Exploring the Impact of Gender and Academic Program on University Students’ Engagement

Abstract

A quantitative and cross-sectional research design was used in this study to determine the effect of gender and academic program on the academic engagement of university students. The number of undergraduate and postgraduate students was 400 (160 males and 240 females) and 283 BS students and 117 M.Phil/PhD students. The rated academic engagement was measured using a standardized Likert scale instrument that has a strong reliability (> .70). Two-way between subjects ANOVA was used to test main and interaction effects of gender and academic program on engagement. The findings showed that the total model was found to have statistically significant value that was F (3, 396) = 8.91, p = <.001, and the model explained 6.3% of academic engagement. The main effects were found to be significant according to gender, F(1, 396) = 5.65, p =.018 and according to academic program, F(1, 396) = 8.46, p =.004, which implied that the levels of engagement between males and females and between BS and M.Phil/ PhD students were different. The gender-Academic program interaction was however not relevant, F(1, 396) = 3.50, p =.062 meaning that there was no gender difference in the engagement level among different program levels. On the whole, the results indicate that gender and academic program factors separately affect the academic engagement in students, which makes it necessary to provide the latter with special instructions and support programs to promote the engagement of the student body of various types.