EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF COLLEGE LIFE OF NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE STUDENTS IN ENGINEERING HIGHER EDUCATION

The quality of college life is the overall satisfaction of students with university life as a whole, which based on the spill over theory is influenced by various sections of life. This study is done by the survey method with the aim of evaluating the quality of college life for native and non-native students of engineering courses at Tehran’s public universities of technology. The statistical study was populated by undergraduate students, and based on the Morgan Table, 214 samples were selected using the cluster and random method and the required data collected through a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was verified based on the views of five experts. The reliability was then estimated using the Alpha Cronbach’s index on a pre-test of 15 samples and was found to be about 86 percent. Data analysis has been conducted using the SPSS package and required statistical tests. The quality of college life for all students was evaluated significantly lower than average, and the quality of college life of non-native students was found to be significantly higher than the quality of college life of native students. The low quality of college life shows a weakness in higher education policies. As students are one of the key stakeholders of higher education, a low quality of life and dissatisfaction could be a starting point leading away from the mission, ideals and development strategies of higher education and learning. Therefore, it is necessary to develop initiatives for increasing the quality of life of students as a basic criterion in higher education decision-makings.