ABSTRACT
Provision of quality education is an important tool for empowering the weaker sections. Various socio-economic factors obstruct the access to higher education of students from needy families. Construction of students’ hostels within or close to the higher learning institutions in Kenya has been considered one of the means to enable and encourage young Kenyans from all walks of life to strive towards achievement of quality education at reasonable costs to improve access to education. Since its establishment in 1954, the University of Nairobi has seen an increase in enrollment of students pursuing degrees courses, with the resultant accommodation difficulties pushing the existing spaces in the halls of residence to the extreme limit. The university has grown from a faculty-based university serving a student population of 2,768 in 1970, to a college focused university serving over 80,000 students by 2015. The meteoric rise in the number of students enrolled has seen various attempts to increase the number of hostels to accommodate students, though it still remains doubtful that the number of hostel rooms will ever meet the demand due to continued influx of students seeking accommodation within the university. It is on this premise that the study sought to establish institutional factors influencing implementation of students’ hostel construction projects at the University of Nairobi. The study assessed the influence of availability of land, student enrollment, financial resources and organizational leadership on implementation of students’ hostel construction projects at the University of Nairobi. The study was expected to enable the University of Nairobi council come up with ways of fast tracking construction of hostels to address the spiralling accommodation problem within the institution. Findings might also be used to draft policies that improve the general welfare of the students within the institution, while stakeholders may also draw useful insights on strategy implementation that is timely. The study adopted the descriptive research design on a target population of 80 respondents from the University of Nairobi. A sample size of 66 was obtained by using the Krejcie and Morgan formula, and the respondents selected using stratified simple random sampling. The study used a questionnaire instrument to collect data, with the obtained data being subjected to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) tool to support analysis. The study used mean and standard deviation while the findings were presented in form of tables. The results were presented in tables, interpreted, discussed and inferences made from them. The study found that student enrollment influences implementation of students’ hostel construction projects. The study established a moderate positive correlation (R = 0.493) between availability of land and Implementation of students’ hostel construction projects, a weak positive correlation (R = 0.157) between organizational leadership and Implementation of students’ hostel construction projects, a high positive correlation (R = 0.440) between financial resources and Implementation of Students’ Hostel Construction Projects. The study concludes that the four (4) factors and variables: availability of land, financial resources, student enrollment and organizational leadership significantly contribute to the implementation students’ hostel construction projects. The study recommends that to ensure improvement in the implementation of the students’ hostel construction projects, there is need to ensure increased PPP and have financial resources with effective organizational leadership as student enrollment will always go up.
