Exploring Inhibiting Factors to Academic Success Among First Year Students in Nigerian Universities

This paper examined inhibiting factors to academic success among first year students in Nigerian public universities. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses, it used an ex post facto design with a survey approach. The population for the study involved all the first-year students in four universities in Delta and Edo states, Nigeria. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 50 students from the faculty of Education in each university. A convenient sample size of 200 respondents was used. The data collected was through a questionnaire titled “Exploring inhibiting Factors to Academic Success among First Year Students’ in Nigerian Universities” (EIFASAFS), data obtained was analyzed with the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. The questionnaire was made up of two sections, A and B, were used to elicit responses from students. They yielded a reliability coefficient of .80, .76, .78 and .73 for sections A, B, C, and D respectively, which was considered adequate. The mean, and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested with t-test and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistics at 0.50 level of significance. The findings revealed that inadequate finance, institutional and student factors were inhibiting factors to academic success among first year students in public universities in Nigeria, the main coping interventions adopted include; religion and prayer (3.24), choosing roommates wisely (3.17) and prompt and regular attendance at lectures. A significant difference was found between age and gender on coping strategies adopted by students. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the university management should provide loan schemes, adequate orientation programmes, among others.