UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST

COLLEGE OF LEGAL STUDIES

GROUP (B14)
MEMBERS

 PS/ASC/20/0002
 PS/STA/20/0010
 PS/MBU/20/0011
 PS/MAT/20/0006
 PS/MEC/20/0004
 PS/MEC/20/0056
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 TOPIC:
ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ CHOICE OF ACADEMIC
PROGRAMME IN UNIVERSITY OF CAPECOAST

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ABSTRACT
Governments over the years have laid emphasis through educational reforms on the need to have programmes in
schools that will train the youth to occupy positions in the society. The aim of the study was to analyze students’
choice of academic program by ascertaining their knowledge about the program prior to selecting it and also their
interest in the program. Primary data was used for the study and a questionnaire was designed for the data
collection. A sample of 107 students was drawn from a population of Research Methods students. Descriptive
statistics and Chi Square Test of independence were used for the data analyses. The findings from the study showed
that, most students had prior knowledge about the programme before choosing it,1and majority of the students have
very high interest in their programme of study. It was concluded that, students’ choice of academic programme may
have positive effect on their performances since they had prior knowledge about their programme, and also have
high interest in the programme.

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INTRODUCTION
High academic achievement is a key priority for every student to continue their studies at a higher level. The
environment of higher education has increasingly become competitive because of this. Therefore, the selection of the
appropriate program has to be taken into account in ensuring their success in life. There are several factors that
influence the students' academic achievement such as aptitude, instruction and environment (Fraser, Walberg,
Welch, & Hattie, 1987). According to Eidimtas & Juceviciene (2014), students can decide on their studies based on
four categories which are educational factors, information factors, economic factors, other factors such as
geographical location of a higher education institution and ratings, personal skills and demography. It is also
important to note that courses offered by a university can also affect students’ choice. Selection of the appropriate
course will have a good influence on the selection of their career in the future. However, a mistake in choosing a
course of study can negatively affect the students because they might experience stress due to the inability to adapt to
the environment and different teaching approaches in universities.
Students should make a choice based on their interest in a course. Interest is an important element and it is different
for every student.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are to:
 Investigate if students had prior knowledge about the programme.
 Ascertain whether students have interest in the programme.
 Investigate whether or not choice of academic programme is dependent on gender.

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METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN

A descriptive survey research design was used in this study. Convenience sampling strategy was used for selecting
the participants. Convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling technique where subjects are selected because
of their convenient accessibility and proximity to the researcher. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis.
Collected data was summarized using tables and charts as part of the data analysis. Statistical software package for
Social Science (SPSS) was used for analyzing the data.

DATA COLLECTION

The data that is used for the study is a primary data and a questionnaire was used for data collection. A sample of
107 participants from a population of the various levels of students was selected to participate in the study. The
participants were asked to indicate their level of interest in their programme of study and also their prior knowledge
about the programme.

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RESULTS

Table 1: Gender of respondents

Gender Frequency Percentage (%)

Male 74 69

Female 33 31

Total 107 100

Table 2: Students’ prior knowledge about the programme

Response Frequency Percentage (%)

Yes 71 66

No 36 34

Total 107 100.0

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RESULTS

Figure 1

Level of interest in the programme of study.

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 Chi – Square Tests

Table 3: Chi-Square test of association between gender and students’ interest level in the programme of study

Value df Significant Value

Pearson Chi-Square 1.676 4 0.795

Likelihood Ratio 1.705 4 0.790

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DISCUSSIONS

 Table 1 shows the gender of the respondents. 74 of the students are males representing 69% of the total population
and the remaining 31% comprising of 33 respondents are female students.

 Table 2 shows the student’s prior knowledge about the programme of study. 71 of the students representing 66%
said that, they had prior knowledge about the program before choosing it. The remaining 34% which is made up
of 36 students said they had no prior knowledge about the programme of study.

 Figure 1 is a representation of student’s level of interest in the programme of study. 45 of the students
representing majority, 45 have very high interest in the programme being offered, the interest level of 36 of the
students is high, 12 of the students are not sure of their interest in the programme, meanwhile, 10 of the students
have low interest in the programme and 4 of the students have very low interest in the programme.

 From table 3, it can be observed that the P-value of the Chi-Square statistic which is 0.795 is greater than the
alpha value of 0.05, hence we fail to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is no association between
gender and level of interest in the programme of study.

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CONCLUSION

Based on the analysis, most students have prior knowledge about the programme of study before choosing it. It can
also be deduced from the results that, majority of students have a very high level of interest in the programme of
study as compared to those who have little or very low interest in their programme.

Based on these findings, it is recommended that, students should always have a broader knowledge about a
programme before choosing to offer them, this will enable them to widen their scope of understanding and also help
them to plan their academic goals. Parents should encourage their children to choose their preferred programme in
order to prevent students from having low interest in their programmes.

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REFERENCES

Eidimtas, A. & Juceviciene, P. (2014). Factors influencing school-leavers decision to enroll in higher education.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 116, 3983 – 3988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.877.

Fraser, B. J., Walberg, H. J., Welch, W. W. & Hattie, J. A. (1987). Syntheses of educational productivity research.
International Journal of Education Research, 11, 145-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/0883-0355(87)90035-8.

Redmond, B., Quin, S., Devitt, C. & Archbold, J. (2011). A Qualitative Investigation into the Reasons Why Students
Exit From the First Year of Their Programme and UCD. University College Dublin, School of Applied Social
Science, October.

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR AUDIENCE!!!

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