Satisfaction Survey of NEU’s 2018 Integrated School (IS)Graduation Exercises

Degree of satisfaction on an Integrated School Graduation Exercises was measured using an 8-item survey questionnaire with a 7-point Likert Scale (7 – Very Satisfied, 6 – Moderately Satisfied, 5 – Slightly Satisfied, 4 – Neutral, 3- Slightly Dissatisfied, 2 – Moderately Dissatisfied, 1- Very Dissatisfied). The eight items rated were Accessibility (ACCESS), Performance of volunteers and aides (AIDES), Orderliness (ORDER), Solemnity (FORMAL), Discipline (CONDUCT), Most liked (MOST), Least liked (LEAST), and Overall Experience/Satisfaction (OVERALL). The independent variables were the nine groups of IS graduates, namely: NEU-PAMPANGA (PAM), NEU-LIPA (LIPA), and the seven IS tracks in the Main campus. These tracks were General Academic Strand (GAS), Literary Theater Arts (LTA), Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM), Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Media and Visual Arts (MVA), Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMMS), and Accountancy, Business, and Management (ABM). The survey instrument was administered to 252 randomly selected respondents who were the graduates of New Era University Integrated School Class 2018. Sample size was calculated based on power analysis as recommended by Cohen (1988). The survey yielded 99.60% response rate and responses had an estimated internal consistency reliability of .89 (Cronbach’s Alpha). One-Sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank test showed that the median satisfaction rating of graduates was statistically significantly greater than the hypothesized value of 5, Z = 8.769, p < .05, effect size (r) = .55 (medium according to Cohen, 1988). Kruskal-Wallis (K-W) test revealed no significant difference in satisfaction rating of groups when classified by strand (for main campus only), but there was significant difference when grouped by branch namely: Pampanga branch, Lipa branch, and Main campus, Chi-square (2, N = 150) = 17.567, p = .001, effect size (η) = .35 (medium). Post hoc Mann-Whitney U (M-W) test with Bonferroni correction showed that rating given by Lipa branch was statistically significantly greater than that given by Pampanga branch and also by Main campus. Rating given by Pampanga branch and Main campus were not statistically significantly different. Receiving of the diploma was the most liked part of the ceremony while length of the ceremony was the least liked part.