| dc.description.abstract | The higher education sector in Kenya has undergone tremendous changes with the
liberalization of the economy. The public Universities have grown to seven from 1963
while the private ones are now eighteen in number. At the same time various institutes
have been turned into campuses for the public universities. Competition for the students
has become so stiff. The forces that are driving today's organizations into looking at
strategies on how to remain leaders in their sectors are customers, competition and
change.
The University Of Nairobi (UON) is the oldest in Kenya with its main campus in Nairobi.
UON started its Modulle II programme in 1998 due to the demand for education and
diversification. The Bandari Campus which was started by UON School of Business in
November, 2004.The Campus was started with the aim of capturing the Coastal market.
The objectives of the study were to establish the students' expectations and perceptions
of the University of Nairobi Bandari Campus programmes and whether there were
disparities between the two.
The study was a descriptive survey which targeted past and present students of Bandari
Campus. The list of students was selected from the Academic Register. Thirty students
were randomly selected from the Bachelor of Commerce and thirty from Masters of
Business Administration. A semi structured questionnaire was used to collect primary
data. Although a total of 60 students were targeted, a response rate of 92% was achieved.
Data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, mean scores and standard deviations.
Based on the findings it was concluded that the students expectations on the programmes
offered at Bandari campus were high in most aspects of service quality especially in
academic related areas such as competence, reliability, credibility, accessibility and
communication. The results also show that when it came to experiences only the
expectation on competence was realized by most respondents. This indicated that the
expectation on competence was realized by most respondents. This indicated that the
teaching staff were skilled and knowledgeable in their respective subjects. In spite of this
communication, responsiveness and accessibility were the least realized by the
respondents as the level of disparity was high. This could be based on the fact that the
lecturers were based in Nairobi and not Mombasa and therefore not accessible to
students.
It was recommended that the University of Nairobi Administration needed to look into
communication, accessibility and responsiveness of lecturers, as there seemed to be a
wide disparity in these attributes of their service. There also was a need to look into the
shortfall of equipment such as computers and photocopiers in order to improve service
delivery. Ways should also be worked out to avail multiple copies of core textbooks and
journals, which were shown to be insufficient. Internet services also needed to be
upgraded to enable students' access latest material on their respective areas of
specialization.
The study had some limitations, which may have ended up affecting the findings. It was
difficult to get back some of the questionnaires since this were done randomly and the
researcher did not have the contacts of some of the respondents and therefore could not
get back the filled questionnaires. In some instances the students were not so sure if their
identities would be kept confidential and as such were not so free with their answers.
Since the study did not cover areas of specialization it would be good to carry out further
research to try and establish if different specialization areas would have a bearing on the
results. Further research should also be carried out separately on the Bachelor of
Commerce (BCOM) and Master Of Business Administration students. This is because
most of the MBA students were already working and had their own offices and therefore
were not so concerned with matters related to insufficient equipment while the same
mattered to the BCOM students since they did not have access to such facilities unless in
the Cyber Cafes which meant spending money. | en |
