Contents

Abstract.....................................................................................................................................2

Introduction...............................................................................................................................3

Methodology.............................................................................................................................4

Results.......................................................................................................................................5

Discussion.................................................................................................................................9

References...............................................................................................................................11

Appendix
Abstract

This research investigated whether international students in academic success at university was

related to the importance of time management. The sample for this was conducted of forty-seven

students from EAP5 courses at Western Sydney University, The College who were randomly

selected. As well, the paper based questionnaire were used as the instrument. Moreover, the data

was converted into percentages. The results indicated that overseas students feel happy with the

way students are balancing time between work, study and social life. In addition, it also

demonstrated that time management is an essential factor for international students. These results

suggest that time management is significant for students because these students want to achieve at

university.
Introduction

For many years, the achieving success had an important role in the life of people. Furthermore, this

can be essential to international students in Australia to reach a goal of studying at university. These

students constantly have the challenges encountered while experiencing this situation. Whereas

some students can manage time on studying at university, others cannot achieve that. Many

universities have assisted overseas students in improving their time management skill.

There are various arguments that time management places an essential role in academic success in

university. Nasrullah and Khan (2015) suggested that good time management would support

students to control the stress level of studying in higher education, and it is associated with their

daily activities and routines. Nadinloyi et al. (2013) identified the efficiency of time management

skills of different groups of students.

Nevertheless, there is no research about international students and this only mention national

students (Nasrullah and Khan 2015) and Basila (2014) investigated students from college on-line

courses but not from the university. Furthermore, the research of Nadinloyi et al. (2013) does not

have any information about balancing time between outside the university and inside the university.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the importance of time management in academic

success at university and balancing time between work, study and social life of overseas students. It

was hypothesised that time management is the most significant factor to achieve at university.
Methodology

A survey about time management was conducted on 27th September 2018. The sample size

consisted of fifty students who studied in EAP 5 courses at Western Sydney University, The

College, at Sydney Olympic Park. The majority of students were from China, over 21 years old and

the number of male and female were approximately the same. These participants were randomly

selected.

The instrument of the survey was in the form of a questionnaire. It involved eleven closed-ended

questions and one open-ended question. The first three questions gathered data about the

demographic information of the respondents. Another five questions collated information about the

role of time management in academic success at university and stress level in their study. The next

four questions asked about balancing the time for study, work and social life. The draft

questionnaire was administered to minimise mistakes and inappropriate words.

The questionnaires were answered and distributed outside the classroom by EAP 5 students in the

morning. The whole process took thirty minutes. Each participant spent a few minutes to answer

and submit their questionnaires. Three administrators were available to support and help subjects.

The data was collated and converted into percentages by using Microsoft Excel. It was presented in

graphical form for analysis and averages for each item were calculated.
Results

Figure 1: Hours study outside class

70

60
Percentages of participants (%)

50

40

30

20

10

0
0-1 hour 1-3 hours 4-6 hours More than 6 hours
Hour

Figure 1 shows the time that the participants spent on studying outside class per day. Overall, the

vast majority of subjects preferred one to three hours for studying. Of those, more than twice as the

percentages of participants choosing one to three hours as the percentages of participants choosing

zero to one hour. Moreover, an equal percentage of respondents in choosing four to six hours and

more than six hours about 3 percent.

 Figure 2: The importance of time management in academic success
60
Percentages of participants (%)

50

40

30

20

10

0
Essential Important Unimportant Don't know
Level

Figure 2 demonstrates the importance of time management was identified in academic success in

university by the respondents. The percentage of participants who chose essential was the highest at

more than fifty percent. While more than forty percent of subjects who chose important, only

almost five percent of participants chose unimportant. None of the participants chose “I do not

know".
 Figure 3: Activities of most of the time in weekly schedule
40
Percentages of participants (%)

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
University work Housework Exercise Work Socialising
Activity

Figure 3 illustrates the activities that the respondents spent most of their time in weekly schedule. In

general, the most activities that were reported by students in the schedule was university work at

more than thirty-five percent. Furthermore, more than twice the number of subject chose work than

the number of participants chose exercise. In addition, the percentages of subjects who preferred

housework and socialising were approximately the same at around ten percent.
 Figure 4: The balance of study, work and social life
80
Percentages of participants (%)

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
Very happy Happy Not happy Never thought about it
Feeling

Figure 4 presents the feeling of participants in balancing the time between study, work and social

life. Overall, the percentages of respondents chose “Happy” were the most common feeling at more

than seventy percent while the least common feeling was “Never thought about it” at almost five

percent. Moreover, approximately twice as the number of subjects chose “Very happy” as the

number of participants chose “Not happy”.

Discussion

This research was designed to demonstrate the most significant factor for the academic success of

international students is time management.

The main findings of the study were that the majority of students believe that time management is

essential for the achievement at university. The findings are consistent with those of a similar study

of Nasrullah and Khan (2015). Nasrullah and Khan’s findings demonstrate that time management is

highly related to the academic success of university students.

One probable conclusion is that the greatest number of students spent one to three hours studying

outside class per day. It is possible that overseas students allocate enough time for studying outside

class, also students need to do homework and practice their study skills. In addition, this research

revealed that most international students feel happy about balancing time between work, study and

social life. An apparent reason for this can be that these students have the knowledge of time

management so that students can administer and manage time to reduce stress and balance the

relationship between outside university and inside university.

Moreover, the activity that students generally spent most of time on was university work. It is

apparent that studying at university is more important than other activities because international

students must go to university daily and spend long-time to study a day. Another result was that the

majority of students chose the importance of time management in academic success at university to

be essential. It is certain that time management is the skill that can support students to plan and

organise time between specific activities and focus on study, also students can have more free time,

can have less wasted time and reduce stress.

Some significant limitations in this research that need to be addressed were the number of overseas

students and where the research took place. These limitations partly agree with those of Nasrullah

and Khan (2015). Those are indicated that where the study took place is solely on Qurtuba

University of Science and Technology, Peshawar. It conducted by fifty students in only one

campus of Western Sydney University. Additionally, there is a limitation in a design of the

questionnaire about the research did not mention about the level of success of students at university.

Finally, the necessity of further research is to gather more results as well as to analyse the

motivation and the target of students, and this research requires a long-time preparation in regard to

time management in academic success at university. Furthermore, it is fundamental to suggest that

this research should examine more international students at different universities.

 REFERENCES

Basila, C 2014, 'Good Time Management and Motivation Level Predict Student Academic Success

in college On-Line Courses', International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning,

vol. 4, no.3, pp. 45-52, viewed 8th October 2018, IGI Global, DOI: 10.4018/ijcbpl.2014070104.

Nadinloyi, K, Hajloo, N, Garamaleki, N & Sadeghi, H 2013, 'The Study Efficacy of Time

Management Training on Increase Academic Time Management of Students', Procedia - Social

and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 84, pp. 134-138, viewed 8th October 2018,

<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042813015905>.

Nasrullah, S & Khan, M 2015, 'The Impact of Time Management on the Students' Academic

Achievements', Journal of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, vol. 11, pp. 66-71, viewed 8th

October 2018, <https://iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JLLL/article/viewFile/23538/23819>.