Results of Survey Concerning University Life (Survey conducted Autumn 2003/4)

The Adams�f Project of Sophia Alpha conducted a survey inquiring about university life at Sophia University.  Questions asked focused on A. why students entered university, B. what they learnt from university life, C. how satisfied students were with what the university offers, D. what students�f worries were and E. student's sense of fulifilment  As some problems arose from the format of the survey, some information was distorted, but efforts have been made to adjust the data. The samples taken from Ichigaya campus: The data that will be given below is the result of 87 questionnaires.  74% of the surveys were answered by females, while only 25% were male.  A little over a third were seniors, a third were freshmen, followed by a quarter of juniors, while only slightly more than 10% were sophomores.

Results of Survey:

A. Reasons for entering university:

1.  get a degree 2.  find out what I want to do in the future 3.  study in depth

Other reasons included personal growth, to enjoy university life etc.

B. What students learn from university life:

1.  broaden one�fs horizons (43%) 2.  think structurally (20%)

3.  flexibility (16%) 4.  ability to express oneself (15%)

C. Degree of satisfaction with what the university has to offer:

All in all, students seem to be fairly satisfied with what the university offers, such as the professors/faculty staff and class contents. However, there were some harsh comments which questioned the (suit-)ability of some professors or suggested that students who were not serious about their studies (coming late to classes, talking during lectures and not switching off their mobile phones) should simply be thrown out of the class concerned. Such comments were especially frequent among seniors, among whom there might be more students who have found their fields of interest, and who thus take their chosen classes more seriously. The facilities of the university seem to be a definitive problem as many comments show. Details will follow further below.

D. What students worry about:

1.  job-hunting (ca. 30%) 2.  academic (23%)

3.  human relationships (10%), financial problems (10%) 4.  no worries (8%)

Job-hunting might have emerged as an urgent issue since 59% of the students who took the survey were juniors and seniors, for whom life after university is approaching. The comments often asked for more information for Ichigaya students about job hunting, job forums and internships.

E. Sense of fulfilment:

More than half of the students answered that their university life is fulfilling.  However, a quarter marked the two lowest ratings out of a possible five, which seems to be a fairly high proportion.  It needs to be added though that, as mentioned above, there was a problem with the format of the survey and that with this particular question, it was not possible to do any extrapolation.

Summary of Comments:

From the above result, one can already see clearly that most students are unsatisfied with the facilities of Ichigaya campus ? ranging from the cafeteria, computer labs, to the women�fs bathrooms.

Complaints and suggestions concerning these facilities are as follows:

(1) The cafeteria service seems to have worsened, as the menu is limited, the tea dispenser finally turned into a hot-water dispenser, chopsticks need to be paid for etc. (2) The computer labs need improvements, such as the prolonging of opening hours, possibly also on week-ends, additional computers and scanners, and lately the printers on the 1st floor seem to have been constantly out of order.  Some students suggested that people also needed to be more careful not to print out too many sheets at once as it causes delays and jams.   (3) Many female students complained about the restrooms, which are dirty, clogging, often out of toilet paper, and too small in numbers relative to the number of female students.

For the academic side, comments included the following:

(1) Many students said that the quality of professors differs a lot and that some of the professors are not suitable for the university.  Also, it is said that depending on the professor, classes are simply boring. (2) With rising seniority, more students asked for a wider choice of classes and flexibility in taking classes.  (3) Especially seniors expressed a desire to actively participate in university life on Ichigaya campus    through clubs, circles, student government and the like.

Other comments mainly concerned the availability of information:

(1) Many students wanted more information from the Yotsuya campus, such as information about lecture meetings held at Yotsuya.  The office at Ichigaya campus doesn�ft seem to be well equipped since students are mostly referred to the Yotsuya offices.  Complaints about the office staff being unfriendly were frequent. (2) As mentioned above, the lack of information about job-hunting, job forums and internships seems to be of great concern especially on Ichigaya campus.

Attempts to Solve the Problems:

Sophia Alpha, being a circle that tries to ameliorate the environment students live in, has been tackling some of the above mentioned problems:

(1) Cafeteria:  Sophia Alpha has sent requests to improve the cafeteria to the university authority.  The catering company has now been changed, resulting in new staff, menu and vending machines.  The (hot) water/tea dispenser is working again as well.  (2) Facilities:  Since the unpleasant incident last year where a male student of another university dressed as a woman entered the women�fs bathroom on the second floor, Sophia Alpha has sent a request to inspect the women�fs bathrooms.  The inspections have taken place and improvements have been made, including alarms in each cubicle, blinds etc.  The computer labs cannot so easily be expanded, but the SURF (Sophia University Research Facility) section of Sophia Alpha has prepared a pamphlet to inform students about the location and availablility of computer labs on the Yotsuya campus.  They are available in the entrance hall.  (3) Job-related:  There is a circle called Sophia Enterprises that was only recently been established to help students with their job-hunting.  It is a group of students, supervised by Professor Robouam, who gather information, establish connections with companies and work with the Alumni of Sophia University to help current FCC students find their way into �glife after university�h.  Two Job Forums have been held until now and the responses have been positive.  It may be helpful to either join the circle or be put onto the list of one of the e-groups of Sophia Enterprises.  For more information, e-mail: rsophia2000@yahoo.com. We will take the results of the survey into consideration and continuously try to make improvements where possible.  To those who took their time to fill out the surveys: Thank you again for your cooperation!