Factors affecting student choice of programme of study at a university: A study of School of business students at Kwame Nkrumah University

Students from secondary schools are always talking about their career path ways but in most cases they find it difficult to make the right decisions. The problem of students making choices not based on aspirations, interests or making a choice based on concreate reasons has made a good number of students who have been accepted in the school of business at Kwame Nkrumah University change the programme of study as observed from first year Open and Distance Students changing from one programme to another. Students changed programme of study from bachelor of economics or marketing to bachelor of business administration. In addition, low numbers in other programmes had made few students who made choices to study in those programmes move to other programmes within the school of business. The decisions were influenced by their friends in the programmes they were joining. The main objective was to determine factors that influence students when making a choice of programme of study at a university. The study used a sampling design of a mixed study approach with closed and open ended questionnaire. Purposive sampling method was used to collect data. Sampling frame were school of business studies students at Kwame Nkrumah University. Sample size of 96 respondents was considered. The study was analysed using SPSS IBM version 20. Data was presented in tables and discussion was done with reference from both primary data set and secondary data set, from which conclusions and recommendations were done. The findings showed that; social-economic factors, grade 12 results and parents were significant in influencing student programme choice and in conclusion personal interest were not significant in the study as a factor. The study recommends to the department of marketing to ensure they visit secondary schools and market the various programmes to arouse personal interest in students in different programmes of study so that they learn to choose programmes of study on merit.