Comparative Analysis of Satisfaction with Course of Study among Students of Environmental Faculty/School in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

This study assessed the variation in the level of course of study satisfaction among the undergraduate students of the Environmental Faculty/School in some selected Nigerian tertiary institutions. The study sourced and utilised data from online survey among the participating students from the various departments under the Faculty of Environmental Technology. Survey questionnaire was designed using the Survey Menu in DATAtab statistical software and shared to students in 25 Federal, State and Private institutions across Nigeria. Responses from 1471 respondents were analysed using frequency and cross tabulations accompanied with Chi-square tests. In performing the Chi-square tests, the contributions of each Department's response were obtained to know which Department contributed most to total Chi-Square value, hence identifying the largest contributor(s) to the differences in the data. More than 80% of the students in Architecture, Building, Estate Management and Quantity Surveying were satisfied with their course, compared to around 70% of students in Urban and Regional Planning as well as Surveying and Geoinformatics. A Chi2 test carried out showed a statistically significant difference in study satisfaction among the students in the six departments (χ² (10) = 47.54, p = 0.000). URP students were the most dissatisfied. Out of the 293 dissatisfied students, 41.3% felt that their course would not provide them with good employment opportunities, while about 29% rated their course inferior to other built environment courses. It is recommended that courses in Environmental Faculty/School should be made more multi-disciplinary and injected with many cross-cutting subjects. Students should be regularly updated about the latest technology in their courses and educated about other consultancy services they can render as graduates of Built Environment.