Approaches Used to Enhance Social Engagement of Part-Time Students in Public Universities in Kenya

Abstract

The stereotypical view is that part-time students are less committed socially in the universities compared with their counterparts who go away to college and live on campus. Despite their commitment, many part- time students simply cannot always make college life on campus their primary focus. The purpose of the study was to examine approaches used to enhance social engagement practices of part-time students in selected public universities in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design and was guided by student engagement theory. The study targeted part-time students, games tutors, deans of students, officials of clubs and societies. A sample of 204 fourth year part-time students was selected proportionately from each of the sampled universities using simple random sampling. Purposeful sampling was used to select games tutors, deans of students and officials of clubs and societies. The research instruments for this study were questionnaires, focus group discussions and interview schedules. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistical techniques which included frequencies, percentages and means. The study established that universities rarely encouraged contact among students from different economic, social, and ethnic background. The universities to a very little extent help part-time students to cope with their non-academic responsibilities and to socialize. It is hoped that the findings of the study will be useful in informing those in-charge with providing accommodation in Kenyan Universities, make accommodation more conducive to students' social engagement, whether part-time or full-time students.