Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Business education is one of the most popular subjects for Swedish university students, in Sweden ingeneral as well as in Umeå university. This leads to challenges both for the university in terms of providing study programs, teachers, facilities, etc. however it also presents students with situations where they face a number of educational related aspects that they form perceptions about. These perceptions have not been widely studied, especially on local level. Neither have there been much previous research on how these perceptions change over time as a student progresses through the education. These were the reasons for the realization of this thesis.
The study took foundation in the students’ perspective and was carried out through a deductive approach. The theoretical framework focused on different aspects that can affect student perceptions such as their own performance, learning, content and delivery of the education, teachers and fellow students. From this framework, key aspects were identified that students can form perceptions about. These were learning, responsibility, engagement and satisfaction.
A survey was then developed based on the theoretical framework and the questions were categorized according to the four key aspects. The survey was distributed among students on all levels of the education in the Umeå university School of Business. When the data collection was finished, the data was analyzed in SPSS and Excel. The results were presented, question by questionin the empirical results chapter and later compared with the students’ level of study. From this it was evident which aspects that were interesting to further analyze within the four key perceptions.
The result of this study shows how and which student perceptions that change while students go through an educational experience. The conclusions that can be drawn are that perceptions of learning, responsibility and engagement change over time while perceptions of satisfaction remain constant.
2010.