Quality of Academic Resources and Students’ Satisfaction in Public Universities in Kenya

Abstract

Abstract. Quality of academic resources and students’ satisfaction in universities has emerged a high profile agenda in the 21st Century. Universities require the resources in order to effectively fulfill their core mandate of teaching, learning and research hence contributing to a fulfilling educational experience for the students. In Kenya, public universities have expanded rapidly without adequate financing from the Government over the last two decades. These factors have a bearing on the ability of the universities to provide quality academic resources that guarantee students’ satisfaction which is yet to be determined. The study adopted cross sectional research design. Eight universities representing 36 percent of the accessible public universities participated in the study. Data were collected from 1062 third and fourth year undergraduate students using a questionnaire. The overall Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient for the entire scale was 0.887. The study found that quality of academic resources had four reliable dimensions of quality of teaching facilities, quality of library service environment, availability of text books in the library, and availability of internet services. It was found that independently, quality of teaching facilities, availability of textbooks, and quality of library service environment were positively and significantly related to student’ satisfaction. Availability of internet services was insignificant in determining students’ satisfaction in the universities.

Keywords: Academic resources; teaching facilities; textbooks; library service; internet services; students’ satisfaction.