Influence of Economic Status on Academic Performance of Postgraduate Business Education Students in Rivers State Universities

Abstract

The study investigated influence of economic status on academic performance of postgraduate business education students in Rivers State Universities. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The research adopted descriptive design. The population of the study comprised 235 postgraduate business education students in Ignatius Ajuru University of Education and Rivers State University. The sample of 235 student respondents was drawn from the two Rivers State Universities using census sampling technique. Influence of Economic Status on Academic performance of Postgraduate Business Education Students Questionnaire was used for data collection. The reliability coefficient of 0.81 was obtained using Cronbach method. The research questions were answered using mean, standard deviation and rank order statistics for all the research questions, while the null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using z-test statistics. The findings among others revealed that all the items in table one had mean above the criterion mean of 2.5. Thus, they were accepted as extent unemployment influence academic performance of postgraduate business education students while hypotheses showed that there is no significant difference between the mean ratings of RSU and IAUE students on the extent unemployment influence academic performance. It was concluded that economic status which involved unemployment and delayed salaries are possible factors that influence academic performance of postgraduate business education students in Rivers State Universities.