Comparative rural university students’ demography nexus learning abilities

Abstract

This study explored the effects of rural university students’ demography on their learning abilities. Quantitative and qualitative research designs were employed for data collection. Quantitative data for the study was collected from 934 randomly selected undergraduates through the use of questionnaire while qualitative data was collected through focused group discussions which were conducted with 16 conveniently selected students. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, while the qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analyses. The finding of the study reveals that the influence of rural based university students’ demography on their learning abilities is relative and varies based on the quality of education provided and personal resilience of the students. The study recommends that the demography of students should be taken into cognizance during the design of curriculum and in teaching and learning activities. Also, students should be encouraged to be resilient in order to achieve success.

Keywords: demography; learning abilities; rural university students; South Africa; Nigeria