STATISTICAL APPRAISAL OF THEE FACTORS THAT

INFLUENCE THE CHOICE OF COURSES AND ACADEMIC

PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN TERTIARY
INSTITUTION
(A CASE STUDY OF DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, AUCHI
POLYTECHNIC, AUCHI)

BY

UMAR, S.S. AND EHIGIE, O.T.

DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, AUCHI POLYTECHNIC,
AUCHI

A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE 2ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE

OF SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
CONFERENCE IN NIGERIA

OCTOBER 2008
 ABSTRACT

This research work aims at examining and finding the factors that influence
students on and also determine whether these influences have any effect on the academic
performance of the students with emphasis on the Department of Statistics as a case
study. Data were collected at the convenience of the researchers and analyzed using the
Chi-square, Descriptive Statistics and the Pearson Coefficient of Contingency. The
result showed that some of the factors influencing the choice of course are parental; peer
group, not able to secure admission into department of first choice. It was however,
discovered that these factors do not affect academic performance. Base on this,
conclusion and recommendations were made.
Key words: academic performance, convenience, factors, choice, Pearson
Coefficient of Contingency.
INTRODUCTION
Everybody is created unique. Each and every one of us has a unique
characteristic that makes us succeed in our chosen career. Today as adolescent, an
individual starts choosing a career, what he wishes to become in the future. And most
often work towards achieving it. However, this may turn out the other way and he finds
himself in another career or profession. Some make effort to going back to what they
have in mind, while others do not bother as far as they can make life comfortable for
themselves and their families.
This study therefore, aims at exploring the factors responsible for change (s) in
the desired profession of individuals and the level of academic performance of these
individuals.
In our contemporary days, there are several cases of individuals excelling in
profession or careers other than the ones they have been properly trained for. Some of
these individuals perform poorly.
In the course of this study, the following limitations were observed;
o Lack of data on students’ achievements and the absence of literatures on and related
to students’ achievements and influence of choice of course of study.
o The study of students’ achievement in tertiary institutions cannot be full and totally
studies in all institutions. Base on this, this study shall be carried out in the
Department of Statistics, Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, with generalization made about
all tertiary institutions.

RESEARCH ASSUMPTIONS
For this research to be valid, we have assumed that:
a) The performance of the students (respondents) is not influenced in any way.
b) The admission procedure followed due process.
c) The respondents met the required qualification to be admitted into the experiment
of statistics.

THE GROUNDED THEORY

The Grounded Theory approach was adopted (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). The
development of Grounded Theory arose from Glaser and Strauss’s work on the
generation of hypotheses. They argued that in areas where there was little knowledge
about the phenomena under the study, the generation of meaningful hypotheses for
empirical testing was, at best, difficult and, at worst, impossible. Because of the paucity
of knowledge, researchers were, in effect, simply generating hypotheses on the basis of
ill-informed guesses which might result in the exclusion of significant information about
the phenomena under investigation, and hence produce misleading results and
conclusions. As an alternative, Glaser and Strauss proposed that hypotheses should be
generated as a result of ‘indepth’ study of the phenomena using the ‘unstructured’
approach of participant observation. They argued that the observers should aim to enter
a research situation with no prior theoretical preconceptions and then create, refine, and
revise theory in the light of further data collected. The resulting ‘Grounded’ hypotheses
generated through actual observation would, therefore, be more accurate than those
produced by speculation, whether theoretically underpinned or not, however inspired.
The Grounded Theory approach has been developed by others since the early work of
Glaser and Strauss. These developments have made a major contribution in introducing
methods of data collection, other than participant observation, and methods of analysis
collectively known as qualitative methods. The basic principle, however, remains the
same and is well summarized by Patton (1980): The cardinal principle of qualitative
analysis is that causal relationships and theoretical statements be clearly emergent from
and grounded in the phenomena studied. The theory emerges from the data; it is not
imposed upon it. A qualitative approach, therefore, was the most appropriate way to
investigate the factors that influenced choice of courses and academic achievement
because it fulfilled the conditions in which Grounded Theory is most valuable – when
little is known about the phenomena under investigation.

PARENTAL FACTOR
Parents often want to see their children excel in life, some want their children to
be practitioner in their own preference career; as a result they play major part in the
development decisions about their children. They study the child’s performance from
elementary to secondary so as to place him in their line of interest as regards the type of
course to study at the tertiary level. In this research, parental factor comes in base on the
powerful involvement for influence in their children education. This involvement
includes participation in education and with the schools, attending school functions,
visiting their wards in school, assisting in home works, providing encouragement,
arranging for extra moral classes, modeling their behaviour etc.
 Furthermore, researches have shown that the more intensively parents are
involved in their children’s learning; the more beneficial are the achievement effects.
This holds true for all types of parent involvement in children’s learning and for all types
and ages of students. Looking more closely, there are strong indications that the most
effective forms of parent involvement are those, which engage parents in working
directly with their children on learning activities in the home. Most researches on
parents involvement showed that such involvement yields positive results in the
children’s education, the earlier the print in vowel in the child’s educational process
begins, the more powerful the effect will be positively.

PEERS/FRIENDS FACTOR
This factor is one of the most influential factors in the life of adolescence. It has
a very strong persuasive spirit and making those involve turn from one-way to another.
This factor has influenced some adolescents to the point of losing their lives and some to
the other point of saving it.
Educationally, this factor has influenced some people to making decisions that
have affected their lives today. This change in their original intention may not be at the
tertiary level but rather at the secondary level. This is so because, some students, instead
of choosing the sciences at secondary level, chooses either the art or the social sciences.
Similarly, this trend moves on to the tertiary end, where the successes of peers
are being capitalized upon in persuading others. There have been cases of some tertiary
students now studying science-related discipline instead of other fields and vice versa.
There is also a switch from one course to another as a result of not being able to
secure admission into their intended course. This may be as a result of not having the
basic O’ level requirement by the department, lack of admission spaced in the
department, etc. Instead of holding their breathe to wait for the next academic session,
they insist on getting admission by going at length to any extent. This factor, has greatly
led to large and incomparable change in the original course by the students. Personal
interview of some students in the department confirm this status. Some of the students
complained within them about the difficulty of the course and had the mind of not going
further to study the course at an advance level. Others, all they desire is the certificate
and not the knowledge they have to gain. It was revealed that this factor may be as a
result of the inability to meet the “cut-off” mark specified by the department of their
choice; they opt for the departments with lower “cut-off” mark, with the zeal to be called
a “student” without considering what they would face in the future. However, some
dropped out, when oriented about the department.

FINANCE
Researchers have shown that finances have significant effect on the performance
of students in tertiary institution. Students need money for their various academic to
work ranging from registration at the first year to project and these writing at the final
year. There have been cases of students dropping out of school due to lack of finances,
some go to the extent of doing some small jobs in order to get finances, and this of
course affects the performance of student as he faces the stress of coping with the
demands from both ends. Similarly, there has been a positive association or relationship
between attendance in clans and academic performance. As have been earlier mentioned
that students do meager jobs, which may be full or part-time. This involvement often
lead them to missing lectures, at times for days, weeks or even months. Some even
appear during semester exams, only to discover that they have a lot to cover and within
the short period may not be able to do much.
On the other hand, students with the needed finance to solve all their academic
problems are often relaxed and have enough time to do their academic works effectively.

THE BANDWAGON FACTOR

The success recorded in some fields of endeavour has given such courses
increased number of students. Most students studying a particular course found
themselves studying it not because that is their original desired course but because their
neighbour, family friend relatives or friends have succeeded in life as a result of studying
such course. They often forget that everybody has its unique characteristics and destiny
to fulfill. Students that normally fall victims often regret their actions and most times
find themselves in another “area of life.” It is only a few that survive this ailment.
Cases like Accountancy, Business Administration etc “patronage” as it is been
seen as a “moneymaking” profession. Some also study them because they want to bear
the name accountant, chartered accountants and managers of organization. In our tertiary
institutions today, these departments have the highest number of students.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Students’ performance in examination at their various levels is of great
importance to the society at large as these outputs are expected to contribute to the
growth of their economy. Most adolescents find it difficult to choose their career on
their own as they are often faced with choices and some with the help of their relatives
make their choices, while some make the choices with the help of a guidance counselor
and some do base on their self-discovery. This study therefore has the aim of
determining the effect this various choice influence has on their academic achievement.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
They have been an outcry on the low performance of students in their academic
activities over the year. The outputs of our tertiary institutions, often times cannot
“defend” their certificates and most of them when employed, do not meet the
expectations of their employers. These problems have been linked to so many factors
within and outside the academic environment. There have also been cases where
graduates of particular field find themselves excelling in another field. The questions
that arise here are:
o What are the factors that influence the choice of study?
o What is the relative effect on the performance of the students?

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
In this study, the hypothesis that will be tested is the null hypothesis that:
HR: There is no significant relationship between the influence of the choice of study
and the academic achievement.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research aims at exposing the various factors that influence the choice of
statistics and its relationship with academic performance of the students in the
Department of Statistics, Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi. This section shall bring to light the
target population of this study, sample and sampling techniques method of data
collection and instrumentation, and methods of data analysis with SPSS as a package to
analyze the data.
In this research, the target population is all tertiary institution students studying
various courses in various tertiary institutions. This is because, they might have been
influenced by one factor or the other to choose or study their course of study.
The choice of sampling became necessary in this study because of the large
population involved. Hence, a sample of fifty (50) students were selected conveniently
from the Department of Statistics, thus to study the influence of the choice of statistics
and the academic performance of the students in the department.

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

The nature of this study advocates for the primary source of data for analysis.
Responses were elicited from the respondents (students) with the questionnaire. The
questionnaire was treated through the pilot stage for adequate coverage of subject matter,
the avoidance of ambiguity and other possible conflicting questions.

METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

In this study, the Chi-square shall be used to analyze the responses on factors that
influence the choice of study and academic performance, and other descriptive measures
such as the bar chart and the histogram will be used to analyze responses on the factors
that influence the choice of study, the grade obtained by respondents and the courses
they intend to study before the influence.
However, since the Chi-square is not a measure of direction, the Pearson
Coefficient of Contingency shall be employed as a measure of the direction of the
relationship between the factors that influence the choice of course and academic
performance.

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

The previous section dealt with the methodology employed in this study with
emphasis on population, sample and sampling techniques, methods of data collection and
analysis. This section responses on present grades of the respondents, factors that
influence their choice of Statistics as a course of study, their intended course of study
before the influence, and their responses on the effect of the influence on their academic
performance shall be presented in table. Similarly, the output of SPSS shall be presented
and other analysis.
DATA PRESENTATION
Table 1: Response on factors that influence the choice of study
Factors Frequency (No. of Students)
Parental factors 4
Peers/friends 2
Self (original intent) 23
Not able to secure admission into other 21
department
Total 50
Source: Field Survey, 2008

Table 2: Response on intended course of study before admission into statistics

Course Frequency
Statistics 21
Accounting/Accountancy 10
Computer Science 6
Marketing 4
Science Laboratory Technology (S.L.T.) 4
Business Administration 5
Total 50
Source: Field Survey, 2008

Table 3: Grades of respondents

Grades Frequency
Distinction 0
Upper credit 13
Lower credit 23
Pass 14
Total 50
Source: Field Survey, 2008

Table 4: Responses on the Effect of Influence of an Academic Performance

Academic Performance Frequency
S.A. 6
A 8
Na or D 6
D 17
SD 13
Total 50
Source: Field Survey, 2008
In analyzing table, we shall make use of the Linket Scale where;
SA = Strongly Agree =1
A = Agree =2
NA or D = Neither Agree or Disagree = 3
D = Disagree =4
SD = Strongly Disagree =5

DATA ANALYSIS
In this section, the SPSS output of the responses in chart and text shall be
displayed.
From the SPSS output table 5, the distribution of the responses on factors
influencing the choice of courses, intended courses and the grades obtained by the
respondents are negatively skewed with -1.242, positively skewed with 0.901 and
negatively skewed with -0.032 respectively, with these values the distribution of the
grades said to be approximately normal, while other are not.

Table 1: Showing Descriptive Statistics

Factors Course Grades
N Valid 50 50 50
Missing 0 0 0
Mean 3.22.00 2.5000 3.0200
Median 3.0000 2.0000 3.0000
Skewness -1.242 0.901 -032
Std. Error of skewness 0.337 0.337 0.337
Percentiles 25 3.0000 1.0000 2.0000
50 3.0000 2.0000 3.0000
75 4.0000 4.0000 4.0000
Source: SPSS Output
Table 6: Showing Frequency of Factors
FACTORS
Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative
Percent Percent
Valid Parental 4 8.0 8.0
Peers/friends 2 4.0 12.0
Self 23 46.0 58.0
Not able to secure
admission into
other department 21 42.0 100.0
Total 50 100.0
Source: SPSS Output
Table 7: Showing Frequency of Courses
COURSE
Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative
Percent Percent
Valid Statistics 21 42.0 42.0 42.0
Accountancy 10 20.0 20.0 62.0
Computer Science 6 12.0 12.0 74.0
Marketing 4 8.0 8.0 82.0
Science Lab. Tech. 4 8.0 8.0 90.0
Business Admin. 5 10.0 10.0 100.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
Source: SPSS Output

Table 8: Showing Frequency of Grades

GRADES
Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative
Percent Percent
Valid Upper credit 13 26.0 26.0 26.0
Lower credit 23 46.0 46.0 46.0
Pass 14 28.0 28.0 28.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0 100.0
Source: SPSS Output

HYPOTHESIS TESTING
The hypothesis of this study is stated as:
HR: The influence on choice of course does not affect academic performance
The test is carried out at 5% significant level and it is a two-tail test. The result of the
Chi-square test using SPSS is displayed below.
Factors
Chi-square 9.4
df 4
Asymp. sig. 0.052
Source: SPSS Output

Having tested the hypothesis, it may be necessary to investigate the direction of the
relationship between both variables. In this work, the Pearson’s Contingency
Coefficient C shall be employed.
C = x2
N + x2

Where N is the sample size

= 9.4
50 + 9.4
= 0.39781
C = 0.40 (2 dp)

DISCUSSION
This study examines the relationship between the factors that influence the choice
of courses and academic performance in tertiary institutions with the students in
Statistics Department, Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi.
The factors examined in this research are parental factor, peers/friends, and
inability to secure admission into other departments. It was discovered that majority
(54%) of the students were influenced to study Statistics as shown in figure 1. This
however might have resulted to the over-populated students in the department in past and
recent times.
As a result of the factors, there have been changes in career as these students have
course they had intended to read, thereby causing a change in the technological world. It
was also discovered that these influences reflected in the distribution of the courses the
respondents intend to study. Majority have the mind of studying other course such as
computer science, science laboratory technology etc, and if these courses had been
studied by them; it would have led to a boost in the world of technology.
It was also discovered that despite these influences, the performance of the
students remain approximately normal as shown in the figure above. It therefore,
suffices to say that, these factors may not have significant influence on the students.
This means that more of their performance depends on the factors and their level of
handwork and commitment to their studies.
The result of the test of hypothesis supports the foregoing as it showed that the
factors that influence the choice of study do not affect the academic performance of
students in tertiary institutions. It is imperative to say here that from the result, there is
no enough evidence to reject the research hypothesis.
 Similarly, the factors have been able to explain about 40% of the variation as the
performance of the students in the Department of Statistics leaving the other 60% for
other factors such as handwork, mental effect from such as hard work to studies.

CONCLUSION
The academic performances of “outputs” of tertiary institutions in Nigeria have
an effect on the economic, science and technological sectors of the economy. The world
today is resting on the technological progress overtime. Hence, prospective tertiary
institution students, irrespective of the factors that may influence their choice of course
have greater chances of excelling as shown by the result of the research.

RECOMMENDATION
Based on the research output, the following recommendations shall be made:
o Parents should be involved in their children’s education from the basic education so
as to know what they are capable of;
o Faculty or department should screen thoroughly those changing course from other
departments or faculty to theirs;
o Students should be careful of the friends they keep as it has been discovered that this
has an adverse effect on their pattern of life;
o Students should be focus and specific on what they want to do in life
 REFERENCES
Christine Mann et al (2003): Introduction of Academic Performance, Notice; The Joint
Committee on Academic Performance, University of Cambridge.

Glaser, B.C. and Strauss, A.L. (1967): The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for
Qualitative Research. Aldine: Chicago.

Kathleen Cotton and Karen Reed Wikelund (2001): Parents Involvement in Education.
School Improvement Research Series (SIRS) 2001 Northwest Regional
Education Laboratory, pp 119-121.

Keith, T.Z., et al (1986): Journal of Educational Psychology. Vol. 78 : 373-380.

Patton, M.Q. (1980): Qualitative Evaluation Methods. Sage: London.