Factors That Contribute the Students to Live Outside the Campus

Appendix B

© Hak Milik Sant Sahabat dan Kawan-Kawan. Dibenarkan untuk tujuan pembelajaran sahaja

Factors that contribute the students to live outside the campus

compared to staying at the hostel.

All Politeknik Tuanku Sultanah Bahiyah (“PTSB”) students were given an option whether

to stay in boarding house or better known as “hostels” provided by college or staying

outside the campus. How6ever, the costs of living in hostel are much lower than staying

outside. In fact there are many advantages a student could have when staying in hostel

such as facilities provided such as computer lab, food court and library but surprisingly

most of the students still prefer to rent house or apartment outside the campus rather

than staying in hostel.

The percentage of PTSB‟s students live in hostel and outside campus are illustrated in

the pie-chart below:

Breakdown of PTSB's students living

in hostel and outside campus

30%

70%

Outside campus Hostel

From the pie-chart above, we can see that 70% of PTSB’s students live outside the

campus i.e. rent houses or flats, while the remaining 30% are those who stay in

the hostel.

Appendix B


Looking at the reason on why this condition happens, stringent rules adopted by

campus itself is one of the factors that contribute students who choose to live

outside the campus. As we all known, students are the young generations or

teenagers who demands more freedom in their life. At their growing age, most

teen usually wants the freedom without any curfew. Strict rules applied to those

who stay in hostel makes students felt that it will make their freedom is being

controlled if they choose to stay inside the campus as they are obligatory to

follow all the rules. For example, when students went out for outing and they have

to be back at the hostel before 7 p.m. or otherwise their merit will be deducted if

they failed to do so which will consequently affects their grades.

Apart from that, they are not allowed to wear casual outfit when going to the

cafeteria for lunch and dinner. In addition, they also have to follow the study

hours set by campus and they will be monitored by warden. In contrast to the

students who lives outside campus, there is no specific time or schedule for them

to follow and it is one of the major reason they choose to stay outside as their life

it is more flexible and relaxing and everything that they did is according to their

preferences.

Another factor that led the students to live outside campus is the possibility of

losing own belongings. There is less privacy living in hostel compared to renting

a house outside the campus and the chances of losing goods are higher if they

are staying in the hostel. In hostel, every two students will have to share a room

for the whole semester where as at the rental homes they can have their own

private room. As there are many kinds and types of people living in the hostel, it is

hard to evaluate and judge people’s thought and behavior. Staying with own

clique will minimize this problem.

Moreover, as teenagers who are in the growing life-cycle, the students spent most

of their times for hanging out with their friends at food shops or restaurants.

Since the costs of living at the hostel are lower than staying outside, the foods

served for the students also are not as good as the food sold outside the campus.

In addition, there are no varieties of food that can be chosen by the students at

the hostel cafeteria. Therefore, this can be one of the factors that make students

tend to live outside the campus. The food served outside is better than the food

sold inside the campus.

Appendix B


In addition, by staying outside campus, they also can go out for supper at anytime

and does not have to worry about the time restrictions. Generally, young students

love to hang out at the food stalls until late at night just for chatting and having a

relaxing time with their friends. Thus if they live at the hostel, there will be a

limitation for them in doing the night activities even though if they want to eat.

On top of that, most of the students find that living in the hostel is very

interminable and lifeless. The surrounding environment of the hostel does not

attract the students to stay there because they find it as a boring environment for

them. There are not many social activities that they can do inside the hostel. They

much prefer to stay outside as live outside is more interesting, fascinating and full

of adventures where they can become more independent and responsible towards

themselves.

The next factor that contribute the student to live outside is because of the

opportunity to stay in hostel is also limited as the hostel’s management are likely

prominent to let the junior students to stay in the hostel. This is because of the

campus wanted the junior students to get to know about the campus better and

one of the way is by staying at the hostel. The students have to involve in many

programs and be active in order to stay in hostel but still there are no assurances

for them to stay as there are many great competitors. This is a burdensome to the

student as they have to compete with many other students to get the opportunity.

Therefore, for certain of them, it will be easy if they live outside the campus rather

than competing with others in order to get the chance to live at the hostel.

Facilities offered at the town also is one of the factor that make the students tend

to live outside the campus rather than staying in the hostel. There are so many

facilities offered outside the hostel such as ATM machine, 24 hours convenience

shop, restaurants and many others. It is more convenient for the student to enlist

into the services provided. They can use all the facilities at any time they want.

Therefore, they can manage their time leniently. However, for those who live in

hostel, they get their chance to use all these facilities only when they go out

during outing time.

<INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK>

Appendix B


At the hostel, almost every night there will be a ‘roll-call’ sessions for the students

where they will be given a speech or lecture by senior students. This can be an

interruption because the ‘roll-call’ was held during the study times. As a result,

the student’s focus on their study will be distracted as studying; they also have

their leisure time to be spent. With the ‘roll-call’ session, it actually limits the time

that the students have and could eventually affect their study performance.

Moreover, it is well-known that younger generation i.e. junior students do not like

to be lectured by their seniors. Because of this ‘roll-call’ session, most of PTSB’s

students preferred to stay outside campus so that they want to avoid from this

entire procedures.

Next, other factor that encouraged the students to live outside the campus is

because of it will be easy for them to have a group studies whether for

assignments, quizzes or subjects relating matters. Study groups are widely

popular in most educational institutions as they play a very important function in

the learning process in any student’s life. The formation of study groups has been

found to improve the learning experience for many students. Therefore, most of

the students think that by staying outside campus, they can have a group study of

their own at anytime they want even though after midnight. Apart from making the

learning process easier for them, the study group also makes it a fun activity as it

requires social interaction among the students. Studying can be tedious and

boring when done alone, thus, these groups provide the motivation and

encouragement a student needs to overcome difficulties in their academic life.

Friends can be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior

and opinions of a person. It shows that the influence of friends can lead to this

matter. Most of the students are likely to hang out with their own clique. Being

separated with their own clique will be a disappointment and discouragement for

them. So, it is so important for them to stay together. Because of this friends’

influencing factor, the students then decide to live outside the campus by renting

a house with their clique.

<INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK>

Appendix B


The bar-chart below exemplified then percentage breakdown of the factors that

influenced PTSB’s students to live outside the campus:

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

Fa

cto

rs

Factors to Live Outside Campus

Freedom Hostel Environment

Group Studies Outside Facilities

Stringent Rules Emphasize on Junior Students

Risk of Losing Valuable Belongings Limited Choice of Foods

Hostel Activities Friends' Influence

No. Factors Percent (%)

1. Freedom 25%

2. Hostel environment - boring 8%

3. Group studies 3%

4. Facilities such as bank (ATM machine), 24-hours convenience shops, restaurants and others

5%

5. Stringent rules adopted by campus 25%

6. Emphasize on junior students 6.5%

7. Risk of losing valuable belongings 12%

8. Limited choice of foods at the hostel cafeteria 10%

9. Hostel activities – „roll-call‟ sessions 4.5%

10. Friends‟ influence 1%

Appendix B


In addition to the above bar-chart, the activities involved by the PTSB’s students are

illustrated in the chart below:

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Study Entertainment Rest and relax Recreation

Activities of PTSP Students

Outside Campus Hostel

As we can see from the chart above, the hostel students spend 50% of their time for

study compared to students who lives outside the campus where they only spend

around 30% of their times for study.

However, the outside students spend most of their times for entertainment which is

approximately 40% compared to 5% spend by the hostel students. The entertainment

activities are such as hanging out with friends, surfing internet and etc.

The hostel students also tend to have a higher percentage of time for rest and relax as

well as recreation sessions compared to the outside students. This is because the hostel

students have to follow the schedule arranged for them where they need to do some

recreational activities such as playing football, netball and many more. In addition, they

also need to sleep on time because they have to turn off the light at 11 p.m. as stated in

hostel rules.

Generally, for students who lived outside campus, their recreational activities are such

as futsal and snooker where this is normally held during the night. As most of their

activities are held during the night, they will have a lesser time for rest and relax.

In short, these major reasons which are privacy, stringent rules, freedom, friends‟

influence, risk of losing things, hostel environment, limited varieties of foods, 24-hours

Appendix B


outside facilities, prominence on the junior students and the hostel activities i.e. “roll-call”

sessions are the main reason on why students prefers to stay outside the campus. The

highest contributing factor that led students to live outside campus is demands for more

freedom in life and to avoid the stringent rules adopted by campus itself. Meanwhile the

least contributing factor is the influence by friends.

Reported by:

Muhammad Zamir Bin Zainal

15 July 2010

Factors That Contribute the Students to Live Outside the Campus

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