate Dissertation at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). Based on a survey conducted among 130 students (75.7% of a total of 172 students who presented their UD during the academic year 2013–2014), structural equation modelling was applied to analyse the influence on satisfaction of aspects related to intellectual curiosity and the perception of acquired skills. The results show that the perception of the skills acquired play a crucial role in students’ satisfaction with Undergraduate Satisfaction, conditioned by their perceived future usefulness and backed by personality and motivation elements that encourage their acquisition. The results confirm the significant role played by the tutor, who emerges as an element that boosts the central relations of the model.

A Qualitative Analysis of Students’ Reflections on the Current Use of Digital Media in Foreign Language Classes

“…A similar idea is expressed by Martinez-Roget et al [18] who claim that the subjective perception of the skills acquired in the class is the main motivator for higher education students. Perceived future usefulness plays a crucial role in motivation development, and thus leads to improved performance, which will naturally improve the study results.…”

“…As far as the language competencies acquired in the online environment are concerned, students in this qualitative study felt that they could improve their listening skills, however, they missed the possibility of developing speaking skills, which are crucial for the development of communicative competencies [23], and which contribute to learner satisfaction and thus to learner motivation to study a foreign language [18].…”

Developing Entry-Level Communication Skills: A Comparison of Student and Employer Perceptions

“…Fleming and Kler (2008) applied a standard univariate probit model to establish the predictive value of overeducation on job satisfaction in the labor workforce. Martínez-Roget et al (2020) used regression to map an entire chain of causal relationships affecting student satisfaction, the strongest of which was perceived acquisition of skills.…”

Percepciones del alumnado universitario sobre los trabajos de fin de grado (trabajos de fin de carrera)

“…Existen estudios (Río et al, 2017) que demuestran que la tutorización es el elemento con mayor importancia para un alumno, hasta tal punto que, a mayor grado de relación entre alumno y tutor, las calificaciones suelen ser más altas (De Kleijn et al, 2014) y la satisfacción aumenta (Martínez et al, 2020) por lo que es importante crear un clima de respeto y acercamiento. El alumnado, en general, se muestra bastante satisfecho con la tutorización recibida por su director (Freire, et al, 2015;Rebollo y Espiñeira, 2017), si bien encuentran dificultades en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje (Pérez y Martínez, 2017;Roberts y Seaman, 2018).…”