CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS - The Relationship between University Governance and Female Student

This section describes the conclusions drawn from the research findings. It also presents the researcher’s suggestions to the policy makers, the University of Koudougou the female students and future researchers on a similar topic

Conclusion

Females’ education is an important issue nowadays, their success at university is very important for themselves and families as well as for their countries. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the governance of the University of Koudougou to find out the causes behind the failures of female students at public universities in order to provide suggestions to help them succeed through.

The research adopted a qualitative research method with semi-structured interviews as the main instrument of data collection. With the help of her advisor, the

researcher developed an interview questionnaire that would take into account all the research purposes. After the interview questionnaire was developed, it was reviewed by experts from the researcher studies department and expert from her country. And after revision, the questionnaire was deemed fit to be used for this study. The interview’s content was analyzed and discussed in Chapter 4.

Based on research findings table, it is obvious that the governance of the University of Koudougou has a lot of flaws. Students are trained in hard and challenging conditions which can lead to academic failure. There is a lack of good living conditions for the social, administrative and financial governance; in addition to that, the educational system does not encourage the female students to be successful.

There is also a lack of good study conditions

The three dimensions of the university governance of Koudougou don’t have any positive factors which can assure academic success. Thus, these challenging factors are the reasons of the female students’ failure. How can these female students achieve better outcomes if they lack the adequate conditions to support their studies since they are more fragile and easily vulnerable than men and if their concerns are not taking in consideration?

Thus, Time comes for fundamental changes in governance style at the University of Koudougou to make students and especially female students more successful by providing good accommodations.

After investigation, the researcher was able to answer the research questions as follow:

The Governance of the University of Koudougou is Dictatorship Governance

It is important to mention that the findings of this research can be applied to all the public universities in Burkina Faso. It had been found that the governance style at the University of Koudougou is dictatorship governance where students are not involved in decision making concerning students’ affairs which lead to many strikes. In fact, all the decisions are taken by the board of directors without any discussion with the students’

representatives to know which the decisions are suitable for them. The female students

are not involved as well in the decisions making process. Their involvement could give them the opportunity to expose problems concerning females.

There is a Relationship between University Governance and Female Students’ Academic Failure

The style of governance of the University of Koudougou and the challenging conditions of students training affect the student’s studies, especially female students since they are fragile and more vulnerable than male students.

Based on these hard and challenging conditions, there is negative relationship between the university governance and the female students’ academic success which affects their studies and makes most of them failed.

The Factors that Contribute to Female Students’ Academic Failure at the University of Koudougou are the Lack of Good Conditions of Training; non-taking into Consideration the Females Concerns

It had been found that the students at the University of Koudougou are trained in hard and challenging conditions. Thus, the researcher concludes that the failure of the female students is largely due to largely due to the prevailing university governance system. The lack of good conditions of study and housing affect students’ studies and lead specifically to the failure of many female students.

Factors like (poor quality and insufficient quantity of food, lack of textbooks, lack of university transportation buses, dispersion of courses lecture rooms on different locations, inefficient handling of students’ affairs, small auditoriums which lead to course attendance from outside, the non-effective health care center, lack of cultural and sportive activities, the dictatorship governance style and the non-availability of faculty members to assist students) are found to constitute a major hindrance to the female students’ academic success.

It has been found that the educational system do not encourage and motivate female students to be successful. All these issues are the factors affecting the female students’ academic success.

In addition to that, the lack of taking into consideration females’ concerns which could give the opportunity to discuss the difficulties they are facing on campus with the board of directors in order to solve their problems.

Female Students can be Successful through University Public Governance by Improving their Living, Training conditions and by motivation.

In order to make female students successful, improving their studies and living conditions, motivating them are the incentives that can boost their success. So, the suggestions made to the policy makers, the University of Koudougou and their effective applications will boot their academic success. Self-motivation can also help the female students to be successful. These suggestions made are provided in the next section.

Suggestions

Based on the current research findings some suggestions can be formulated for policy makers, the University of Koudougou, the female students and future researchers on a similar topic.

For Policy Makers

In this 21^st century where women empowerment is a major issue, female students must have good living and study conditions in order to be successful. It was noticed that the government of Burkina Faso focuses more on girls’ enrollment at primary and secondary level and many incentives are given to girls but the University level seems not to be taken into consideration. It would be beneficial to set a higher education policy in favor of female students. The researcher also noticed that all the fifteen female students interviewed for this research are all recipients of the national financial support (insufficient for their monthly expenses) meaning that the national scholarship is not available to them or is difficult to get.

It would be interesting to increase the national financial support amount for females and also give them opportunity to get national scholarships and international scholarships to pursue their studies.

The health of students is an important factor to pursue studies successfully; an effective health care system must be set up for all students on campus and at the dorm section so that they can get immediate care and medications. Especially for females a midwife must be devoted for advices on their sexual life and enhance their sexual education.

Concerning the small auditoriums, it is inconvenient to stay outside to attend a course because of the lack of seats inside. Such a situation prevents concentration and the corollary, a lack of understanding of the course when one knows that students cannot get personal guidance from their instructors. So, due to the annual increase of the number of students entering the university, instead of building many small lecture rooms, large auditoriums would be convenient to reduce building fees and solve the capacity issues. Auditoriums must be built at calm environment and on campus to eliminate travelling over long distances since many female students don’t have a personal transportation.

In addition to that, more university dorms must be built in calm neighborhoods so that students can concentrate on their studies.

A University bus system is an important issue for students’ field trips and for their travelling from the dormitory (for the dormitories located far away) to the campus to attend on time their classes, so a university bus system will be very helpful for students to move easily and conveniently for their academic activities. Measures could be implemented to reduce distances between classrooms which happen to be dispersed across the city. Some financial incentive (appreciations or tangible rewards) must be given to best female students performer in class which will motivate them to work hard and smart to get these rewards

The researcher believes that the policy makers of her country can address these issues by providing good accommodations to encourage females to be among the best students and later get high positions in organizations or set up their own activities which will help them contribute to the national economic development.

For the University of Koudougou

Universities should take care of female students by facilitating their stay and success in the higher education system.

For instance, libraries are right place for researches, reading and study; so textbooks and additional resources must be available at the library for students’

researches since textbooks are so expensive that students cannot afford them. In addition to that, it must be comfortable with air condition, comfortable chairs and very calm environment to stimulate studies. Thus, interesting textbooks on each field of study must be available in sufficient quantity for students’ presentations and researches.

A counseling center is also an important issue to help students work through their adjustment problems and promote their mental health and psychological well-being.

Students who are far away from their parents or even those who still live with their parents need guidance and advices; so a counseling center will be positive for students in solving their problems and supporting their future career development concerns.

Access to the national financial support and scholarships (both national and international) should be made easier for female students as well.

Cultural and sportive issues are also important, in a society in which only men have the power of decision and organizing activities they have to take into consideration the status of female students and organize some interesting and instructive cultural activities for them. It is important to organize and fund many extracurricular activities (cultural activities, sports competitions, musical performances, culinary arts contest) to help them capitalize on self-esteem and socialization skills.

Sports and other activities help students find hobbies that passionate them for their future career choice. Thus, more financial support must been given to students to organize more cultural and sports activities.

The number of students per dormitory room must be reduced (2 to 3 instead of 5 to 6 students per room) to make the dorm environment a calm place where students concentrate on their studies. In addition to that, priority must be given to female students in the dormitory rooms allocation so that they can manage easily their time for studies and regulations must also be set up to avoid noises and disturbances.

Recruitment of qualified staff is a strategic issue for the university efficiency to provide services to students and all visitors, improved services will attract more students because of good quality of services and thus give a good image to the university. Professor must set time for students, monitor them and assist them for their success. Students’ affairs handling is also very important in order to update their different academic problems. Therefore, the staff has to be available for them.

Professors’ assistance is a core requirement for the understanding of the courses. Thus they must be available at predetermined office hours for questions and advices to help students overcome their learning difficulties

Students must be also involved in decision making concerning students’ affairs when possible to avoid strikes and make them feel that the university does care for them.

Females’ students’ representative must be also involved in decision making process, so that they can expose females concerns in order to find solutions to help them be successful.

Hygiene measures must be applied at the canteen to prevent food related diseases.

As pointed out by the respondents, the canteen managers could revise the quantity of food supplied so that the students, freed from hunger, can get more focused during their courses.

Technology is also an important issue, computer centers be must available for students’ researches and training.

For Female Students

Success depends also on the person seeking for it. The policy makers can provide good accommodation but if there is a lack of self-motivation it will be difficult to reach the success. Therefore, self motivation is a key issue for their succes. So, female students must nurture courage, be extremely motivated and have passion for their studies. They must think of their future and take courage to work smart because their parents have great expectations on them. It will be a pride for their parents and they will be good examples in the society to change the mentalities of some parents who, because of some cultural beliefs are still thinking that girls enrollment at school is a waste of time and money.

First of all, they must have a good attitude of learning by managing well their studies timetable and having tips for taking the most important ideas in class. besides, they have to form studies groups (either with male students or with others female students) at the university and also form field group studies according to their majors;

these groups shall be led by a student who understands well, or better, the course and has deep knowledge on the issue at the dormitory level to help each other

They can also create female associations where they will meet regularly to share their problems and together, devise solutions; they could push their creativity as to

inviting female executives in politic (Deputies, Ministers, public organizations’

directors)and private enterprises or business owner for speeches so they can learn from their experiences and get tips on how to be successful.

They must also have female leaders who can negotiate easily with the university board, the faculty members and even policy makers to create opportunities for female students. The association must be able negotiate internships placements to train the members during vacations, for those who have already completed their studies but have not yet been employed, these internships shall contribute to strengthening their skills and competences.

For all the students at public universities, to be successful several points must be taken into consideration:

Students must be united so that they can easily negotiate with the university board faculty members and make the same proposal for the improvement of their living and studies conditions

They must choose leaders to ensure dialogue and negotiations with professors for the courses scheduling to make their timetables lighter.

For those who are living in the university dorm, to ensure a peaceful environment for their studies, they must negotiate with dorm managers for a reduction of the number of students per room and also negotiate with policy makers for the build of additional large dormitories.

They can also negotiate with the board of the university to get students involved in projects management in organizations and also get mandatory or voluntary internships for the strengthening of their professional skills.

For Future Researcher

For future studies on factors affecting students’ academic success at University level, in addition to the effect of governance style, investigations on the cultural background of the research participants will add value to the study to better understand the failure of female students at universities. Also social factors affecting female studies must be investigated if one wishes to have a whole picture on factors affecting females’ academic success. In addition to that, it will be interesting to interview the top manager of the university to get deep information on the issue of the governance and the case of the female students on order to see how to solve their particular case. It

would be also interesting to check the grade sheet of the selected female students to see how well they are doing in their studies.

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