School of Education and Social sciences
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Item Assessment of Student Leaders’ Skills Critical in Managing Student Affairs in Public Universities in Kenya(Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD, 2018) Murage, Lucy Muthoni; Njoka, Johannes Njagi; Gachahi, Michael WambuguThe need to prevent eruption of unrests among students in universities continues to exercise the minds of higher education managers and policy makers in the world. Innovative approaches in the management of higher education designed to preclude students’ riots continue to face immense challenges and ineffectiveness in universities in Kenya. One of the widely adopted approaches is that of involving democratically elected student leaders in the management of students’ affairs in universities in Kenya. Despite the involvement of student leaders in the management of students’ affairs in public universities, students’ protests and riots continue to characterize higher education in Kenya. Consequently, there is need to examine the leadership skills that student leaders are expected to possess in order to perform their functions effectively so as to avert upsurge of strikes. This study sought to assess the student leaders’ skills that are critical in managing student affairs in selected public universities in Kenya. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. Stratified random sampling was used to select student leaders from four public universities. The sample comprised 19 members of student governing councils, 50 class representatives and 79 clubs and society leaders, making a total of 142 respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that 66.3% of student leaders had leadership competence to organize welfare activities to address students’ concerns in their institutions while 33.7% lacked capability. Further, the study established that leadership skills significantly contributed to effective provision of student affairs services. It is concluded that institutions of higher learning have not fully empowered student leaders to effectively perform their leadership tasks. The study recommends that student leaders should be exposed to regular leadership trainings during their tenure designed to equip them with necessary leadership competencies which would promote their effectiveness in enhancing university stability, peace and mutually accepted governance.Item Challenges Faced by Student Leaders in Managing Student Affairs in Public Universities in Kenya(International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies, 2019-01) Murage, Lucy Muthoni; Njoka, Johannes; Gachahi, MichaelEffective management of student affairs in public universities continue to pose a major challenge to university administrators and student leaders in many parts of the world including Kenya. Public universities are perpetually ravaged by rampant incidences of student unrests and strikes yet innovative approaches meant to curb such incidences have been adopted that involved student leaders in governance of institutions of higher learning. The effectiveness of these innovative approaches in university governance is not clearly documented. The rationale of the study was to analyse the challenges faced by student leaders in managing student affairs in public universities in Kenya. The study employed descriptive survey research design. Stratified random sampling was used to select student leaders from public universities in Kenya. The sample size comprised of 19 members of student governing councils, 50 class representatives and 73 clubs and society leaders, making a total of 142 respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires. Analysed data revealed that 50.4% of the student leaders experienced challenges while executing their functions. The major challenges included conflict between academic pursuits and leadership roles, lack of teamwork among student leaders and students’ ignorance of university policies and statutes. The study further established a strong and statistically significant relationship between the challenges faced by student leaders and effective student affairs services in public universities at 0.05 levels of significant with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.789. The study concluded that challenges experienced by student leaders may impede effective discharge of their duties and may result in poor service delivery leading to incidences of riots. The study recommends that student leaders should be assisted to solve internal problems that may affect the effective discharge of their duties as a way of addressing unrests in public universities.Item Assessment of Student Leaders’ Performance of Functions in Managing Student Affairs in Selected Public Universities in Kenya(Kenya Journal Of Educational Planning, Economics & Management, 2017) Murage, Lucy Muthoni; Njoka, Johannes; Gachahi, MichealThe Universities Act, 2012 outlines the responsibilities of student leaders in the provision of student services in universities in Kenya. Despite the universities having student leaders to oversee and plan the welfare of students, there are still regular complaints over the unsatisfactory students’ services provision causing students’ protests. The study sought to assess how student leaders performed their functions for effective management of student affairs. Descriptive survey research design was adopted and stratified random sampling was used to select student leaders. Data collection instruments were questionnaires. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results from the study revealed low performance as 52.4% of student leaders did not effectively execute their leadership mandate in managing student affairs and only 47.6% effectively performed their functions. This means that to a greater extent, student leaders are ineffective in management of student affairs. The low performance might have contributed to the constant conflicts between the students and university management in the recent past over the management of student affairs. The study recommends that student leaders should take their leadership responsibility more aggressively by being proactive in organizing welfare activities that address students’ concerns.Item Student Leaders Involvement in Decision Making Processes on Management of Student Affairs in Selected Public Universities in Kenya(Nairobi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2017-09) Murage, Lucy Muthoni; Njoka, Johannes; Gachahi, MichealManagement of student affairs continues to be a major challenge to student affairs’ professionals, university management, ministry, government and all stakeholders of university education in Kenya. Students’ protests over the provision of student services have caused incalculable destruction both financial and social to the public and university. The study established that effectiveness in management of student affairs could be increased to a high level with increase in level of student leaders’ involvement in university decision making process. The result indicated that change in involvement in decision making by one unit can affect effectiveness in student affairs management by 0.275.