This chapter explains the background of the current study. It also presents the research purposes and questions as well as the limitations and delimitations of the study.
The last part of this chapter contains the definitions of some key terms used by the researcher.
Background of the Study
“African public universities are experiencing structural crises since several decades and the reasons for these crises have different origins such as the persistence of armed conflict, civil wars, political instability, strikes (teachers, students) and the style of governance at universities’’ (Makosso, 2006, pp.74-81). The situation is so serious that many African public universities cannot validate academic years and assure the training of human resource necessary to the development of the continent. Sometimes, some countries are even compelled to close their public universities for few years in order to do a complete overhaul of the system of higher education. This has led to the flourishing of several private universities in many African countries; but given the high tuition fees, many students do not have access to these private universities.
Moreover, the World Bank in the mid-1990s claimed that higher education was not a priority for Africa. This has contributed to the degeneration of higher education system characterized by a weak injection of funds and a lack of real involvement by States. Fortunately, the World Bank quickly recognized its analysis errors and encouraged African countries to support their universities in setting up university governance based on best practices (Samoff & Carrol, 2003). Universities in Francophone countries gathered in the Mauritian and African Council for Higher Education (MACHE) will create the Panafrican Institute for University Governance (PIUG) which has the function of a platform of proposition of ideas for the implementation of new university governance in Africa.
Public universities in Burkina Faso also underwent crises and unrests, for instance the first university of the country created since 1974, actually has two consecutive years high school graduates who have not yet started their freshmen year studies because other academic years have not yet been completed (there are seven public universities in Burkina Faso). Except for the two public universities of Ouagadougou, the academic years are validated in other universities because of the reduced number of strikes. The
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reasons of these dysfunctions on the campus are attributable to the various strikes by the professors or students, the university governance style in practice and political instability which prevent students to attend courses (Chouli 2009). These strikes and governance style may have a negative impact on students’ studies and academic success. During the research information’s gathering the researcher noticed that only few studies had been done on university governance in Burkina Faso and these previous studies did not link university governance and the students’ academic success.
The current researcher having been a student in her country noticed that, most of the female students do not succeed in public universities, which is confirmed by the data provided by the Ministry of Higher Education (2009) of Burkina Faso on students’
academic success showing a low rate of success compared to male students. The question therefore is why most of the female students don’t succeed at university?
Refer to table 1.1 to table 1.4 for the related issues.
Table 1.1
Students’ Academic Success Rate at the Department of Economic and Management Sciences
Department of Economic and Management Sciences
2008 – 2009 2009 - 2010 2010 - 2011 2011 - 2012
M F M F M F M F
Success rate 17.64% 15.21% 17.07% 12% 37.97% 31.21% 48.83% 30.04%
Table 1.2
Students’ Academic Success Rate at the Department of French Literature Department of French Literature
2009 – 2010 2010 - 2011 2011 – 2012
M F M F M F
Success rate 14.45% 8.46% 19.91% 10.25% 57.77% 31.40%
Table 1.3
Students’ Academic Success Rate at the Department of Geography
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Department of Geography
2009 – 2010 2010 - 2011 2011 - 2012
M F M F M F
Success rate 11.47% 9.43% 41.66% 30.14% 48.54% 12.85%
Table 1.4
Students’ Academic Success Rate at the Department of History Department of History
2009 – 2010 2010 - 2011 2011 – 2012
M F M F M F
Success rate 50.21% 24.46% 12.28% 20.53% 40.29% 21%
Burkina Faso has a female dominated population with 51.7% of women according to the last population census in 2005; in addition to that, recently in 2010, the National Assembly passed a law relative to the presence of women in political and administrative structures to a minimum of 30% since the government noticed that females are excluded and cannot contribute properly to the development of the country.
However to implement such a measure, it should ensure the presence of literate female human resources specially those who have at least a university training.
This research seeks to identify the relationship between university governance and students’ academic success and formulate suggestions to enhance public university governance in Burkina Faso which will increase students, especially female students’
success for their proper participation to the development of the country.
Research Purposes
Based on the research background assessment, the purposes of this study are to investigate:
1. The governance of the University of Koudougou in Burkina Faso 2. The relationship between the university governance and female
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Students’ academic failures
3. Factors that contribute to students’ failure at the University of Koudougou
4. How to make female students succeed through public university governance in Burkina Faso.
Research Questions
In accordance with the research purposes, the researcher has identified four (04) questions that need to be answered during the course of the research.
1. How is the governance of the governance at the University of Koudougou?
2. Is there any relationship between University governance and students’ academic failures?
3. What are the factors that contribute to female students’ academic failure at the University of Koudougou
4. How to make female students successful through Burkina Faso’ public Universities governance?
Significance of Study
The general purpose of this study is to investigate the governance of public universities in Burkina Faso. Therefore after completion of this study, the research would have permitted on one hand to better understand the governance of public universities in Burkina Faso. On the other hand, the findings of the research would be a valuable basis for improving the students training conditions. Specially, the study will contribute to helping female students succeed trough the university governance in practice in public universities in Burkina Faso.
In addition to that, this research will encourage the government to undertake policies favorable for female students at public universities, on the other hand effective implementation of these policies in favor of female students will boost their success so that they can contribute to the national economic development of Burkina Faso.
One other major contribution of this study concerns the literature, the findings of this research will add literature to factors affecting students’ academic success and will also add literature to university governance in general and the governance of public Universities in particular.
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Delimitations and Limitations
The present study investigates the relationship between university governance and the female students’ academic success. The study aims to provide information about the reasons behind female student’s failures. Therefore, three main delimitations have been formulated by the researcher and to which correspond three limitations. In doing so, the researcher aims at setting a scope in order to make the research more feasible and more concise.
Delimitations
The first delimitation of this study pertains to the fact that the research will be conducted in Burkina Faso and female students are only taken into consideration.
The study is also delimited to the effect of University governance on female students’ academic success at public Universities.
The third and last delimitation concerns the method of data collection used. In fact, a semi-structured interview is used to gather the information from fifteen female students and three faculty members.
Limitations
Because of the delimitations the present research, one should exercise cautious in generalizing the findings of this research to other countries or male students. Due to the limited number of research subjects, the results again should be generalized with care.
Definition of Terms University governance
University governance is the set of factors that contribute to students’ academic success. Thus, it is based on three components: social governance, administrative and financial governance and academic governance.
Academic success
In the context of this research academic success is defined as the fulfillment by a student, the academic requirements defined by the required grades or performance to
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move gradually from lower class to upper ones. Thus, a student is successful when he/she reaches the required performance to move up.
Academic failure
The Academic failure is the phenomenon of students leaving university without qualification or diploma for having not reached the required performance to move up.