Running Head: Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA

The effects of joining university clubs on Egyptian students’ GPA

Nile University

English Department

Under the supervision of:

Dr. Omnia ElKholy

July 1, 2021

Hana Haytham - 202000054

Mariam Elsaadany - 202002126

Nada Sayed - 202000838

Reem Amgad - 202000438

Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
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Abstract

It has become significant for university students to join clubs so that they add to their

experience and activity in their CVs to be distinguished from other job applicants and ensure

better employment chances. However, having a high GPA is essential as well; thus, this

research aims to identify the effects of joining university clubs on Egyptian university

students’ GPAs nowadays. To investigate this issue, data was collected quantitatively using

an online survey, created using Google Forms and shared on social media platforms,

targeting Nile University students in Egypt. With a sample size of 66 student participants,

61% female and 39% male students ranging from freshmen to seniors but mostly freshmen

forming 83%, we were able to come up with the following four key findings: the students

who join university clubs are more than those who do not, the limited time the students have

is the primary reason why they do not join the clubs, almost all the GPAs of the students who

are club members were not affected by joining a university club; finally, a huge portion of the

students believed that joining university clubs had no effect on their GPAs; despite that, we

assume that preserving the same GPA as the years get harder is a merit itself. It is

recommended for further research to take into consideration the academic instructors point of

view and know more about the participating students’ performance to have a more precise

view of how joining university clubs may affect the students’ GPAs.

Table of Content
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Abstract......................................................................................................................................2

1 Introduction........................................................................................................................5

2 Literature Review...............................................................................................................7

2.1 Motivations and students’ reasons behind joining university clubs:...........................7

2.1.1 Student Perspectives on Joining Student Organizations......................................7

2.1.2 The motivation behind participating in students' clubs........................................7

2.1.3 Student participation in collegiate organizations.................................................8

2.1.4 Professional student organizations and experiential learning activities: What

drives student intentions to participate?.............................................................................9

2.1.5 The Operation of Student Organizations............................................................10

2.2 The effects of joining university clubs on the students:............................................11

2.2.1 Effects of extracurricular activities on students.................................................11

2.2.2 Effects of involvement in clubs on the psychosocial development of first-year

and senior college students...............................................................................................12

2.2.3 Effect of Extra Curricular Activity on Student’s Academic Performance.........13

2.3 The effects of joining university clubs on the students’ leadership:.........................14

2.3.1 The contributions of student organization involvement to students' self-

assessments of their leadership traits and relational behaviors........................................14

2.3.2 Student involvement in leadership.....................................................................15

2.4 Conclusion.................................................................................................................16

3 Methodology....................................................................................................................17
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3.1 Research Design........................................................................................................17

3.2 Research Participants.................................................................................................17

3.3 Instrument..................................................................................................................17

3.4 Data Collection Procedures.......................................................................................18

4 Results..............................................................................................................................19

5 Discussion........................................................................................................................24

5.1 Conclusion.................................................................................................................28

5.2 Limitations.................................................................................................................28

5.3 Recommendations.....................................................................................................29

6 References........................................................................................................................30

7 Appendix..........................................................................................................................33
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1 Introduction

With students moving on to an absolutely different level of education, they may face

new concerns they were never compelled to worry so much about before joining the

university like building a brand-new social life, reaching high academic excellence,

practicing independence as well as ensuring getting employed after graduating. Having a safe

place to go that would help relief some of their worries is essential and that is where

university clubs or student organizations come. Whether being student-lead or formed by the

university itself, these clubs mainly aim to provide the students with full-on college

experience and to influence their personal, social and educational lives positively

[ CITATION The17 \l 2057 ].

No matter what the student’s interests may be, a huge variety of club types are always

there for them to choose what best fits their interests, for instance academic clubs, political

clubs, sports clubs, media & publication groups, theatre & arts clubs and even more (TBS,

2018). There are even virtual clubs and societies that are available for the students to join and

live the whole experience despite being quarantined in this pandemic (Venable, 2020). Each

of these clubs provide its members with a special kind of service that would enrich their

whole university experience with different skill sets and will add to their social circle.

Mainly, students would know about the university’s clubs in an orientation day, held by the

university, for freshmen students where clubs or organizations take it as a chance to do a

societies fair to attract new members to their clubs. Most of the university clubs or

organizations are non-profit, however, when students decide which club they are going to

join, they maybe occasionally have to pay a membership fee only to fund society events or to

cover insurance, this fee is often nominal.

Learning more about how joining these university clubs and organizations may affect

the students has interested us; thus, with hopes of finding out how far these effects may go,
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we have done our research and found a variety of research papers and articles that tackled this

issue before. These papers mainly discussed how beneficial it would be, both on personal and

social levels, for the students to join clubs in their university. Multiple research papers and

articles have proven how the students' communication skills improve while others

concentrated on the soft skills gained by the student members throughout this experience for

example problem-solving, group development and management, finance, presentation, and

public speaking; moreover, research was done to examine how joining a university club could

teach leadership skills and how helpful it would be for the students after graduating (12

reasons why, 2021).

Also, seeing how our university has its fair share of clubs as well as how a huge

portion of its students are willing to be or are already club members, leaders and founders, we

were determined to approach this topic from a different side view, and that is by researching

how it affects their academics, specifically, their grade point averages, mainly known as

GPAs. Students join university clubs, nowadays, in Egypt to ensure higher employment

chances and to have their CVs stand out from their other peers; however, having a high GPA

is crucial to get employed, as well. Therefore, it is vital to understand how joining clubs

affects the students’ GPA.

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2 Literature Review

2.1 Motivations and students’ reasons behind joining university clubs:

2.1.1 Student Perspectives on Joining Student Organizations

In this study, Haines (2019) aimed to understand why American students choose

joining university clubs and student organizations, and what are the motivations behind their

involvement to help provide the students with a better learning experience and self-

development opportunities. She conducted her research on 20 students in The College at

Brockport, who are currently members in registered clubs or organizations, in focus groups

with ages ranging from 18 to 25. Besides the interviews, additional data sources of different

types and aspects were used as well as observations were conducted at the student

organization involvement fair and institutional data from the National Survey of Student

Engagement was examined to address the research, qualitatively. By the end of the research,

Haines was able to answer her research question through the following key findings: the

possibility of developing potential leadership skills, the feeling of belongingness and social

support enhance engagement and the merit of developing transferable soft skills. These

findings showed the reason behind why students join university clubs and helped give a

clearer view to higher education officials of how they can improve the students learning

experience. Thus, this paper plays a significant role in our research since understanding these

findings will help us build a clear picture of how joining university clubs may have an

influence on the students’ educational process; and therefore, how it would affect their GPAs.

2.1.2 The motivation behind participating in students' clubs

Iancu, Culic, & Pavelea (2016) conducted this research paper to identify the students

who get involved in clubs and what motivates them to join as well as understand how these

clubs are promoting themselves and what do they offer as activities that attract new members.
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For this case study, students from the Faculty of Political, Administrative and

Communication Sciences in Cluj-Napoca College, in Romania, participated. The quantitative

research required three components. The first included demographic information like

frequency of participation in student clubs, preferences and general motivations. The other

two components used a Likert scale. One of the components used the scale (1= never, 5 =

very often) to answer 45 leisure motivation questions categorized into: intellectual, social,

competence/mastery, and stimulus avoidance factors. The other component used the

personality traits Likert scale ranging from (1=strongly disagree) to (5=strongly agree)

aiming to understand how the students describe themselves through the Rosenberg Self-

Esteem Scale. Additionally, a focus group was held with six student club coordinators, from

Babes-Bolyai University - Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences

(CPACS), to establish what motivates the students to participate in extracurricular activities.

The survey had 42 respondents, divided equally by gender, mostly were from the Department

of Communication and Advertising, followed by Public Administration then Journalism and

Public Health. Responses mainly came from first or second-year students: however, some

answers were also from master students. Results from interviewing the focus group were

consistent with those from the surveys: students are usually motivated to join university clubs

to enhance their knowledge on a certain topic of interest, they constantly seek developing

their skills and long-term learning by taking on challenging tasks, university students also

aim to socialize with those who share their interests and form new friendships through

socialization, they may also join to get away from their routine, relax or spend their free time

constructively. The results are useful to our research since they show how university clubs

may actually affect the students’ personality and skills which may affect their GPAs as well.
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2.1.3 Student participation in collegiate organizations

This study aimed to describe the current involvement of undergraduates in student

clubs, describe why students do or do not participate in undergraduate student organizations,

define the characteristics that are most highly correlated with participation in student

organizations, as well as identify strategies for improving student participation in

undergraduate student organizations at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS),

American University of Arizona. They conducted their research on 95 undergraduate CALS

students that were chosen randomly. The design of this study was of non-experimental

survey-type, based on a Likert scale. There were 31 questions that the students were asked

that reflected their characteristics as to why they do and do not join undergraduate

organizations. In addition, fill-in-the-blank type questions were used to gain the following

information: Age, Gender, Class, Major, Overall GPA, and Extracurricular organizations

involved in during college. The survey for this study was produced by a panel of experts from

CALS who reviewed studies and questionnaires, the most helpful being the Schumacher

(1990) survey for college students. The key findings resulting from that quantitative research

were summarized as follows: students participate in organizations to improve their

communications skills and enlarge their communications network, the number one reason

students do not participate is because of the lack of time, and finally, the result that was most

astonishing was that the students that are most active are the sophomores[CITATION

Kni02 \l 2057 ]. Since keeping up your GPA requires time and concentration, these findings

help us understand that students would choose their GPA over joining clubs to ensure

academic excellence. Relating joining clubs to the student’s GPA is our aim and time

management is within its scope.

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2.1.4 Professional student organizations and experiential learning activities: What drives

student intentions to participate?

This study was conducted by Laura Munoz, Richard Miller and Sonja Martin Poole

(2016) to examine why students choose to join college clubs and organizations. They

conducted their research on a total of 242 business students of both genders at a southern state

university in USA. In order to capture a broad and representative sample, students were

chosen from many business fields, such as accounting, marketing, management, and finance.

The majority of students in the experiment were between the ages of 18 and 29 and worked

either part-time or full-time. Students were asked to specify on a scale of 1-5 how important

some factors are when being an active member in an organization. Professional Development,

Interpersonal Skills, and Networking are examples of these factors. As a result of this mixed

study, it was found that ethnicity, as well as being a first-generation college student, had no

effect on the intention of joining clubs or organizations. However, in terms of experimental

actions, contact with professionals and professional development activities were significant

predictors of intention. This research paper provided an initial investigation into the factors

that influence students' intentions to participate in a college club or organization. With these

key findings, we can understand that students choose to join university clubs for constructive

reasons which means that they may join the clubs also if it benefits them academically,

especially their GPAs, which is related to our research.

2.1.5 The Operation of Student Organizations

The study was done by Ivey et al. (2016) to gain sufficient understating of the reasons

why or why not IT/ICT students attend tech clubs in the College of Communication and

Information (CCI), at Florida State University. The research’s quantitative method involved

using two different types of surveys: an online google form survey and a paper survey.

There were 59 CCI students who responded, 40 were males and 18 were females. The
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respondents were 8 sophomores, 34 juniors, 16 seniors, and one graduate, but no freshman

students participated in this survey. For the sake of ease of accessing for students on campus,

they chose volunteer sampling technique as a second sampling technique, also students have

more tendency to participate in research studies on campus. The reasons why CCI students

choose to attend the university tech clubs could be summarized as follows: they join the clubs

because of the professional development and networking opportunities, they believe that

joining clubs will add credit to their resume when applying for a job, as they gain skills that

cannot be gained in classroom. Reasons why students do not attend these clubs were also

explained. It was found that students awareness of the clubs available were limited and the

students’ schedules were conflicting with the club meetings; therefore, they were not able to

join or attend. The results showed that students mainly join clubs for their beneficial

outcomes; thus, it is highly relevant to our research as it shows how joining clubs may have

an impact on the students’ education, especially their GPAs.

2.2 The effects of joining university clubs on the students:

2.2.1 Effects of extracurricular activities on students

Saqib, Raheem, Iqbal, Salman, and Shahzad (2018) intended in this research paper to

determine how participating in different kinds of activities affect the students, both

academically as well as professionally in their future lives by collecting and analysing data

from students and people who have graduated and are currently pursuing their professional

life. They conducted their research on 250 students at various universities in Pakistan such as

NUST, Comsats, and Karachi University. Following a mixed methodology, the study

consisted of two surveys. The first focused on examining the students’ behaviour regarding

their participation in extracurricular activities and the corresponding effect on their studies

while the second survey focused on professionals who have already gone through their

academic stage to analyse what are their thoughts and experiences regarding the effects of
Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
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extracurricular activities on their career as a whole (including both academic and professional

development aspects). By the end of the research, they were able to summarize the answer to

their research question as follows: the importance of students participating in extracurricular

activities when they go into professional life since it helps develop social and personal skills

and increases self-perception and confidence. With these key findings, we can understand

that joining university clubs do have an effect on the students’ GPA and identifying how far

this effect goes to is our aim.

2.2.2 Effects of involvement in clubs on the psychosocial development of first-year and

senior college students

Grainger and Foubert (2006) conducted this study, in the College of William and Mary

in Williamsburg, Virginia, to investigate the role of students’ involvement in clubs and

organizations on their psychosocial development after their first-year experience in college,

by measuring their development at the start of their sophomore year. They also reassessed

their development during the spring of their senior year, to evaluate the students’

psychosocial development throughout their whole college experience. To ensure an accurate

and reliable outcome, it was a 4-year longitudinal study. A randomly selected sample of 307

incoming first-year students completed the STDLI in the week before their first week began.

The same students were invited to complete the survey again at the beginning of the

sophomore year and at the end of their senior year, to standardize data collection. The SDTLI

(Student Development Task and Lifestyle Inventory) is an instrument used to examine

student development and involvement. It was developed to collect students’ self-reported

behaviors, attitudes, and opinions on psychosocial topics that specifically relate to Chickering

and Reisser’s theory (1993), which described development as proceeding along seven

vectors: moving through autonomy toward interdependence, developing mature interpersonal

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relationships, establishing and clarifying purpose, developing competence, managing

emotions, establishing identity, and developing integrity. This study only focused on the first

three, though. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used for analysing the

data since it can study the dependence of the variables received from STDLI on multiple

other independent variables which are, in this research, the five levels of students

involvement (not a member of a club, attended a club meeting, joined a club, led a club,

founded a club). The first stage of MANOVA analysis used the STDLI results from the

sophomores’ early fall semester and the second stage used the STDLI results from the

seniors’ spring semester. In terms of educational involvement, career planning, lifestyle

management, as well as cultural participation, both analysis showed that no matter what the

involvement level was, students who were involved in student organizations were more

highly developed than those who were not involved at all. However, students that joined or

led a club were found to have higher development level than those who just attended a

meeting. Finally, no developmental differences were identified between students joining

clubs and leading them. In general, by their senior year, students who were involved in clubs

and organizations had significant higher levels of development in establishing and clarifying

purpose and the aforementioned variables of STDLI than they did at the beginning of their

first-year and at the beginning of their sophomore year. This findings show how the students

involvement in clubs can affect the students positively in different aspects of their life which

may have an effect of their GPA, as well. Thus, it is highly relevant to our study.

2.2.3 Effect of Extra Curricular Activity on Student’s Academic Performance

This study was conducted by Ahmad, Rahman, Ali, Rahman and Al-Azad (2015) to

examine the relationship between student’s participation in extracurricular activities on the

college campus and their academic performance. They conducted their research at Armed

Forces Medical College (AFMC), in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A total of 475 students of both
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genders belonged were selected as research sample. The research was conducted by gathering

data from the college's training section's records. The students were interviewed with the

intent of learning more about them. The information was analysed in percentages using

Pearson Chi-Square test Version 20 of the SPSS software. The key findings that were

inferred from the percentages of the quantitative research could be summarized as follows:

students who participate in extracurricular activities generally have better examination

results, higher standardized test scores, more regular class attendance as well as higher self-

concept. Additionally, participating in college clubs activities helps students gain skills such

as teamwork plus leadership and more importantly helps them avoid negative and violent

behaviours. The findings of this research are quite beneficial since they give us a brief idea of

how joining university clubs may affect the students educationally, and our research’s

purpose concentrates on the students’ GPAs.

2.3 The effects of joining university clubs on the students’ leadership:

2.3.1 The contributions of student organization involvement to students' self-assessments of

their leadership traits and relational behaviors

This research was written by Smith and Chenoweth (2015). It focused on the

importance of active participation in American student organizations, as well as students'

points of view of how these experiences influenced their leadership abilities. The aim of this

study is to investigate how students participating in non-academic student organizations rank

themselves in terms of both leadership qualities and attitudes compared to others who are not

engaged in any organizations. The study used a sample of approximately 3400 business major

students who were in their graduating semester at a large undergraduate business college. The

method involved using a survey in which seniors were asked to check about which of several

co-curricular activities they had participated in. Following that, students rated themselves on

different leadership qualities and habits. The population of final semester graduating seniors
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was 511 students. Of that number, 149 (29.2%) took the survey. For each of the results, t-

tests were used to determine whether significant differences were found between the two

groups: those students who participated in clubs and those who did not. By combining both

qualitative and quantitative research components this research was characterized to have a

mixed methodology design. The primary finding of this mixed research was that students

who participated in co-curricular clubs rated themselves higher on a variety of similar

leadership qualities such as confidence, honesty, optimism, persistence, and accountability,

with significant variations in positivity and perseverance. This key finding may help us while

carrying out our research since it shows how joining university clubs affects the students

personalities which may also affect their GPA status.

2.3.2 Student involvement in leadership

This research was done by Kelly and Azaola (2015) in University of Southampton.

They believed that among educators, the idea of recognizing the methods of developing

leadership capability is a constantly changing and crucial field of study. Therefore, they

reviewed multiple studies in their research that has been done in the field of leadership and

student involvement. One of the reviewed studies, that were found relevant to our research,

aimed to examine the co-curricular experience of student leaders in the US. It was conducted

by collecting data from 75 students, representing four higher education institutions. Using a

mixed-method approach (survey and follow-up interviews), it was realised that the there is a

positive impact resulting from the students involvement in university clubs since they have a

capability to understand others’ beliefs and perspectives[ CITATION Por12 \l 2057 ].

Another reviewed study intended to know the influence of organizational leadership

experience on the leadership behavior of undergraduate college students. The method of this

study required using quantitative instruments like an online survey that managed to gather

responses from 3500 US undergraduate students. As a result of this study, it was found that
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students being involved in student organizations affected their leadership behaviour

positively. Also, students who participate early in leadership development interventions in

their collegiate career had long-term payoff [CITATION Smi12 \l 2057 ]. These analysed

studies gave our research additional proof that joining university clubs affect students’

behaviour and enhance their skills which means it may also affect their GPAs.

2.4 Conclusion

To sum up, university clubs have proven to significantly influence the students’ lives in

various aspects and so far, as we can conclude from the previous research papers done, this

influence has been highly positive. Students choose to join university clubs for the skills they

can develop there, whether they are leadership and teamwork, soft and communication skills,

that increases their creditability when applying for jobs. Moreover, they find it as a mean of

spending their leisure time constructively and socialising with new people who share their

interests. Additionally, it adds to their behaviour since it raises their confidence levels and

cultivates honesty, accountability as well as other positive personality traits in them. Despite

all of these promising benefits, it is still important to identify how students joining university

clubs and organizations would affect their GPAs which has not been discussed clearly and

explicitly by previous research, especially on Egyptian university students. Thus, in this

research paper, we aim to answer and concentrate on one critical question which is: what are

the effects of joining university clubs on Egyptian university students’ GPA, nowadays? And

to answer this question our methodology will require conducting a study on a group of

Egyptian university students who are involved in clubs or were previously involved and have

them answer a survey that will help us establish a detailed response to our research question.

In the next section, the methodology, we will explain the research design we followed,

describe the sample of the research and the instrument used as well as define the procedure

followed for collecting the needed data.

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3 Methodology

3.1 Research Design

In this research, we aim to investigate how joining university clubs would affect the

students’ GPAs in Egypt since, nowadays, more and more students choose to join university

clubs and organizations to have a distinguished CV from their peers and ensure getting

employed after graduation. Thus, we followed a quantitative design by forming a survey that

contains multiple choice questions which helped us obtain results in the form of clear ratios.

These ratios and statistics enabled us to identify what are the effects of joining university

clubs on Egyptian university students’ GPA, nowadays.

3.2 Research Participants

In this research, we followed the stratified random sampling technique where we divided the

incoming responds into strata of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. This will help

us identify how joining university clubs affected each student group differently. Our research

had a sample size of 66 students who ranged from freshmen to seniors from Nile University

in Egypt. 61% of the particpants were female students while the remaining 39% were male

students. Regarding the year, 83% were freashmen ,7% were sophomores, 1% were juniors

and 9% were first and second seniors. Regarding the majors, 68% of the participants were

Information and Technology students, 26% were Engineering students and 5% were Business

students, and finally, 2% of the participants were Biotechnology students.

3.3 Instrument

To gather the needed sample, we used an online survey shared on the university’s

official Facebook group, that has students of various ages, teaching assistants, doctors and

other staff as members in it. The responses on these questions were then displayed as data on

graphs and tables. This quantitative data eased figuring out the results needed to answer our
Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
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research question. Moreover, this tool was the most applicable since following qualitative

procedures like observation or personal interviews would have been hard during the ongoing

pandemic. Although using the online survey was accessible by different age groups, the

number of responses were not enough. Thus, we decided to share the survey in the students’

WhatsApp groups to ensure having more participants.

3.4 Data Collection Procedures

The online survey was made on Google Forms, revised and shared on the Facebook

group on June 12, 2021. We expected that we will need from 5 to 10 days to collect the

needed sample size. However, once the survey is released, it took us 4 days to collect 66

students. When we observed a shortage of participants after the first 2 days of setting up the

survey, we shared the survey on the students’ WhatsApp groups. By the end of the 4 days of

data collection, we finished working out the ratios between male and female respondents of

the survey, and determining the percentages of students that join from each year and each

major. Then, we inserted the data into charts for each separate question. The primary

questions of the survey were the student’s GPA before and after joining a university club, and

how students think joining university clubs affected their GPAs. They provided us with the

desired data to come up with the results needed to determine whether students joining

university clubs affects their GPAs positively or negatively,. In the following section, the

results obtained from research’s methodology will be summarised and displayed in the form

of charts.
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4 Results

Our purpose in this research is to know the correlation and effect of joining university

clubs on students’ GPA in Egyptian universities. We conducted a survey using a quantitative

data analysis method. We targeted in this research Egyptian students in Nile university. So,

the survey was posted on the official Facebook group of the university. The time taken for the

data collecting procedure was 4 days. The range of our respondents’ academic year is from

freshmen to seniors only. These data were collected and represented in percentages values in

charts clarifying the answers to each question in our survey. The main reason of this survey is

to answer our research question “what are the effects of joining university clubs on Egyptian

university students’ GPA, nowadays?”

Question 1: What is your gender?

According to the chart, 61% of the participants in the

39%

61% research were female students while the other 39% were

male students.

Male Female

Question 2: What year are you in?

9%
The participants in the research where 83% freshmen, 7%
7%

sophomores, 1% juniors and 9% first and second seniors.

83%

5%

Freshman 26%
Sophomore
Junior Senior 1/2
68%

Question 3: What is your major?

Biotechnology
Business
Engineering
Information and Technology
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The responders of this survey were mostly Information and Technology students, forming

68% of the participants. 26% Engineering students and 5% Business students participated.

The fewest participants were the Biotechnology students forming only 2% of the participants.

Question 4: Are you a member of a university club?

The chart shows that 62% of the research participants are

38%

62% members of a university club while 38% of the research

participants were not club members.

Yes No

Question 5: If “No”, please state the reason why?

Only the students who answered “No” in Question 4

20%
responded to this question. 48% chose that they did not
4% 48%
8% have the time to join any clubs, 12% chose that they did
8%
not know about the clubs, 8% chose that they did not find
12%

a club that fit their interests, another 8% chose that they

wanted to focus on their studies and GPA. 4% chose that

I don’t have the time
I don’t know about the clubs
they were not interested into joining a club. Finally, 20%
I couldn’t find the club I wanted
I wanted to focus on my studies and
of the participants stated other reasons.
GPA
I am not interested
Other

The following results are based only on the

participants who stated that they are club members in Question 4 of the survey.

Question 6: Are you involved in more than one club?

24%

76%

Yes No
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24% of the participants responded that they are members in more than one university club

while 76% responded that they are not.

Question 7: Are any of these clubs related to your major?

32%
For this question, 68% of the students who are club

members chose that their clubs are not related to their

68%
major, while the 32% chose that their clubs are related to

their major.
Yes No

5%
18%

25%

35%
18%

More than once a week

Once a week
Every other week
Once a month
According to the club events

Question 8: How often does your club meet?

When asked this question, 35% of the students chose “once a week”,25% chose once a

month, 18% chose “every other week”, and 17% chose “more than once a week”. The

remaining 5% stated that it was “according to the club events”.

Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
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Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
24
Question 9: Your involvement in the club is considered:
24% 24%
According to the chart, 51% of the club members chose

that their involvement is moderate, 25% chose that it was

minimal and the other 24% chose that they were highly
51%
involved.
Minimal Moderate
Highly involved

Question 10: Please enter your GPA before joining any

university clubs:

51%
44% The chart show that, 51% entered their GPA to be

between 3.7 – 4.0, while 44% chose that their GPA range

from 2.7 – 3.6. Those who chose “< 1.0” and “1.7 – 2.6”
< 1.0 1.0 - 1.6 1.7 - 2.6
were 3% percent each. Finally, no one had a GPA
2.7 - 3.6 3.7 - 4.0

between 1.0 – 1.6.

Question 11: Please enter your GPA after joining a

10%

university club:

49%
The chart show that, 49% had a GPA of 3.7 – 4.0 after
41%
joining university clubs, 41% chose that their GPA range

from 2.7 – 3.6, and 10% chose their GPA range as “1.7 –
< 1.0 1.0 - 1.6 1.7 - 2.6
2.6”. None of the students had a GPA lower than 1.7.
2.7 - 3.6 3.7 - 4.0

3%
13%

Further analysis of question 10 and question 11:

85%

GPA stayed the same

GPA decreased
GPA increased
Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
25
The chart shows that 85% of the students’ GPAs stayed the same before and after joining

university clubs, 13% had their GPAs decreased and 2% of the students’ GPAs increased.

Question 12: How do you think joining the club affected

28% your GPA?

When asked that question, 68% of the participants

5%
68%
answered that joining a university club did not have an

effect on their GPA, 27% chose that it affected their GPA

Positively Negatively
Did not affect positively, and the remaining 5% chose that it affected

their GPA negatively.

In the following discussion section, we will explain in detail what the responses ratios

to every question infer and how they relate and do not relate to other sources that are

mentioned in the literature review that revealed the idea of effect of joining university clubs

generally. Then, a summary will be given for the whole section.

Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
26

5 Discussion

After asking the students whether they are involved in university clubs or not, 38% of

the respondents chose “No” as their answer. Thus, we deduced that it could be because of

time shortage or lack of interests, but to have a clearer answer we required them to specify

why chose not to join university clubs. As expected 48% of the research participants who

answered “No” reported that they didn’t have enough time, which could be because they

wanted to concentrate more on their studies, like 8% of the students mainly chose, or could

not balance between their social and academic lives and keep up with club tasks and meetings

at the same time. In previous research by Knight & Hegedus (2002), they also found that the

main reason why students do not join university club was because of the lack of time.

Another portion forming 12% of the respondents chose that they did not know about the

clubs which was another reason mentioned in prior research conducted by Ivey et al. (2016)

who found that students could not join university clubs because their awareness of the clubs

available were limited and that their schedules were conflicting with the club meetings. The

4% who stated that they were not interested were most likely not aware of all the available

clubs in the university or did not know how joining a club may help them.

The 62% of students who were involved in clubs were then asked whether they were

involved in more than one club or not. Almost quarter (24%) of the participants responded

that they are members in more than one university club. This could mean that they either

wanted to increase their experience, gather more soft skills, learn more as well as form extra

social relations and friendships. The rest of the sample (76%) chose that they are members in

just one club. We could conclude from that they wanted to gain the experience of being in a

club and gain its benefits but also wanted to ensure not affecting their academic level at the

same time. No matter how many clubs the students are involved in, students who are
Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
27
involved in clubs gain more experience and skills than those who are not involved. In a

research by Grainger and Foubert (2006), it was found that students who were involved in

student organizations were more highly developed than those who were not involved at all.

After letting the students choose whether they were club members or not, those who

answered “Yes” were asked if any of the clubs they are joined in are related to their major or

not. It was expected that the great portion of the students would be joining clubs that are

related to their majors to benefit them in their current educational process, but surprisingly

68% chose that they were not related while the other 32% chose that they were. We could

deduce from these ratios that students may be joining university clubs that are not related to

their major more to acquire different and new skills from what they are mainly taught, to

have a change of routine and form social relations with other students who do not share the

same major or year with them. A study conducted by Iancu, Culic, & Pavelea (2016) found

that students may join university clubs to develop their skills, socialize and form new

friendships or get away from their routines, relax and spend their free time constructively.

Then, we reach the question asking about the number of times the club meet. 35% of

the respondents chose “once a week”, 25% were once a month, 18% meet every other week,

17% chose “more than once a week” and the rest met “according to the club events”.

Generally, we expect that no matter the number of times a club may meet, the students

members of the club will gain experience and will be affected positively in various aspects as

stated by Ivey et al. (2016), who found that most students join certain clubs to gain skills and

benefits that cannot be gained in a classroom as well as Grainger and Foubert (2006) in their

research that found that getting involved in a club university makes the student more highly

developed with the experience and skills they gain.

Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
28
After asking the students about their involvement in the club, about half (51%) of the

participants chose that their involvement is moderate. We believe that those students join the

meetings and participate in the club activities which might help in developing their

exceptional thinking and creativity. They also acquire most of the skills that will help them

keep up with their personal and academic lives. 24% of the participants chose that they were

highly involved in their clubs. These participants are expected to be club leaders who

organize the meetings and the activities of the clubs as well as the other members. This will

help develop their leadership skills through planning and implementing different activities

and events, it also develop their time management skills because they get accustomed to

handling multiple tasks together at a limited time span. These skills, especially time

management, will help them keep up their GPAs and fulfil all their assigned tasks. There was

a study done by Kelly and Azaola (2015) found that students being involved in student

organizations affected their leadership behaviour positively. Also, students who participate

early in leadership development interventions in their collegiate career had long-term payoff

and that means that it also affects their GPAs. Finally, 25% of the students chose that they

were minimally involved. These students are expected to be joining the meetings and the

activities of the clubs occasionally according to their academic schedule. The study done by

Grainger and Foubert (2006) found that, besides the fact that students getting involved in

university clubs will have high development, students who joined or led a club were found to

have higher development level than those who just attended a meeting.

After receiving the GPAs of the students before and after joining a university club, we

further analysed these GPAs and created a chart to show how the GPAs have changed. The

results were that 85% of the GPAs remained the same, 13% decreased and 2% increased. We

believe that with the students progressing through the years and how the courses are

becoming more difficult, the students keeping up their GPA at the same level is considered a
Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
29
positive effect of joining university clubs. We could at least assume that with students who

are older than freshmen since they have gone from one level to another and freshmen who

move to the second semester as well. One study by Ahmad, Rahman, Ali, Rahman and Al-

Azad (2015) showed students who participate in extracurricular activities generally have

better examination results, higher standardized test scores, more regular class attendance as

well as higher self-concept. These are all aspects that play a significant role in affecting the

student’s GPA.

After the detailed analysis done on the students’ GPA before and after joining a

university club, our last and the most important question was about if students think joining a

club affected their GPA either positively, negatively or did not affect at all. It was expected

that the greater percentage would go for positively affected, as common between most of the

research papers that when students join a club it gives them motivation and are more able to

manage their time so they can study well and join the club events and meetings, since time

management is from the skills gained through joining clubs. Just like found by Ahmad et al.

(2015) in their research that it would affect their grades positively. On the contrary, according

to our participants, only 27% chose that their GPAs were positively affected, 5% (only 2

senior students) chose “Negatively” and the remaining 68% chose “Did not affect”. These

results may have come out because after examining our participants’ educational year, there

were 83% out of them freshmen, and most of the 68% who chose that their GPA was not

affected were also freshmen. Undoubtedly, it was hard for them to get a clearer picture if it

actually affected their GPA or not, since they lack the experience to do so. After going

through the next years, they will find their courses getting harder, will be assigned more tasks

and projects required, and only then will they know if joining a university club is beneficial

to them in terms of their GPA. They will be able to determine whether they can handle their

time when remaining in the clubs or if they should quit to keep up their GPAs and academic
Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
30
excellence. So far, they have experienced only one educational year in university, which is

supposed to be the easiest one.

5.1 Conclusion

To sum up, joining university clubs to have a better CV and ensure higher

employment rates has become prominent between university students nowadays. However,

ensuring to graduate with a high GPA was of importance as well. After conducting our

research, the major key findings could be summarised as follows: more students join

university clubs than those who do not, the main reason students do not join university clubs

is because of the lack of time, almost all the GPAs of the students who are club members

have stayed the same and were not affected, and finally, a huge portion of the students

believed that joining university clubs had no effect on their GPAs; however, it is believed that

maintaining the same GPA throughout the years, especially with the increasing level of the

courses’ toughness, joining university clubs was beneficial. In this research, we aimed to find

out how joining university clubs affects Egyptian university students’ GPAs nowadays, and

the answer to our research question was not far from what we have expected. The answer

inferred from our research was that joining university clubs has a positive effect on students’

GPAs and that was mentioned earlier in a research done before by Ahmad et al. (2015) when

their research proved that joining university clubs affected the students grades positively.

5.2 Limitations

We faced two limitations while conducting our research, one of them was that most of

the participants were freshmen and could not figure out exactly if the idea of joining

university clubs affected their GPA or not, it would be better if more participants were

sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The second limitation was that we faced a shortage of time

when we published our survey and according to our data collection procedure, we collected

the responses early because of the limited time we had to process the data and analyse them.
Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
31
Also, we were only able to use quantitative analysis method because of the pandemic of

COVID-19. That only provided us with surface data that could have been more detailed if

were able to interview the students personally. We would have also been able to access more

students of the other years through qualitative data collection. Also, the research would have

been more accurate if applied on large public and private universities like Cairo University

and AUC, in Egypt.

5.3 Recommendations

It is recommended for further research to interview the doctors and the teaching

assistants about the academic performance of the student sample in terms of their

participation, fulfilling their tasks and projects as well as attending on time for instance. This

will help to get clearer and more accurate data which will provide a better intel of how

joining university clubs actually affect the students’ GPAs, especially when viewing it from

an academic instructor’s perspective.

Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
32
6 References

12 reasons why you should join student organization. (2021, June). Retrieved from

https://www.bentley.edu/news/12-reasons-why-you-should-join-student-organization

Ahmad, M., Rahman, M. F., Ali, M., Rahman, F. N., & Al-Azad, M. A. (2015, December).

Effect of extra curricular activity on student's academic performance. Journal of

Armed Forces Medical College, 11(2), 41-46.

Grainger, L. U., & Foubert, J. D. (2006, January). Effects of involvement in clubs and

organizations on the psychosocial development of first-year and senior college

students. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 43(1), 166-182. Retrieved

from ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229086188

Haines, K. (2019, August). Student perspectives on joining student organizations. Retrieved

from https://www.acui.org/resources/bulletin/bulletin-detail/2019/07/02/student-

perspectives-on-joining-student-organizations

Iancu, I., Culic, L., & Pavelea, A. (2016, January). Why should I join a students' club? The

motivation behind participating in students' clubs. Professional Communication and

Translation Studies, 1(9), 187-198. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304657488_Why_Should_I_Join_a_Student

s'_Club_The_Motivation_Behind_Participating_in_Students'_Clubs

Ivey, M., Cazarez, T., Cespedes, J., Sibley, V., Espinosa, C., & Berry, K. (2016, April). The

operation of student organizations. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301618905_The_Operation_of_Student_Or

ganizations
Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
33
Kelly, A., & Azaola, M. C. (2015, January). Student involvement in leadership. Retrieved

from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299428458

Knight, J., & Hegedus, C. M. (2002, May). Student participation in collegiate organizations

- Expanding the boundaries. Retrieved from

https://www.leadershipeducators.org/Resources/Documents/Conferences/Lexington/H

egedus.pdf

Munoz, L., Miller, R., & Poole, S. P. (2015, December). Professional student organizations

and experiential learning activities: What drives student intentions to participate?

Journal of Education for Business, 91(1), 1-7. doi:10.1080/08832323.2015.1110553

Patterson, B. (2012, February). Influences of student organizational leadership experiences in

college students leadership behaviors. E Journal of Organizational Learning &

Leadership, 10(1), 1-12.

Patterson, B. (2012, February). Influences of Student Organizational Leadership Experiences

in College Students Leadership Behaviors. E Journal of Organizational Learning &

Leadership, 10(1), 1-12. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299428458_Student_involvement_in_leader

ship

Porter, H. (2012, March). Interactional diversity opportunities through involvement:

fraternity and sorority student leaders’ experiences. Oracle: The Research Journal of

The Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors, 7(1), 54-70. Retrieved from

https://scholarworks.wm.edu/oracle/vol7/iss1/6

Scholastica. (2017, July). The importance of community participation: Why college clubs &

organizations matter. Retrieved from http://www.css.edu/the-sentinel-blog/the-

Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
34
importance-of-community-participation-why-college-clubs-and-organizations-

matter.html

Smith, L. J., & Chenoweth, J. D. (2015, October). The contributions of student organization

involvement to students' self-assessments of their leadership traits and relational

behaviors. American Journal of Business Education, 8(4), 279-288. Retrieved from

https://clutejournals.com/index.php/AJBE/article/view/9422#:~:text=Results%20of

%20this%20study%20showed,not%20involved%20in%20student%20organizations.

TBS. (2018, March). College clubs to join. Retrieved from

https://thebestschools.org/magazine/popular-college-clubs/

Ul Saqib, N., Raheem, M., Iqbal, M., Salman, M., & Shahzad, T. (2018, January). Effects of

extracurricular activities on students. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327052180_Effects_of_Extracurricular_Act

ivities_on_Students

Venable, M. (2020, December). 6 types of virtual student organizations. Retrieved from

https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/virtual-student-clubs-organizations/
Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
35

7 Appendix

This survey is to know if joining university clubs affects the students' GPAs, in Egypt. All

the responses submitted through this survey will be confidential and reviewed only by the

course’s professor and I. Thank you for cooperating.

1. What is your gender?

o Male

o Female

2. What year are you in?

o Freshman

o Sophomore

o Junior

o Senior 1/2

3. What is your major?

o Business

o Engineering

o Information and Technology

o Biotechnology

4. Are you a member of a university club?

o Yes

o No

5. If “No”, please state the reason why?

o I don't have the time o I am not interested

o I don't know about the clubs o I couldn’t find the club I wanted
Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
36
o I wanted to focus on my studies and GPA o Other

6. Are you involved in more than one club?

o Yes

o No

7. Are any of these clubs (if more than one) related to your major?

o Yes

o No

8. How often does your club meet?

o More than once a week o Every other week

o Once a week o Once a month

9. Your involvement in the club is considered:

o Minimally

o Moderately

o Highly

10. What is your GPA before joining any university clubs?

o 3.7 – 4.0 o 1.0 – 1.6

o 2.7 – 3.6 o < 1.0

o 1.7 – 2.6

11. What is your GPA after joining a university club?

o 3.7 – 4.0 o 1.0 – 1.6

o 2.7 – 3.6 o < 1.0

o 1.7 – 2.6

12. How do you think joining the club affected your GPA?
Joining University Clubs Effects on Students’ GPA
37
o Positively

o Negatively

o Did not affect