The Perspective of Students on Factors Affecting Their Academic Performance at the Tertiary Level

Abstract

Aims: To determine the factors that affect students’ academic performance at tertiary institutions with the view of enhancing learning. Study Design: Survey was adopted as the research method for this study. Place and Duration of Study: University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and University for Development Studies, Ghana, between April 2012 and June 2012. Methodology: Sample: We included 670 students (363 men, 307 women; age range 17-38 years). Results: The analysis of variants (ANOVA) showed that, the regression analysis is 726.513 at 0.05 alpha levels; it therefore implies that, there is a significant relationship between infrastructure provision and academic performance of students. It implies that, the higher the provision of infrastructure the higher the performance of students. Furthermore there was a significant correlation between the sum of the squares (254.235) and the mean square (254.235), which also implies that, the performance of students’ is dependent on infrastructure provision. Conclusion: The analyses revealed that the major factor affecting student’s academic performance was infrastructure provision. The regression analysis further showed that, there is a strong relationship between the provision of educational infrastructural facilities and academic performance.