User Acceptance of Biometric Recognition Technology in Bangladeshi Higher Education Institutions: An Extended UTAUT2 Approach

Biometric recognition technology is increasingly being adopted in higher education institutions to enhance access control, attendance management, and examination security. But limited empirical studies are available on the user acceptance of such systems in the context of developing countries especially in Bangladesh. This study investigates factors influencing user acceptance of biometric systems in higher education by expanding the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) model to incorporate the factors of perceived security, privacy and trust in management. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted for collecting data from 266 students, faculty and administrative staff members of Bangladeshi higher education institutions and analyzed by Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM). The results showed that the total variance explained by these four factors is 83.6%: price value (β = 0.358, p < 0.001), perceived security and privacy (β = 0.309, p < 0.001), performance expectancy (β = 0.141, p < 0.01), and trust in management (β = 0.148, p < 0.05). Effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions had non-significant direct impacts but had strong zero-order correlations (r = 0.765, 0.743 and 0.731, respectively), which indicate that these influences are mediated by other constructs, in particular security, privacy and value perceptions. Behavioral intention itself is a significant predictor of usage behavior with a strong correlation (β = 0.619, p < 0.001). The results highlight the relevance of perceived value, data security, and institutional trust for the adoption of biometric technology, providing some practical implications for both university administrators and policy makers.