Students’ residence satisfaction, lifestyles and academic performance of Undergraduate Students of Makerere University

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out the relationship between students residence satisfaction, lifestyles and academic performance. A cross section survey was used. The population of the study included both male and female respondents selected from Makerere University. These included 250 continuing undergraduate students from the College of Humanities, College of Education, College of Business Administration and Management, and Makerere University Business School with a response rate of 80%. After data collection analysis was run using SPSS; frequencies were for background information, Pearson correlations were run to test for the relationships and T-tests were also run to identify differences between the variables. Results revealed that students living off campus perceived high satisfaction with the quality of life in their residences and even perceived high CGPA compared to students living on campus in the halls of residence. Almost 70% of the respondents were sexually active or have been sexually active with only half of those sexually active practicing safe sex. The study confirmed that there is no significant relationship between academic performance and students’ satisfaction with the quality of life in their residences. This study advice that, much as a student’s choice of residence may not significantly affect his performance, his choice of lifestyles in the residence will.