FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS - The Relationship between University Governance and Female Students’

This chapter first presents the findings of the research after the use of a systematic coding procedure to analyze the data collected. The findings of the female students are introduced first follow by those of the faculty members, then a comparison of the findings and end by a discussion.

Findings from the Female Students

The findings of the social governance, academic governance and administrative and financial are as follow:

Social Governance

In accordance with the content of social governance, questions were asked about the university dorm, the university canteen, the transportation system, the health care system, the cultural and sportive activities, the counseling center and the nature of their financial support from the government, specific financial support to encourage and specific action to encourage females.

Refer to table 4.1 for the related issues follow by the explanations bellow.

Table 4.1

Students’ Findings on Social Governance

Topic Category Concept

1. Social governance 1-1 University dorm 1-1-1Difficult to get (requires several medical examinations and fees, demand is higher than actual beds availability, bad rumors on girls)

1-1-2 Noisy environment (number of roommates, music and visits)

1-2 University

canteen

1-2-1 Poor quality and insufficient quantity of food supplied.

1-2-2 Inconvenient canteen opening hours

1-3 Transportation

system

1-3-1 Lack of transportation system

1-4 Healthcare

system

1-4-1 Office does not work properly

1-4-2 Doctors non-availability; lack of medications

1-5 Cultural and

sportive activities

1-5-1 Some cultural activities but not instructive for females

1-6-1 Lack of counseling center 1-7-1 National financial support

1-8- 1 Lack of specific financial support 1-9-1 Lack of specific actions to encourage

females

University Dormitory

All the interviewees mentioned the difficulty to get a dormitory room as they usually have to undergo several medical examinations which represent major financial challenges for them and also because of the large number of students applying for dormitory rooms and bad rumors on females. A1 mentioned that “ the process of application requires a lot of medical examinations and fees and we can even meet those requirement but still do not get the dormitory room because of the large numbers of students applying and the limited numbers of beds available’’. A5 argued that they give priority to male students to get the dorm because of some bad rumors on girls (quarrels, prostitutions).

Concerning the dorm environment some of them pointed out that the dormitory environment does not allow them to study because of noises caused by the high number of girls per room (5 to 6 peoples per room). As A15 said “ the dorm environment does not allow us to study for there are so many people in the dorm that when some of us want to study others are listening to music, chattering, furthermore visits of friends and parents , phone calls always disturb us’’.

University Canteen

Concerning the university canteen all of them have unanimously pointed out the poor quality and insufficient quantity of the food given to them. For them the canteen operating hours are inconvenient and do not allow them to attend their courses normally and have lunch and dinner after classes. This can be evidenced from this statement of A7: “ the food given to us is not enough and sometime causes some diseases, like stomach aches and the operating times need to be reviewed students will have to choose between going to class or to the canteen’’.

Transportation System

All of the interviewees said that the University of Koudougou does not have transportation system and they have to get their own transportation mean which prove expensive for them. Since they take courses at different locations, the lack of university common buses is challenge as they all must be on time for classes.

Health Care System

For the healthcare system the interviewees said that there is no specific healthcare system for female students, they have a general healthcare system but the office does not work properly (lack of medication, non-availability of doctors).

As A 9 mentioned “the health center is always closed and when it is open, usually there are no medical supplies for us and the doctors are not always available either”.

Cultural and Sportive Activities

The female students said that the university organizes, however irregularly some cultural activities but those activities are not very instructive for females. They said basically it is about music and some region cultural nights which are not really helpful for them. They wish there can be contests on culinary arts, and more activities on cultural issues which will allow them to stay close to their own cultures and learn from other culture.

For sport activities, they said that they have a single annual sport event which is the students’ annual sports day where national universities compete with other neighboring universities. They said they would like more sportive activities to also train themselves in sport.

Nature of Financial Support

All the interviewees are recipient of the national financial support which they have to pay back upon completion of their studies. They mentioned that this financial support is not enough to cover their monthly expenses because they have to pay their dorm’s rent, make photocopies of some course handouts, pay the tuition fees and buy canteen tickets but they said this financial support is somehow helpful. This can be evidenced by the statement of A8 who said “ FONER is not enough specially for girls but it helps a lot since we use it to pay our dorm rent fees, canteen tickets and pay some textbooks photocopies that we make sometimes’’.

Counseling Center

After investigation it had been found that there is no counseling center at the University of Koudougou so, when the female students have personal concerns either academic or social they don’t know how to solve them. Some of them said that they have to face their problems and try to solve them by themselves. As A3 mentioned

“such a center does not exist! when I have problems I don’t know to who I should entrust myself, so I am obliged to face my own problems or talk to my fellow female students which is not always the best alternative’’.

Specific Financial Support from the University of Koudougou

All of the interviewees said that the University of Koudougou does not have any financial incentive to encourage female students to pursue their studies but most of them have the national financial support which they have already mentioned above.

Specific Actions from the Regional Center of University Works

They all mentioned the lack of specific actions from the regional center of university works to encourage female to pursue successfully their studies.

Academic Governance

To assess the academic governance, questions on involvement in decision making, academic infrastructures (lecture rooms and their dispersion at different location and library) and their relationship with the faculty members were asked. Please refer to table 4.2 for the related issue followed by the explanations below.

Table 4.2

Students’ Findings’ on Academic Governance

Topic Category Concept

2. Academic governance

2-1 Involvement in decision making

2-1-1 Students non- involvement in decision making process

2-2-2 Dispersion of lecture rooms in different locations affects their studies since they don’t have a university bus

2-2-3 Bad state of library and lack of needed textbooks

2-3-1 Professors non-availability for questions and others assistance

Involvement in Decision Making

All of the female students said that females have representatives only at the dormitory level but they are not involved in any decision making. Moreover they pointed out that even male students are not involved in decision making that leads to many strikes for they dissatisfied with the decisions.

A11 mentioned that:

At the university we don’t have representatives but we have representatives at the dormitories to address our leaving problems but they are not involved in any decision making with the dorm managers, more precisely most of the time even male students are not involved in decision making for example one of the announcement made by the university this year said that all decisions made by the university is not negotiable by students, so it is a kind of dictatorship. The board members do not involve students’ representatives in discussions concerning students’ affairs and this result in many strikes by the students.

Students believe that the current governance is a dictatorial governance because of the many strikes (professors and students), non-implication of students in decision-making for they have noticed that most of the time students’ representatives are not involved in decision making concerning students’ affairs.

They also think that the actual governance at this university (hard conditions of training) affects their academic success and even their life; A15 concluded that “if you are not filled with courage, it is easy to fail’’.

Academic Infrastructures and Library Resources

The respondents mentioned that the auditoriums do not have the appropriate capacity to hold all the students for a class so, students to get a seat inside the auditorium they have to go very early at the auditorium otherwise they have to take class from outside. Therefore those who want to secure a seat inside the lecture rooms we have to wake up very early and reach the auditoriums and choose the seats and stay until the course’s start. A12 mentioned “to attend normally a class, one must wake up very early to get a seat inside the lecture rooms which is not safe for us females (insecurity on the road) or we have to attend the class from outside’’.

They said that the scattered lecture rooms across the city also affect their studies in the sense that they have to buy their own transportation mean because of the longer distances and time constraints.

For the library, they said that the building needed renovation because it is old and not comfortable (no air conditioning system, old chairs, not enough seats) and there is not enough volumes available and often it is difficult to get the textbook they are looking for because of the large number of students compared to the limited number of textbooks. In addition to that interesting and needed documents are missing in the library.

Faculty Members

Concerning professors, they said that they are not available as they would have wished. A6 that “most of the professors are not living in Koudougou so after their class they have to rush to their city of residence or because of their busy teaching schedule since they are giving courses in both private and public universities sometimes they rather focus on private universities where they are well paid while public universities students have questions about their courses or need other assistance”.

Administrative and Financial Governance

For the administrative and financial governance questions on the administrative staff and the availability of administrative and financial documents were asked. Refer to table 4.3 for related issue followed by the explanations below.

Table 4.3

Student’s Findings Administrative and Financial Governance

Topic Category Concept

3. Administrative and financial governance

3-1 Administrative staff 3-1-1 Administrative staff available but a

Administrative Staff

The interviewees argued that the administrative staff of the university is available for students but students’ affairs are not treated as quick as they would have wished because of some slow bureaucratic processes. They also mentioned that sometimes they need to play their personal relations from within the staff to get attention for their academic problems. While A1 mentioned that “the staff members are available but because of the bureaucratic system its take longue to solve our academic problems, so knowing someone in the administration is an advantage to solve quickly a problem”.

A14 said that “when you have an academic problem to solve, you need to go to the administrative staff a week before and negotiate with them to help you’’.

For the administrative and financial documents they said that that because of the long bureaucratic systems the administrative and financial documents are not sign on time which lead to many dysfunctions. As A 15 mentioned, “most of times exams are postponed for they did not get the budget since the financial documents are not sign in order to purchase the supplies because of the slow bureaucratic system.”

Findings from Faculty Members

The findings from the faculty are similar to those from the students except for more detailed answers on some issues.

For the university dormitory they all acknowledged that it is difficult to get, however they mentioned a very important issue, B1 admitted the difficulty to get a dorm because of a superior number of students applying for dormitory room compared to the limited number of beds available but explained that “this difficulty is somehow due to the fact that most of the students overstay when their contract expires;

this situation makes it difficult to reattribute beds which are yet still occupied to new applicants and those still eligible for a renewed contract.’’ Some of them said that besides the large number of students applying for dorm there is some kind of nepotism in the allocation of dorm based on family relationship and friendship.

They said that the dorm environment is too noisy since most of the dormitories are at located at inappropriate areas as B2 mentioned “some dormitories are in the city or close to noisy neighborhoods”. They also said that at the dormitory students do

whatever they want please and deliberately do not comply with any regulations transforming thus the dorm a noisy place. This can be evidenced by the statement of B3 “students do whatever they want at the dormitories, they don’t follow the regulations of the dorm but if the dorm manager tries to talk to them they will go on strike”.

For the canteen they think that the food given to students is sufficient, they also think that the operating hours are convenient for lunch and dinner.

On the health care system issue, they highlighted that the health care center is for those students who are scholarship recipients but also open to non-scholarship students but the service is not the same; scholarship recipients enjoy a 100%

subvention for their medications.

For the cultural and sportive activities they said that the university does not organize cultural activities for students, they said the university gives financial support to students so that they can organize their cultural activities they want. They think that those activities are instructive for student (i.e students’ night, regional culture night). They also mentioned that the university organizes some sportive events like students’ annual sportive day where all the national public universities and the universities of some neighboring countries meet together for competition.

For the administrative staff they highlighted the low number of the administrative staff and mentioned that they pay less attention to students’ academic problems. In addition to that, they said that most of the administrative staff members are unqualified for their positions. They mentioned that they are available to help students in their learning process but think that students don’t ask for help. They also highlighted the bureaucratic system which makes slow the treatment of administrative and financial documents important for functioning of the university.

Both students and faculty members recognized the lack of counseling center, the lack of transportation system at the University of Koudougou, the non-involvement of females in decision making. They agreed that the university does not have any specific financial support and the regional center of university works also does not have any actions to encourage female to pursue their studies

.

Table 4.4bellow presents the faculty members findings.

Table 4.4

Findings of the Faculty Members

Topic Category Concept

1-1 University dorm 1-1-1 Difficult to get a dormitory room (demand higher than actual availability of beds, Overstay beyond contract’s expiry, nepotism in attribution of room) 1-1-2 Noisy environment (inappropriate

location, non-respect of regulations) 1. Social

governance

1-2 University canteen 1-2-1 Poor quality but sufficient quantity of food

1-2-2 Canteen’s convenient operating times 1-3 Health care

System

1-3-1Health care center only for scholarship students

1-3-2 Subvention on medical expenses for scholarship recipients

1-4 Financial support 1-4-1 The university has financial support for students (national financial support, national scholarship)

1-5-1 Does not organize cultural activities (but provide financial support )

1-5-2 instructive for females. (i.e: students night, regional culture nigh)

1-5-3 some sportive events 1-6-1 No counseling center

1-7-1 lack of transportation system 1-8-1Lack of specific financial support

1-9-1Lack of specific actions to encourage females

2-1-1 students and faculty non-involvement in decision making

2-2-1 Small and old lecture rooms 2-2-2 Dispersion of lecture rooms affect

students’ academic success (no university bus, inability to buy personal

transportation)

2-2-3 Lack of enough textbooks in library 3-1-1 staff available but heavy bureaucratic

system to solve students ‘affairs

3-2-1 Slow treatment of documents necessary for the functioning of the university

Discussions

It is important to mention that the current research is seeking to find out the factors behind the failures of female students by investigating the University governance which is composed of three dimensions (social, academic and administrative governance).

Research on the effect of university governance on students’ academic success at had not been done yet which explains the reason for this present study. However studies have been done on factors affecting students’ failure and success. In the literature review the factors affecting students’ success can be classified by cultural, social and school factors.

For cultural factors, greater involvement of girls in domestic work; the baby-sitting work by young girls; the parents fear that the schoolgirls will be over-empowered; perception of non-importance of school to girls because she is born

to be a housewife and the early marriage of girls (Kabore, Lairez & Pilon, 2003) are the factors that affect students ’success.

Concerning social factors, family low income; child labor; family problems (parental separation, divorce); illiteracy of parents and their negative attitude toward the school; the distance of schools and colleges; (UNESCO, 2004) are the factors that affect students’ success.

The schools factors affecting students’ success are the lack of materials or inadequate infrastructure; lack of motivation; teacher absenteeism; lack of extracurricular activities; bad curriculum and teaching style, bad illumination of classrooms (Mcgowen, 2007) .

Personal factors: the health of the student; student’ ability, task difficulty, effort and luck (Mkumbo & Amani, 2012) are also factors that can affect success.

The current researcher thinks that these factors focused more on the social factors, cultural dimension and school physical conditions but the present study only focuses on all factors at the university that can affect students’ academic success. The researcher is aware that these factors found in the literature review are some possible factors that can affect the students’ academic success but the factors at university level and the governance style can also have big impact on students’ academic success.

Still based on the literature review, some studies had been done on university governance focusing on private universities in other countries but the content of this governance is not structure as it is Burkina Faso. In addition to that, there is no previous research which had investigated the effect of University governance and students’

academic success in Burkina Faso or in others countries, therefore it won’t be possible to compare the result of the current research to any previous research findings on university governance but will contributed to add literature on university governance and factors affecting students’ academic success as well as contributing to a better understanding of the governance of public university governance in some African countries specially in Burkina Faso and suggestions are made to improve the

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