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Comparative perceptions of students, financial aid administrators, and presidents regarding the required competencies of community college financial aid administrators

The central purpose of this study was to determine various
views of the professional competencies required by community
college student financial aid administrators. Respondents in the
study included a student financial aid recipient, a student financial
aid administrator and a president from forty-five selected community
colleges. The major tasks were: the construction and validation of
a questionnaire with which to collect the desired data for the study;
the analysis of the data to determine if there were differences of
perceptions of needed competencies either between the different types
of personnel involved in the study or because of differences in the
size of colleges; and the formulation of implications to be considered
in standardizing the profession and developing training programs for it.
The construction and validation of the questionnaire was
accomplished through a review of the literature, an evaluation by
a jury of experts, and a field test. A mail survey questionnaire
containing 121 professional competencies together with a five-point
Likert-type scale was used to gather data. The dependent variable
was the score judgmentally assigned by respondents to denote the
degree of importance they determined as necessary for each of the
121 competencies.
The population that was studied utilized the community
colleges of California which were considered to represent a good
cross section of all community colleges as to urban, suburban and
rural and as to size. A random sample of forty-five colleges provided
data source for the study.
The F statistic, or analysis of variance, was used to point
up differences between the mean scores for each competency with
the .05 level of significance being used to determine differences
existing between both personnel classifications and sizes of colleges.
A test of Least Significant Difference was used to determine where
specific differences existed between the ratings by different personnel
types which were rejected in the two-way analysis of variance
tests.
The analysis of variance tests indicated that the ratings of
the three personnel types, in their responses to the competencies
in the questionnaire, were alike in 97 out of the 121 items. The same
seemed to be true when the ratings were viewed according to size
of college -- large, medium, or small -- where 120 out of the 121
items received responses that were in agreement. Respondents
indicated that 62 of the 121. professional competencies required a
high level of proficiency in the performance of the job as community
college student financial aid administrator.
Whenever community college presidents were in disagreement
with financial aid administrators and students, they always showed a
perceived lower level of importance than the other personnal classifications.
Aid administrators, when they differed, showed a perception
of higher importance. Students, who varied most often,
believed some items to be more important, some less important
than did members of the other personnel classifications. / Graduation date: 1972

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/33699
Date02 May 1972
CreatorsHerndon, Charles Frederick
ContributorsBeals, Lester
Source SetsOregon State University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis/Dissertation

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