Factors influencing students’ choice of public universities in western Kenya region. A case of university of Nairobi and Kibabii university
Abstract
University choice is a complicated process and involves a wide range of individuals
including high school students, family members, university administrators and public policy
makers. Understanding why and how potential candidates seek University education and
determining which factors affect their choices is an important area of study. The purpose of the
study was to investigate the factors influencing student’s choice of Public Universities in western
Kenya region. A case of University of Nairobi and Kibabii University. The following objective
guided the study; to examine how institution characteristics influences students’ choice of Public
Universities; to determine how the source of information influence students’ choice of Public
Universities; to determine the extent to which decision makers influence student’s choice of the
Public Universities and to examine how students qualification influences students’ choice of
Public Universities in western Kenya region. The study adapted a descriptive survey research
design. The study target population was 90,200 respondents representing the total number of
students and University administrators from University of Nairobi and Kibabii University. A
sample size of 348 respondents from University of Nairobi and Kibabii University was used in
the study. Census sampling was used to select the 10 University administrators in charge of
enrollment. The study adapted a systematic random sampling technique to select the sample
population of students by picking the tenth student from their respective learning programmes
using the admission lists for students. Questionnaires and interview schedule was used to collect
data. A pilot study was done in the neighboring Masinde Muliro University of Science and
Technology. To ascertain the reliability of the instruments, test-retest method was employed.
Frequency tables and percentages were used to analyse the collected data and the information in
tables were explained to enhance interpretation of the data. Results were interpreted and required
recommendations made at the end of the study. It was found that financial aid from family
members or guardian, Higher Education Loans Board and Constituency development fund was
important to many students since some students were able to finance themselves, advertisement
played an important role in ensuring information about the Institution is widely spread to
prospective students Parents were found to be the most influencers, most students met the
minimum entry requirements for the programmes they were pursuing. Recommendations for the
study were first, the Government should put up measure in ensuring more financial aid from the
Higher Education Loans Board and Constituency development fund is being allocated to the
needy students and secondly, the University advertisement department should come up with
more marketing strategies that could be ideal to all stakeholders since most of the prospective
students were not familiar with the Internet and website
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5980]
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