The effect of inflation on the students’ standards of living In Makerere University: a case study of School of Statistics and Planning

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of inflation on the students’ standards of living in Makerere University. A case study of School of Statistics and Planning was used. The major aim of this study was to examine the effect of inflation on the students’ standards of living in Makerere University. Another objective of this study was to assess the effect of increasing food and rental prices on the students’ standards of living as well as to find out the relationship between the main sources that cause the increasing and uncontrollable inflation and the students’ standards of living. A sample of 210 participants were included in this study. A questionnaire which was designed using Google forms was used to collected data from different participants who offered different courses at School of Statistics and Planning. The data collected was analyzed using STATA vision 15.0 software where univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were carried out. In the univariate analysis, the findings indicated that majority of the respondents (51.9%) were females with (48.1%) being males. The study also reveals that majority of the respondents (41.4%) were offering B.QE followed by (22.4%) that offered B.STA. Where (51.0%) of the respondents were non-university residents and (49.1%) were university residents. In the bivariate analysis, there was no significant association between age of the respondents and the respondents’ opinions on whether increase in the food prices has resulted into students going for poor quality food hence putting their health on risk was not rejected. Similarly, there was no significant association between the gender of the respondents and the respondents’ opinions on whether increase in the food prices has resulted into students going for poor quality food hence putting their health on risk was also not rejected. Furthermore, there was no significant association between course of the respondents and the respondents’ opinions on whether increase in the food prices has resulted into students going for poor quality food hence putting their health on risk was not rejected. Similarly, there was no significant association between place of residence of the respondents and the respondents’ opinions on whether increase in the food prices has resulted into students going for poor quality food hence putting their health on risk was not rejected. It was therefore concluded that age, gender, course and place of residence of the respondents are not significantly related to the students’ standards of living using a measure of the respondents’ opinions on whether increase in the food prices has resulted into students going for poor quality food hence xi putting their health on risk. In the multivariate analysis, the model did not represent a significant improvement in fit relative to a null model that is (LR chi 2 =9.64, p=0.9431) and also (LR chi 2 = 8.28, p=0.9742). The study therefore recommended that more effort should be made to ensure that inflation levels are kept low; not only to maintain a decent standard of living but also to avoid a huge negative impact on standard of living since sensitivity of standard of living to inflation increases as inflation gets higher. Also, the study recommends the government to adopt a blend of fiscal and monetary policies to curb the high inflation and elevate the standard of living of people in Uganda. The reason for this is based on the fact that the inflation challenge faced by Ugandans cannot be combatted by strictly adopting fiscal policies or otherwise. The study also recommends that further studies on inflation should be conducted so as to determine whether the impact of inflation on living standards of Ugandans is exactly as established, or the difference if any. Finally, it is recommended that attention should be paid to other economic indicators that could also be an indication of the standard of living in the economy such as unemployment and poverty. Policy makers tend to make a big deal of inflation as compared to these other indicators. However, it is clear that inflation accounts for only some of the changes in standard of living. These other indicators, which have the tendency to impact or reflect standard of living, should thus receive public attention also.