Perception of Undergraduate Students of the Relevance of Entrepreneurship Study to Science and Technology Education in Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the perception of science and technology undergraduate students on the relevancy of entrepreneurial Studies in south west Nigeria Universities. Two research questions and three null hypotheses were formulated and tested to guide the study at 0.05 Significance level. This study employed descriptive research design of a survey type and multistage sampling technique to get a sample of 400 science and technology related undergraduates in Federal and State Universities. A self-designed questionnaire titled; Relevance of Entrepreneurship Study Questionnaire (RESQ) was developed for data collection. Content and face validity of the instrument was determined by three experts while the reliability of the instrument was determined through test-retest method using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Analysis. The reliability coefficient of 0.83 was obtained. Mean, percentages and bar charts were used to analyse the research questions while ANOVA and t-test statistics were used to test the hypothesis. The result shows that majority of respondents perceived entrepreneurship study as relevant to their university education. Significant difference did not also exist in the perception of respondents based on course of study. There was also no significant difference in the perceptions of undergraduate students based on Level and University Status. Based on the findings, it was recommended that University authorities should intensify efforts in promoting entrepreneurship development by embarking on mass capacity building. Government should engage in strengthening universities-private sector collaboration with attention to science and technology related disciplines to facilitate entrepreneurship development in areas such as agriculture, medicine, engineering, solid minerals exploitation, fabrication of scientific equipment and production of reagent.