David MuigaiMugala Bulinda HanningtonAraka, Kebaso Onchong’a Nelion2023-02-012023-02-012022http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/24613A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Degree of Master of Science in Physical Education of Kenyatta University in the School of Public Health and Applied Human SciencesIn Kenya, it has been noted that the development of education has been geared immensely by the spirit of sports. However, it is notable that a lot of talents are lost due to constraints encountered as a result of lack of support and motivation among the Kenyan students’ athletes. The general goal of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of sports scholarship on athletes’ participation in Kenyan Universities. In order to achieve the general goal, this study was guided by various specific objectives. These includes determining the major factors influencing athletes’ participation and analysis of the perceptions of athletes’ sports participation among university athletes. The study focused on Kenyan universities within Nairobi City County. A descriptive study design was used for this study while the study focused on the population of university athletes of handball, soccer, basketball and volley ball teams in the universities under Kenya Universities Sports Association. A purposive sampling technique was used to identify the sample of athletes. This study adopted a sample size of 10% of the total population for the various strata. Questionnaires were the primary instruments for data collection. Measures of dispersion were used for statistical analysis such as standard deviation, percentages and t-test. The study found that some of the major factors that influences participation of the athletes in diverse sporting activities include skills development, cognitive benefits, health and physical fitness, need for scholarships, spirit of competition, psychological benefits, friendship development and stress/tension management. The results showed that only a few students had benefitted from the scholarships while the majority of the athletes had not gotten any scholarship opportunity. Similarly, the process of accessing any scholarship opportunity was quite difficult and just a few athletes would be lucky to get any form of scholarship. Other factors that were reported to impact the whole process of securing scholarships among the athletes include proper linkages, exposure, playing environment and institutional support. The study showed significant relationship between availability of scholarship opportunities and sports participation. The study recommended that there is need to conduct further research on factors influencing accessibility of scholarships among university athletes.enUniversityStudentAthletesSportsScholarshipsSportsKenyan UniversitiesNairobi City CountyThesis