Bba Students Going Through Academic PressureEssay Preview: Bba Students Going Through Academic PressureReport this essayResearch Paper:BBA Students Going Through Academic PressureMuhibul Hassan AdilID: 071-168-530English 105, Section 5Maleka SarwarApril 17, 2010AbstractThis research paper is a study on BBA students going through academic pressure. Upon completing the research on 30 students from both private (NSU) and public (IBA) university, it is implied that academic pressure can have adverse effects on students. Questionnaire is used to survey the respondents and gather information mainly on how they cope with academic stress and the effects it has on their lives. Secondary sources are also availed to support the findings. The adverse effects include resorting to plagiarism, giving up other activities/interests, and doing things that can disturb bonding and relationships, and also lead to dreadful consequences like suicide. Some recommendations should be followed by the players involved in rising academic pressure to resolve this issue as much as possible.
INTRODUCTIONA boy goes to a washroom, locks the door, looks at the mirror, and screams aloud to let go his resentment. It is an existent scenario of a university student who gets this much frustrated as his parent incessantly inquires him about his academic performance. “This boy hates his father!” (Shamim F. Karim, personal communication, April 17, 2010). Ms. Karim is the professor and chairman of department of psychology in Dhaka University, and also part-time lecturer of the psychology course in North South University, with whom the boy shared the antagonistic relationship with his father that came out of academic stress.
The world today is becoming a very challenging place where competition in the job market is at its pinnacle. Every year potential future leaders are prepared and produced by different academic institutions who vie with all the other tough and talented graduates. In other words, if one aspires to successfully live a profession of his/her dream, then there are hurdles and hoops to overcome for which he/she is trained beforehand in relevant educational institutes and that often puts him/her to go through dire academic pressure.
Conventionally some pressure is put on the students from early age and the weight keeps on soaring and piling up as they climb the academic ladder. University students are basically the ones knocking at the door to the real world where they have to practically perform and show their true potential and knowledge elicited from years of study. This research paper would examine some of those students in Bangladesh who encounter academic pressure at this level. This report would study how students of different calibers cope with it differently. The pressure is prevalently made more intense by parents, teachers, and peers and can get so miserable and demoralizing at times that it disturbs the bonding and relationships within; often results in dreadful consequences. Besides, when striving to handle the load they miss out other activities which are also necessary to develop their competencies, be it academic or non-academic. Questions are also raised if such stresses are always worth taking or if they are just a burden that merely exhaust rather than hone the intellect. In this case, the roles of the parents, teachers, and friends to patronize the afflicted students are also a matter of study. In a nutshell, if not applied in the rightful manner, academic pressure can have adverse effects on students.
BACKGROUNDAcademic pressure is a kind of stress felt by students when they try to academically live up to the expectations that are considered outstanding by themselves and certainly also by others. According to Wilders (n.d.) academic pressure is “the pressure a student receives from family or society that causes stress over school and future success.” Stress is not always bad. Stress can be good at times as it is necessary to boost ones performance. Nist-Olejnik and Holschuh (2007) pointed out, “If you feel no stress at all when going in to take an exam, you may not be gearing yourself up enough to do as well as you could” (p. 101). The stress is worth it when one feels a great accomplishment after passing a difficult exam. However, too much focus on academic performance “can lead to severe problems” (Wilders, n.d.).
It is beyond the shadow of a doubt that university students feel stress about taking on new responsibilities when they graduate and proving themselves to be competent enough to vie with all the candidates in the job market. It is the pressure to succeed which comes from several factors. Some of the vital sources as observed by Wilders (n.d.) include demanding parents who keep on pushing their child to do significantly well in studies. Also, family background is a factor where particularly Asian families tend to value academics a lot and grades are seen as the most important part of life. On top of that, pressure becomes more intense due to a changing world where competition has gone massive and there is a desire for money for a better life.
Some of the secondary sources are reviewed to portray a fair scenario of what is going around the issue of academic pressure. According to Nist-Olejnik and Holschuh (2007), students who always did well in the past tend to set high academic standards on themselves and thus experience more academic pressure in the university level. The authors also pointed out that there are other stresses which add to academic pressure and that include financial stress of the money required to continue education; social stress that involves pressure from the peers and people in a society; and finally family stress which addresses a students responsibility to get a good job and support his/her family (p.103).
The authors are more reluctant to make use of the “moral and economic” aspects of the literature in analyzing the effects of an academic environment on a student’s academic performance. This book uses a broad survey methodology to see whether the literature can be used in understanding the effects of a school setting or any other academic environment. While we are already familiar with the problems that result in academic academic decline and the economic fallout associated with this decline, the authors take these issues into consideration when they consider how many schools, colleges and universities now have more than 10.000 people working full time in fields of expertise, such as mathematics, that are not only subject to academic pressures but have also developed the academic equivalent of a second job at a higher level than what most people in the field of mathematics and statistics do (Ibid). The number of people studying in institutions with a highly professional degree, many of them graduates of the University (i.e., a “work force”) is likely due primarily to high levels of professionalism, despite many, many other reasons (See p.119, in a paper published in 2011 for an academic comparison (Tumkin et al. 2003)). In addition, the “college experience” is in the eyes of many researchers because it has the potential to impact negatively our professional image (e.g., see, for instance, Schoenfeld and Wren 2007 for details on a study by J.E. Leakey and W.H. Blomsted showing that a college diploma can decrease the number of professors who are no longer studying), but also because the “educational experience” does not seem to be such a significant problem. The authors point out that university experience has led many students to not have much time for their studies because they have to deal with the stress of academic job pressure (see p.123). The authors also note that students who get offered jobs at non-academic institutions may not even realize they are in a good academic environment as that may lead to academic career decline if an experienced, successful student who develops an academic career. Other factors that might affect the academic experience include personal experience or financial stresses due to university graduation, high school dropout rates and the effect of work problems that may be more significant than their academic job prospects (Hahn and Farsi 2004).
The authors also note that the lack of strong professional influence in public academia is an apparent outcome of the recent economic downturn and the economic crisis that is already occurring (see p.114) or might be the natural outcome of having a strong and respected academic profession. The authors think that people’s involvement in public academia, not simply the academic work performed in the academic field at large, will result in “higher academic standards, financial success, and academic success that goes with the career trajectory
The authors are more reluctant to make use of the “moral and economic” aspects of the literature in analyzing the effects of an academic environment on a student’s academic performance. This book uses a broad survey methodology to see whether the literature can be used in understanding the effects of a school setting or any other academic environment. While we are already familiar with the problems that result in academic academic decline and the economic fallout associated with this decline, the authors take these issues into consideration when they consider how many schools, colleges and universities now have more than 10.000 people working full time in fields of expertise, such as mathematics, that are not only subject to academic pressures but have also developed the academic equivalent of a second job at a higher level than what most people in the field of mathematics and statistics do (Ibid). The number of people studying in institutions with a highly professional degree, many of them graduates of the University (i.e., a “work force”) is likely due primarily to high levels of professionalism, despite many, many other reasons (See p.119, in a paper published in 2011 for an academic comparison (Tumkin et al. 2003)). In addition, the “college experience” is in the eyes of many researchers because it has the potential to impact negatively our professional image (e.g., see, for instance, Schoenfeld and Wren 2007 for details on a study by J.E. Leakey and W.H. Blomsted showing that a college diploma can decrease the number of professors who are no longer studying), but also because the “educational experience” does not seem to be such a significant problem. The authors point out that university experience has led many students to not have much time for their studies because they have to deal with the stress of academic job pressure (see p.123). The authors also note that students who get offered jobs at non-academic institutions may not even realize they are in a good academic environment as that may lead to academic career decline if an experienced, successful student who develops an academic career. Other factors that might affect the academic experience include personal experience or financial stresses due to university graduation, high school dropout rates and the effect of work problems that may be more significant than their academic job prospects (Hahn and Farsi 2004).
The authors also note that the lack of strong professional influence in public academia is an apparent outcome of the recent economic downturn and the economic crisis that is already occurring (see p.114) or might be the natural outcome of having a strong and respected academic profession. The authors think that people’s involvement in public academia, not simply the academic work performed in the academic field at large, will result in “higher academic standards, financial success, and academic success that goes with the career trajectory
On top of that, a research suggests that “stress resulting from academic pressure may actually impede academic performance and lead to problematic escape behaviors such as drinking” (Weiten, Lloyd, Dunn, & Hammer, 2009, p.79), and also plagiarism as per the findings of this research paper.
HYPOTHESESSome hypotheses have been established regarding this research paper on academic pressure