Economics and Student Affairs Project

Research question: find that there is statistically significant evidence that the responses to the question if your expectations for studying in Economics at UVic have been met? differ depending upon the respondent’s choice of department. If the distribution of responses varies considerably between the different study hours categories.

There are three types test we are able to do.

  1. Penalized Logit regression (Lasso)

Since we have a set of new binary variable now, we are able to do logistic regression and to identify which predictor is important for student’s choice about whether use this service.

One example is which factor is related to whether student use academic advising service. Please see example one: whether student use Academic Advising.

1. Resource Usage

Generate a set of binary variables to illustrate the resource usage at UVic for this group of international students.

1.1 Different resource usage

This diagram shows if students use this type service. The idea is from Susan, Tricia and David. We dichotomize the question 34 to question 54 to generate binary variables about whether students use this service. We identify “no basis to judge” and “NA” as “FALSE” and other items as “TRUE”.

For those questions:

Q34. If you have used any of the university services listed in this question, please indicate how helpful you found that service: - Academic Advising

Q35. If you have used any of the university services listed in this question, please indicate how helpful you found that service: - Centre for Academic Communication in Library (formerly The Writing Centre)

Q36. If you have used any of the university services listed in this question, please indicate how helpful you found that service: - Math and Stats Assistance Centre in Library

Q37. If you have used any of the university services listed in this question, please indicate how helpful you found that service: - Counselling Services in University Centre

Q38. If you have used any of the university services listed in this question, please indicate how helpful you found that service: - Career Services

Q39. If you have used any of the university services listed in this question, please indicate how helpful you found that service: - International Student Services in University Centre

Q40. If you have used any of the university services listed in this question, please indicate how helpful you found that service: - Librarians in Library

Q41. If you have used any of the services listed in this question, please indicate how helpful you found that service: - Private paid tutoring services

Q42. If you have used any of the services listed in this question, please indicate how helpful you found that service: - Community services (Such as community programs. churches, etc.)

Q43. How helpful are the following resources provided by Economics faculty, staff and students? - Front Office Advising

Q44. How helpful are the following resources provided by Economics faculty, staff and students? - Undergraduate Adviser in Economics

Q45. How helpful are the following resources provided by Economics faculty, staff and students? - Meeting with Instructor Outside of Regular Officer Hours (e.g., end of classes)

Q46. How helpful are the following resources provided by Economics faculty, staff and students? - Meeting with Instructor During Regular Office Hours

Q47. How helpful are the following resources provided by Economics faculty, staff and students? - Economics Teaching Assistants - Tutorials

Q48. How helpful are the following resources provided by Economics faculty, staff and students? - Economics Teaching Assistants - Office Hours

Q49. How helpful are the following resources provided by Economics faculty, staff and students? - Economics Course Union - Peer Tutoring

Q50. How helpful are the following resources provided by Economics faculty, staff and students? - Economics Course Union - Other Activities

Q51. How easy is it to find information about the following on the UVic website? - Student Recruitment

Q52. How easy is it to find information about the following on the UVic website? - International Student Services

Q53. How easy is it to find information about the following on the UVic website? - Department of Economics

Q54. How easy is it to find information about the following on the UVic website? - Academic Advising Centre

Put them in order, we can identify the low resource usage. For international students, the usage of community service and course union activity are relatively low.

Q22. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements: - I feel that UVic is a welcoming and internationally diverse university.

Q23. How easy is it making friends with: - Canadian students

Q24. How easy is it making friends with: - International students from your home country

Q25. How easy is it making friends with: - International students from other countries

Q26. What situations have you found challenging related to making social connections?

Regression: response (explained) and predictor (Explanatory)

We will use the variable selection technical to choose important varialbe for resource usage.

“AcademicAdvising” service

The “AcademicAdvising” service is majorly related to four characters:

Q12hourSocializingOffCampus Q56factorFamily Q65OpportunityStudiesElsewhere Q67studentType
-0.2274401 0.0248766 -0.0978912 -0.0449162

Those four factors’ coefficients are larger than 1% with different direction.

Q12. About how many hours do you spend in a typical 7-day week doing the following? - Relaxing and socializing off campus (not online)

No basis to judge" “1 to 5 hours per week” “6 to 10 hours per week” “11 to 20 hours per week”
“21 to 30 hours per week” “More than 31 hours per week”

Q63. How important were the following factors when choosing to study Economics at UVic? - Opportunity for increased career options

“No basis to judge” “Very unimportant” “Somewhat unimportant”
“Neither important nor unimportant” “Somewhat important” “Very important”

Q64. How important were the following factors when choosing to study Economics at UVic? - Opportunity for permanent residence in Canada

“No basis to judge” “Very unimportant” “Somewhat unimportant”
“Neither important nor unimportant” “Somewhat important” “Very important”

Q72. Where are you from?

“China” “United States” “India” “Other (please specify)”

Visualize students’ characteristic and explained variables

Plot for “AcademicAdvising” service

If students think permanent residence is important, they are more likely to use the service.

“WritingCentre” service

The “WritingCentre” service is majorly related to three characters:

Those three factors’ coefficients are larger than 1% with different direction.

Q63factoCareer Q64factorPermanentResidence Q72country
0.1665408 0.2117843 -0.1907765

Q63. How important were the following factors when choosing to study Economics at UVic? - Opportunity for increased career options

“No basis to judge” “Very unimportant” “Somewhat unimportant”
“Neither important nor unimportant” “Somewhat important” “Very important”

Q64. How important were the following factors when choosing to study Economics at UVic? - Opportunity for permanent residence in Canada

“No basis to judge” “Very unimportant” “Somewhat unimportant”
“Neither important nor unimportant” “Somewhat important” “Very important”

Q66. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statement: My expectations for studying in Economics at UVic have been met.

Q72. Where are you from?

“China” “United States” “India” “Other (please specify)”

Visualize students’ characteristic and explained variables

Plot for “WritingCentre” service

If students think Opportunity for permanent residence and career option is important, they are more likely to use the service.

“MathStatsAssistance” service

The “MathStatsAssistance” service is majorly related to three characters:

Those three factors’ coefficients are larger than 1% with different direction.

Q9hourWorkCampus Q12hourSocializingOffCampus Q63factoCareer Q73Indigenous
0.2326932 -0.1502429 0.1785827 0.3162535

Q9. About how many hours do you spend in a typical 7-day week doing the following? - Working for pay on campus

“No basis to judge”, “1 to 5 hours per week”, “6 to 10 hours per week” , “11 to 20 hours per week” , “21 to 30 hours per week” , “More than 31 hours per week”

Q12. About how many hours do you spend in a typical 7-day week doing the following? - Relaxing and socializing off campus (not online)

“No basis to judge”, “1 to 5 hours per week”, “6 to 10 hours per week” , “11 to 20 hours per week” , “21 to 30 hours per week” , “More than 31 hours per week”

Q63. How important were the following factors when choosing to study Economics at UVic? - Opportunity for increased career options

“No basis to judge” “Very unimportant” “Somewhat unimportant”
“Neither important nor unimportant” “Somewhat important” “Very important”

Q73. How do you identify? (Check all that apply)

Q73Indigenous

Visualize students’ characteristic and explained variables

Plot for “MathStatsAssistance” service

If students spend more time working at campuse and spend less time socializing off campuse, they are more likely to use the service.

“CounsellingServices” service

The “CounsellingServices” service is majorly related to three characters:

Those three factors’ coefficients are larger than 1% with different direction.

Q14hourProvidingCare Q64factorPermanentResidence Q66expectationsMet Q73Indigenous
0.1051152 0.3363332 -0.2618452 0.5118414

Q14. About how many hours do you spend in a typical 7-day week doing the following? - Providing care for dependents (children, parents, etc.)

“No basis to judge”, “1 to 5 hours per week”, “6 to 10 hours per week” , “11 to 20 hours per week” , “21 to 30 hours per week” , “More than 31 hours per week”

Q64. How important were the following factors when choosing to study Economics at UVic? - Opportunity for permanent residence in Canada

“No basis to judge” “Very unimportant” “Somewhat unimportant”
“Neither important nor unimportant” “Somewhat important” “Very important”

Q66. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statement: My expectations for studying in Economics at UVic have been met.

“Strongly disagree”,“Somewhat disagree”, “Neither agree nor disagree” , “Somewhat agree” , “Strongly agree”

Q73. How do you identify? (Check all that apply)

Q73Indigenous

Visualize students’ characteristic and explained variables

Plot for “CounsellingServices” service

If students think Opportunity for permanent residence is important and do not meet their expectation, they are more likely to use the CounsellingServices service.

“CareerServices” service

There is no pattern between career service and student characteristics.

“InternationalStudentServices” service

The “InternationalStudentServices” service is majorly related to three characters:

Those three factors’ coefficients are larger than 1% with different direction.

Q13hourSocializingOffCampusOnline Q65OpportunityStudiesElsewhere
-0.1290438 -0.1395538

Q13. About how many hours do you spend in a typical 7-day week doing the following? - Relaxing and socializing off campus (online)

“No basis to judge”, “1 to 5 hours per week”, “6 to 10 hours per week” , “11 to 20 hours per week” , “21 to 30 hours per week” , “More than 31 hours per week”

Q57. How important were the following factors when choosing to study Economics at UVic? - Entry/admission requirements of the program

“No basis to judge” “Very unimportant” “Somewhat unimportant”
“Neither important nor unimportant” “Somewhat important” “Very important”

Q65. What are you hoping to gain from your undergraduate experience in Economics? (Check all that apply)

“No basis to judge” “Very unimportant” “Somewhat unimportant”
“Neither important nor unimportant” “Somewhat important” “Very important”

Visualize students’ characteristic and explained variables

Plot for “InternationalStudentServices” service

If students think Entry/admission requirements of the program is important and spend less time in Socializing Off CampusOnline, they are more likely to use the InternationalStudentServices service.

“Library” service

There is no pattern between Library service and student characteristics.

“PrivateTutor” service

## [1] "PrivateTutor"

The “PrivateTutor” service is majorly related to three characters:

Those three factors’ coefficients are larger than 1% with different direction.

Q4Courses Q64factorPermanentResidence Q69SpringTerm2015 Q73Indigenous
0.0734862 0.1575057 -0.0657142 1.039452

Q4. How many Economics Courses are you taking this term?

X1 X2 X3 X4
1 course 2-3 courses 4 or more courses Not Applicable

Q64. How important were the following factors when choosing to study Economics at UVic? - Opportunity for permanent residence in Canada

X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6
No basis to judge Very unimportant Somewhat unimportant Neither important nor unimportant Somewhat important Very important

Q69. In the past year, when did you take Economics course(s) at UVic? (Check all that apply)

X1 X2
Spring Term 2015 (January to May)

Q73. How do you identify? (Check all that apply)

Q73Indigenous

Visualize students’ characteristic and explained variables

Plot for “PrivateTutor” service

If students think the opportunity of Permanent Residence is important and take more courses, they are more likely to use the PrivateTutor service.