A Comparative Study Of College Work-study Program Policy Satisfaction Between Two Colleges In China And America

With the continuous popularization of higher education, increasing numbers of college students are financing their studies by participating in work-study programs.What are their reflections about college work-study policy? This thesis would like to use empirical research by using both a questionnaire and interviews. From the perspective of comparative study, by using SPSS statistical software, analyzed the difference between college students’ satisfaction to work-study policy in both China and America.Conclusions are as follows.(1) There is a significant difference on service in grades among Chinese students. Seniors are less satisfied than juniors. However, there is no significant difference in America. Both countries show a significant difference between genders. Females are more satisfied than males.(2) The satisfaction of America students whose annual household income is between $0-60,000 is very low,and it’s negatively correlated to the level of their legal guardian’s education. But Chinese students have no significant difference.(3) Chinese and American college students who work 0-5 hours per week have lower satisfaction than students who work a greater number of hours. Therefore, the more hours a student spends working,the higher their satisfaction score. They also tend to prefer on-campus work. In both counties, there is a rare difference for working hours each semester students chose.(4)Chinese agronomy and medical students’ satisfaction are higher than engineering,literature and history. In addition, the students’ interests play the most important role for art students choose to work, so their satisfaction is high. Students from a higher income level background tend to have a higher level of satisfaction compared to students from lower income levels. And the main intention of impoverished students in enrolling in a work-study program is to get financial aid.(5) In terms of motivation,there is no significant difference in Chinese college students. Their chief goal is to get income, while in the United States, which shows more diverse factors.Based on the above conclusions, this thesis proposes improving the work-study educational awareness, expanding funding sources, setting reasonable expectations for both the positions available to students. Additionally, allowing students to choose working hours, perfecting the school work-study office’s services, developing an entrepreneurial base and internship base, standardizing low income students identification procedures, and other measures would help to increase student satisfaction with the work-study experience.