Assessing Different Perceptions towards the Importance of a Work-life Balance: A Comparable Study between Thai and International Programme Students

This paper has the objectives of evaluating the different perceptions of Chulalongkorn students who are registered within Thai and International Curriculum towards the understanding and awareness of the concept of Well-being with a key focus on the importance of a Work Life Balance (WLB). Sixty five questionnaires were distributed among students who undertook courses offering aspects of WLB as part of the Introduction of Recreation for Thai curriculum and Effective Career Management for International Curriculum during second semester 2013. Data analysis was processed by statistical programming software and accordingly categorized into groups of data by thematic analysis. The findings revealed that two groups of students had a high awareness of WLB importance and stated that this concept is essential to ensure an optimal and valued life as well as the development of knowledge and skills from the educational system. However, both of them stated the problem of limited WLB in practice due to an overload of university's assignments and projects but they have acknowledged a desire to adopt the WLB concept through recreational activities outside of and after their studies. Furthermore, students who has undertaken Thai curriculum perceived that most of the university's facilities and activities offered definitive aspects of a WLB more than other groups held the general perception that the university should improve those ones. The paper delivers an in-depth Discussion ending with a conclusion encompassing all aspects noted and then looks further to the importance and future implications of this research which presents the extra-curricula activities that university should conduct to improve students’ quality of life and WLB.