Influence of Career Guidance Programmes on Change of Programme of Study among First-Year Undergraduate Students in Kenyan Universities

Abstract

Change of study programme is a common phenomenon among university undergraduate students across the world. However, in Kenya, change of study programme has not been studied extensively revealing a knowledge gap. This study therefore sought to establish the influence of career guidance programmes on change of study programme among first-year undergraduate students in Kenyan universities. The study adopted a quantitative cross-sectional survey method. It was conducted in selected seven universities where 68,545 first year undergraduate students were targeted. Out of this, samples of 397 students were selected. Pearson correlation and regression analyses were used to establish the relationship between the variables. The correlation findings indicated that the P value was less than 0.05, resulting to rejection of the null hypothesis. Thus, career guidance programmes have a significant influence on students’ change of study programme. Based on the findings, the study concluded that career guidance programmes had a positive and significant influence on students’ change of programme of study. In particular, career day/exhibition/conference, guest speakers talk and career information from universities, KUCCPS website and google search were found to be the key influential factors of change their programmes of study among first year undergraduate students. The study recommended that the Ministry of Education to hold national dialogues on career guidance to gather information on practice gaps to inform possible solutions or interventions. Another suggestion is the training of qualified career guidance personnel across learning institutions from basic through higher education. This can be initiated at teacher training programmes or teacher professional development programmes.

Keywords: Career guidance programmes, programme of study, career choices, first-year undergraduate students