Career Choice Determinants and Academic Achievement of First Year Science Education Students of University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated career choice determinants and academic achievement of first year science education students of the  University of Uyo. It was an ex-post facto research design with three research questions and three hypotheses guiding the study. The population of the study was 634 undergraduate science education students in the 2016/2017 academic session. One hundred and twenty-four (124)first year students randomly selected across the five units of the department (integrated science, physics chemistry, biology and mathematics) formed the sample size for the study. Questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation, ANOVA and MANOVA. Instrument reliability using Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient was 0.82.  The findings of the study showed that students find themselves tied down to rigid programme schedules that do not give them room to fully concentrate on their areas of specialization. This adds to schooling burden and dampens the excitement they originally came into the programme with. The study also found that   due to lack of information on various career choices students lose interest easily even though their choices were on the career choices they made.  Parental desire causes students to come out with poor results at the end of semester and graduation. It was also found that gender is not a significant factor on the problems encountered. The result further showed that different units of the department have significant influence on the problems encountered. It was recommended amongst others, that proper orientation/counseling be given to students to enable them cope with workload challenges at the commencement of the programme in the  different units of the department.