Influence of Student Leaders Participation in Management on Institutional Governance in Public Universities, Kenya

Abstract

This study investigated the extent of student participation management on institutional governance in public universities Kenya. The study was prompted by a recommendation by ministry of higher education in Kenya that students need to be involved more in management of their institutions, following a wave of unrest in Universities Kenya in 2014; with claims of uninvolvement in governance and research indicating unequal decision making opportunities in university. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire distributed among 194 student leaders' public universities. The findings revealed that universities involved students in governance of public university with a mean rating of 2.95 suggesting that there was shared governance in public Universities. However students' occasionally participated in decision making, thus, the study established a fairly low, significant positive correlations between the extent of student participation and institutional governance [r = .220, n=190, p=.002]. Hence, the null hypothesis was rejected; there was sufficient evidence to do so (p < .05 at Sig. Level = .05). It was thus concluded that the frequently the students are involved in management, the higher the shared governance in public universities. Hence the study recommended that; occasional student participation in decision making needed to be improved especially in quality assurance and time table setting.