DETERMINATION OF COPING STRATEGIES FOR BUSINESS EDUCATION PROGRAMMES IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN THE PERIOD OF SOCIO-POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY

The need to curb the effect of socio-political and economic uncertainty on education necessitated this study to determine coping strategies for university business education programmes in South-East Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study and four null hypotheses were tested. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised 68 Business Education lecturers in all five public universities that run Business Education programme in the area of study. The entire population was studied without sampling because the size was not too large. A 4-point rating scale questionnaire titled “Coping Strategies for Business Education Programme Questionnaire” (CSBEPQ) was used to collect data for the study. The instrument was validated by three experts. The internal consistency method was used to test the reliability of the instrument by administering it to 12 business education lecturers from a university outside the area of study with Cronbach Alpha to obtain an overall reliability coefficient value of 0.87. The researchers collected data for the study with the help of three research assistants using on-the-spot completion and retrieval method to ensure a high response rate. Thus, all copies of the instrument were retrieved representing 100% response rate and used for analysis. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and determine whether the respondents were homogeneous in their views. The null hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. Fund raising, donations, collaboration and linkages, use of goggle classroom and zoom among others were found to be the coping strategies for Business Education programmes in universities in the area of study in a period of socio-political and economic uncertainty. Gender did not significantly influence the views of the respondents on both funding and teaching and learning but years of experience did. The study concluded that failure to implement suitable coping strategies will hinder sustainability of the programmes and achievement of their objectives. It was, therefore, recommended that business education departments and management of universities should adopt the 10 funding strategies while lecturers should adopt the innovative methods of teaching to cope with the challenges of socio-political and economic uncertainty.

Socio-political, Business Education programme, Coping strategies, Economic uncertainty,

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