RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXTERNAL COURSES AND THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF QUANTITY SURVEYING UNDERGRADUATES

ABSTRACT

The profession of Quantity Surveying encompasses many disciplines including Economics, Law and Construction and as such students who want to be professionals must succeed in all courses stated in the departmental curricula which includes a list of high credit unit of external courses. The idea of this research was to examine challenges of undertaking external courses, identify difficult external courses and assess the relationship between external courses and the academic performance of undergraduate quantity surveying students in the University of Benin. There are few studies on the relationship between external courses and the overall students’ performance in the world although other factors have also been efficiently emphasized. Questionnaire was used in the collection of data. The data was analysed using mean score and the Pearson’s Correlation coefficient. Findings from the questionnaire showed that “unfamiliarity of external courses” and “distance to the class” were major challenges likewise indicating Economic Statistics II (ECO222), Differential Equation and Dynamics (MTH125) as the most difficult external courses. The Pearson’s Correlation coefficient indicated 92% significant relationships and 8% insignificant relationships between external courses and Quantity Surveying courses. The study therefore recommends the improvement of classroom location by bringing it closer to the students and ensuring effective allocation of some external courses to undergraduate students.