Financial Roles and its Effect on Persistence of Female Students in Distance Education Programs in Ghana

Abstract

In recent times when there has been a shift in public benefit of education from the higher education to basic education, beneficiaries of higher education take responsibilities of most of their financial commitments as students. The focus of the study was to find out the extent to which financial responsibilities affect the persistence of female students accessing higher education through the distance education programs. A correlational research design was used to describe and predict the effect of financial responsibilities on persistence of 441 female students drawn from selected public universities in Ghana. Data was collected using questionnaires and analyzed with descriptives and simple linear regression. It was found that financial roles had positive effect on persistence of the female students. The study recommended that female students were exposed to the sources of funding to enable them mitigate the effect financial roles might have on their persistence and academic progression.