<![CDATA[Academic stress is a prevalent concern among university students, often arising from various challenges within the academic environment. These challenges may include tight assignment deadlines, elevated expectations from both lecturers and parents, ineffective time management, and negative self-assessment. If left unaddressed, such stress can negatively impact students’ academic performance and mental well-being. This study focuses on categorizing student academic stress levels using the K-Means clustering algorithm. Data were collected from 507 participants through a customized version of the Perception of Academic Stress Scale (PASS) questionnaire, adapted to suit the study context. Prior to analysis, the data were preprocessed and converted into a numerical format. Clustering was performed using Python on the Google Colab platform. To assess the clustering performance, two evaluation metrics were used: the Davies-Bouldin Index (DBI) and the Silhouette Coefficient. Lower DBI values suggest that the clusters formed are more compact and distinct from each other, while higher Silhouette values indicate better clustering performance. From the evaluation, the best clustering result was found when the number of clusters was 2, with a DBI score of 1.43 and a Silhouette score of 0.27. Nonetheless, these values still fall short of the ideal range, likely due to the heterogeneous nature of the data, as participants came from five different departments within the Faculty of Science and Technology. Moreover, the number of responses varied across academic years (2021–2023). Cluster 1 comprised 229 students identified as having low levels of academic stress, as shown by their lower questionnaire scores. In contrast, Cluster 2 consisted of 278 students with higher levels of stress, as reflected in their higher scores (ranging from 3 to 5) on positively worded items.]]>
