Work-life balance for female students: a comparative study of engineering and pharmacy departments in uae universities

Education is a key that provides different prospects for self-consciousness and self-actualization to every individual. It promotes self-esteem among women which empowers them to stand in society. Educated women are intense towards enchanting measures to improve themselves and their children. This study thus contributes to the existing literature of education by investigating the role of universities in balancing the student life and married life of female students, specifically in the case of engineering and pharmacy department from UAE. The study also offers a comparison between engineering and pharmacy departments of UAE universities in respect of balancing the student life and married life of female students. The students of pharmacy and engineering department are the respondents of the present study. For this purpose, a total of 400 questionnaires (200 from each department) are distributed among the respondents using disproportionate random sampling technique. The study applies a series of two-tailed independent group t-tests and one-way between groups ANOVA to estimate the empirical findings using SPSS. The study finds that there is a significant difference between two departments of UAE universities in balancing the student and married lives of female students. Findings also indicate that both the departments are significantly different in balancing the married student's life on the basis of age and education. Moreover, it is found that more than 70% of the respondents (for both departments) are agreed that their universities are playing significant role in balancing the student and married lives of female students. The study suggests that the universities should accommodate their students through the provision of flexible time management, flexible course requirement, reasonable finances, future employment and career prospects, and managing academic workload.