Why do students opt not to enroll for Agriculture at Ruhuna?

Abstract

Student selection to the Sri Lankan universities is administrated by the University Grant Commission. Causing several academic, financial and administrative problems, many of the students who applied and have got selected to the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna (FAUR) do not register at the FAUR. The first objective of this study was to analyze the Z scores and related variables of a particular batch of students registered at FA UR. The second objective was to understand as to why some students of the same batch opted not to register at FAUR, though got selected. Using a structured type questionnaire, Information such as Z score, the stream of advanced level (AIL) and attempt of university entrance was gathered from I 02 first year first semester students of the FAUR. Also, information was collected from 25 students who have been selected with the above batch of students, to the FAUR, but chose not to register. The percentage of students who registered in their first, second and third A/L attempt was 7.8, 45 and 47%, respectively. Of the students who registered at their first A/L attempt, 75% had foliowed Agriculture stream. There was no significant difference between the Z score of the male (1.2113±0.1667) and female students and between the students who followed bio science (1.1789±0.1586) and agriculture (1.2148±0.1690) in A/L. The mean Z score of the students entered at first, second and third attempt were 1.2880, 1.1683 and 1.872, respectively. Z score did not change significantly with the attempt of the AIL sitting. The student admission took place over a four months period; April to July. The Z score values of the students registered in April (1.3164±0.1489) and May (1.2930±0.0870) were significantly higher than those of the students who registered in June (1.0989±0.0854) and July (0.9417±0.0394). Interestingly, the Z score of the students registered in July was significantly lower than that of the students registered before them. Thirty six percent of the students who have not registered though selected (n=25), had done AIL once while another 60% had done AIL twice. Majority (84%) of the respondents said that they wish to sit AIL again. Other major reasons for not to register, as respondents mentioned include financial difficulties (20%), displeasure to follow agriculture degree (16%), poor quality of the degree (16%), low job opportunities for agriculture graduates (16%) and ragging in the FA (8%). It was concluded that only a very few AIL bio science students chose to register at FAUR in their first A/L attempt which in turn has resulted in a prolonged student enrolment period and a great variation in Z score between the students within a batch of students. Measures should be taken to publicize the changes done by the FAUR to improve the quality and the employability of BSc Agriculture graduates.