The effect of extracurricular activities on the academic performance of the university students: Evidence from Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Dinajpur, Bangladesh

The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of extracurricular activities (ECA) on academic performance of the students in Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU) Dinajpur, Bangladesh. To define the effect more clearly we have disaggregated the extracurricular activities in to several parts such as sports activities, cultural activities, social work activities and political activities. A total of 270 students from nine faculties have been selected to collect data using stratified random sampling method. Students who have received at least two semester results have been considered for collection of valid information. Data were collected by face- to- face interview using a structured questionnaire .We used linear regression model and perform ordinary least square method (OLS) to estimate the regression coefficients. Findings of this study indicate that there is a negative but insignificant association between involvement in overall extracurricular activities and academic achievement. But when we separately estimates the models for different particular extracurricular activities we find that only the involvement in social activities has a significant negative impact on academic performance as measured by cumulative grade point average (CGPA) while other extracurricular activities like sports, cultural activities and political activities has no significant impact on CGPA of the student.