Prevalence of Non-Completion among Postgraduate Students in Selected Public Universities in Kenya

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Date
2021Author
Mugendi, Sophia Mwende
Githae, Eunice Njango
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Non-completion among university students is a common phenomenon in many parts of
the world. Many causes of this problem have been advanced and among them are
institutional and individual reasons like financial ability, gender and motivation to
complete studies. Psychological distress though not investigated thoroughly has been
cited as one of the problems leading to non-completion. The study sought to establish the
prevalence of non-completion among postgraduate students in selected public
universities in Kenya. Weiner Attribution theory (1985) informed the study. The study
adopted a correlation research design, and it was conducted in two selected public
universities in Uasin Gishu and Nairobi counties targeting a population of 945
postgraduate students. A sample of (N=273) was obtained from the two selected public
universities through systematic random sampling. The study used questionnaires, focus
group discussions and document analysis in collecting data. Reliability of the
questionnaire was established using Split half method from a pilot study conducted in
Uasin Gishu County. Statistical package for the social sciences SPSS 23 was also used to
analyse the data. Descriptive statistics to analyze demographic data while Pearson
correlation was employed to test the relationship between psychological distress and
non-completion. Regression analysis was used to clarify the nature of relationship with
the variable. Findings indicated an average non-completion rate of 2.5 years with most
students citing financial constraints as the primary cause of their non-completion. The
study recommended that students who wished to further their studies should first
establish a financial channel or safe for the education journey before they registered for
their studies. This would ensure that they would avoid dropping out of school due to a
lack of school fees. The study further recommended that students should choose a study
model that would favour their schedules to ensure that they did not go through a lot of
stress trying to accomplish several tasks simultaneously.
URI
https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/4017/6651http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/23002