EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES AMONG UNDERGRADUATE DENTAL STUDENTS IN DENTAL COLLEGES IN RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

The study aimed to determine the current extracurricular activities among undergraduate dental students from different dental colleges in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and their perceptions towards these activities. A self-administered questionnaire with close-ended questions was distributed to undergraduate dental students from different governmental dental colleges in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The data were entered and analyzed by descriptive analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS). A total of 453 students responded to the questionnaire and enrolled in the study. The majority of the study subjects were (95.1%) from governmental universities and most of them (88.96%) had GPAs = 4.0. 81.3% of the study subjects believed that participation in extracurricular activities could improve their academic performance. Most of the undergraduate dental students who participated in this study believed that the extracurricular activities had positive impacts on their learning experience. Therefore, it is devisable to implement more extracurricular activities in dental colleges and encourage dental students to be enrolled in such activities.