Factors that influence student’s choice of place of residence

Abstract

This study was conducted at Makerere University, Kampala by interviewing the undergraduates at the school of statistics and planning. The main objective of the study was to assess factors influencing the choice of place of residences among University students using multinomial logistic approach. The study specifically aimed at finding out whether student background (bio data characteristics) characteristics (gender, age, course of study, friends, and type sponsorship) of the students, student’s family background characteristics and residential factors (security of the place and proximity to university) have influence on the choice of place of residence. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design and collected data from 150 undergraduates who were selected using simple random sampling technique. The study indicated that 62.00% of the respondents were males and 38% were females, 60.67% of the respondents were aged between 18 years and 22 years and 39.33% were aged between 23 years and 27 years. The study also revealed that 25.33% of the respondents were doing BSAS, 22% were doing BBS, 19.33% were doing BSTAT, 19.33% were doing BSQE and 14% were doing BPS. The study showed that 81.33% of the respondents were privately sponsored and only 18.67% of the respondents were on government sponsorship. The study concluded that gender of the student, occupation of the household head, security of the place of residence and distances from the place of residence to the university influence the choice of place of residence. Age of the student, sanitation, sex of the household head, education level of the household head, hostel/rental fees, number of roommates and type of sponsorship do influence the choice of place of residence. The study recommended that basic housing fixtures such as alarm system, fire extinguisher, fire exit among others, household policies such as on-curfew, visitation, and utilization of facilities and control of noise should be established. The study also recommended that the student-renters must consider the responsibilities and liabilities accompanying their freedom and that the hostel management should also provide counseling services to the student renters in order to sole the stress matters.