PERCEIVED INFLUENCE OF STUDENTS’ SOCIO-ECONOMIC VARIABLES ON ACCESS TO UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study assessed the perceived influence of students’ socio-economic variables on access to university education in public Universities in Rivers State. The design adopted for the study was descriptive survey. Five research questions were raised and five corresponding null hypotheses were formulated for the study. The population of the study comprised 66, 344 First year students, out of which 698 first year students were sampled for the study using random sampling technique. Data for the study was collected using a 30-item questionnaire titled “Students Socio-Economic Variables and Access to University Education Questionnaire” (SSEVAUEQ) with an index of 0.82. Research questions were answered using percentage while the hypotheses were tested using Chi-square statistic at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that students’ ethnicity, family size and age significantly influenced their access to university education (?²-cal. 13.31? ?²-crit. 5.99, ?²-cal. 10.68? ?²-crit. 5.99, and ?²-cal. 15.11? ?²-crit. 5.99 respectively), while parental income and gender does not significantly influence their access to university education (?²-cal. 1.93? ?²-crit. 5.99 and ?²-cal. 0.03? ?²-crit. 3.84 respectively). Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that age limit for students seeking university admission should be removed to give students of all ages access to university education at the completion of their secondary education.