Factors Affecting Students’ Choice and Perceptionof Urban and Regional Planning in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

The authors examined the factors affecting the choice and the perception of 107 final year students of Urban and Regional Planning (URP) from six universities in Nigeria. Analysis revealed that 63.8 percent of the students did not receive counselling before their enrolment and only 35.8 percent of them intentionally chose the course on their own while 4.7 percent were influenced by their parents. Of the 59.4 percent that accidentally got into the course, 16.8 percent had originally chosen Architecture and 12.6 percent Accounting. In spite of this, the students agreed that URP as a career can guarantee life fulfilment and 72.8 percent would advise their children to choose the course as a career. Irrespective of the mode of entry and motive for choosing URP as a carrier 91.2 percent of the trainee planners in their final year in the selected universities did not see their choice as a mistake and have come to find the course interesting. All the students agreed that it is not the certificate that makes people successful but what is important is what people make of themselves with the certificate. They also agreed that professional planners can be successful but they are concerned about the negative image the society has about the planners. The study recommended re-branding of Urban and Regional Planning among others.

Introduction

Physical planning in Nigeria has a long history dating back to the colonial

period where planning education in the country is relatively recent. The colonial

government for instance enacted the Town Improvement Ordinance in 1863 and

established the Lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB) following the outbreak

of bubonic plague in Lagos between 1925 and 1928 (Abiodun, 1985). The Board was

established during this period to clear the slum areas affected by the plague and to

establish housing units in Lagos. However, the bulk of the policy makers and

programme implementers consisted mainly of civil servants.

Local training of professional physical planners could be said to have started

at the Polytechnic, Ibadan in 1972 when the full professional diploma programme in

town planning was specifically designed to admit students for of the 3-year town

planning programme of the polytechnic (Olujinmi, 1999). Hitherto, all Nigerian

professional Town Planners had been receiving their trainings overseas especially in

the U.K. America and Australia. The need for a professional association in Nigeria led

to the formation of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners in 1966. Twenty-two

years later, the Town Planners’ Registration Council of Nigeria was established under

Decree No. 3 of 1988 with the mandate of determining who are the town planners;

what standards of knowledge and skills are to be attained; registering members and

regulating and controlling the practice of the profession among others.

With so many higher institutions of learning now offering varieties of

environmental courses and this coupled with the competition in the building industry,

this study is set to investigate the level of interest in Urban and Regional Planning as a

discipline by the planners-in- training in selected universities in Nigeria.

Review of Pertinent Literature

In choosing which course to enroll for in the university by students, many

factors come into play. While some students usually have a particular course in mind

and have adequately prepared for it right from their secondary school days, others

wait till their ordinary level results are out. Other students are admitted to read a

particular course but when they fail to meet the minimum requirements for that course

they look for alternative courses.

Extensive studies have been carried out on factors influencing students’

choices of careers. In their study on the retail career choice, Soyeon and Goldberry

(undated) identified three broad factors namely: intrinsic, extrinsic and lifestyle. The

intrinsic factors include the nature of the job itself, enjoyment of the job as a whole,

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variety of jobs, intellectual stimulation, pleasant work environment and fit of job to

personality.

The extrinsic factors identified by the authors are salary, benefits, job

security/stability and prestige of career field while lifestyle factors include flexibility

of working hours, ability to manage home/family, time for leisure and preferred

geographical location.

In another study by the College of Occupational Therapists (2000), awareness

was found to be a major factor in career choice. The study showed that around a third

of the students made the decision to become occupational therapists while studying in

years 12 and 13 (16%) or after taking A level/higher (15%). Only 5 percent made the

decision before GCE/Scottish equivalent level. The study identified the respondents’

friends and family (40%) as the most influential source of career advice. University

prospectus, school career staff, college careers’ pack and local career services are

other sources.

Pappu (2002) in his study on choice of marketing as a career in Australia

employed the use of Factor analytical Technique to reduce 28 variables to seven

factors that explain 73.78 percent of the variance in his data. The factors are named;

‘Utility of marketing knowledge in the Business arena, match with other major

exposures to Introductory Marketing Courses and Faculty, Faculty reputation, Job

prospectus, Course variety and Intrinsic Motivation.’ A similar result was obtained

among Economics major students in Australia. Worthington and Higgs (1997)

employed both regression analysis and binary probit model to examine a number of

variables which include student’s personality, perception and other physical and

educational characteristics.

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These students were asked to assign ordered preferences on a 5 – point scale

between 36 opposing adjectives on the basis of their perception of the economics

profession. These items were arrayed along four dimensions of perception, namely:

1.Interest (boring versus interesting, dull versus exciting; 2. Individuality

(Introvert versus extrovert); 3. Structural (structure versus flexibility, routine versus

unpredictable); 4. Precision (accurate versus imprecise, challenging versus easy,

mathematical versus verbal). Eleven factors were extracted, one for interest, two for

individuality, five for precision and three for structure accounting for 56, 67, 59, and

49 percent of cumulative variance within each dimension respectively. The same

authors found that for Banking and Finance, the choice is a function of students’

perception of the structure in the Banking and Finance profession, interest in the

finance profession and mode of attendance and, to a lesser extent, gender.

For the purpose of balancing the review, the study carried out on the

engineering discipline by Woolnough Guo et al. (1997) was examined. The authors

carried out parallel studies in six countries of Australia, Canada, China, England,

Japan and Portugal to investigate the influence of different factors on students’

decision to choose/not to choose a higher education course in one of the physical

sciences or engineering . Some factors identified related to what goes on in the school

and in the science lessons. Some were external to the school and were related to the

status of science and engineering careers. Other factors were dependent on the

individual students themselves – their aptitudes, abilities, home backgrounds and

gender.

In Ghana, a survey of 550 students by Apori et. al. (2003) indicated that bio-

data and socio-economic background of the students such as education of parents,

communities/towns or cities in which they live, low level of knowledge about the

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prospects in choosing agriculture as vocation, terminal nature at agricultural colleges

influenced the decision of students to choose agricultural science. Other factors

included: influence of parents, guardians and peers who accorded agriculture low

recognition compared to pharmacy, law, architecture etc and facilities (man and

materials) for the teaching of agriculture and the mode (pedagogy) use in teaching

agriculture.

With this background, this study is set to study the factors influencing the

choice and perception of Urban and Regional Planning which has received little or no

attention in the literature.

Methodology

This study is part of a comprehensive and long term survey designed to study

the factors influencing the choice of URP course and those factors affecting the

academic performance of URP students. All the Heads of Department of URP in

Universities offering the course have been contact. The response has been slow and

some of the questionnaires returned were not usable and were rejected.

There was no prior information on the number of final year undergraduate

Urban and Regional Planning (URP) students in the various institutions. However,

twenty-five (25) questionnaires were sent to each university across the country. The

returns are as shown in Table 1.

The questionnaires were sent directly to the Heads of URP Department in

these institutions who arranged for their distribution among their final year students

during the 2000/2001 academic session. Returns from these institutions, based on the

actual number of students in the final year (obtained through the questionnaires)

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ranged from about 99% for the University of Nigeria (UNN), Enugu Campus, to about

24% for the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ife.

Frequency analysis was employed to explore respondents’ responses while an

adaptation of Likert linear scale was used to analyse the opinions expressed by the

respondents.

Table 1: Distribution of Questionnaires

No Institution Sample size Population1 Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) 12 (21.8%) 552 Federal University of Tech. Yola (FUTY) 19 (54.3%) 353 University of Nigeria (UNN) 15 (93.8%) 164 Federal University of Tech. Minna (FUTM) 13 (72.2%) 185 Ladoke Akintola University of Tech. (LAUTECH) 25 (43.1%) 586 Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) 23 (47.9%) 48

Total 107 (46.5%) 230Source: Authors’ Field Work (2001)

Analysis of Data

Background of students

Male dominance is evident among the planning students with females

accounting for only 21.5 percent (Table 2). The mean age of the students surveyed

was 26 years. Gender-wise, the females with mean age of 25 years were younger than

the males (26 years). LAUTECH (24 years) had the youngest population compared to

OAU with mean age of 27 years.

Also from Table 2, only 35.8 percent of the students interviewed

intentionally chose URP as their life career, 4.7 percent were influenced by their

parents while as much as 59.4 percent got into planning against their wish.

Furthermore, 31.4 percent of the students joined the planning programme through the

remedial course (note OAU and UNN do not run remedial programme) while 55.2

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percent and 13.3 percent came in through University Matriculation Examinations

(UME) and Direct Entry respectively.

Table2: Background of the sampled students.

Variable Characteristics Percentage

SexMale 78.1%Female 21.9%

Mode of EntryRemedial 31.4%UME 55.2%Direct Entry 13.3%

Motivation for URPWhat I always wanted 35.8%Wish of my parents 4.7%Last Resort 59.4%

Future ProspectVery Bright 75%Average 23.1%Bleak 1.9%

Mistake choosing URP? Yes 8.7%No 91.2%

Find URP interesting? Yes 94.3%No 5.7%

Which aspect is interesting?Design 55.3%Theory 20.4%Term Paper 7.8%Field Work 16.5%

Which aspect do you dislike?Design 29.2%Theory 20.8%Term Paper 29.2%Field Work 20.8%

What next after graduation?Higher Degree in Planning 31.1%Join Private Planning Org. 9.4%Join Public Planning Org. 33.4%Any profitable employment 21.7%Go into business 4.7%

Life satisfaction guaranteed in Planning?

Yes 80.8%No 19.2%

Source: Authors’ Field Work (2001)

The students whose original course was not URP cited Architecture (16.8%).

Accounting (12.1%), agricultural Economics (5.6%), among others as their choices

(see Appendix 1). In terms of ethnic composition, UNN on the one hand and OAU

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and Lautech on the other hand were dominated by Igbo and Yoruba students

respectively. Other institutions were more balanced with no dominant group.

On the overall, Yoruba students constituted 46.7% of the sampled population;

this was followed by Igbo (15.8%), Tiv (3.7%), Igala (3.7%) and Nupe (2.8%).

Students’ Attitude towards Planning Profession

From Table 2, in spite of the fact that majority of the students were either

forced into the discipline (as most of the students in ABU claimed) or entered into the

discipline as the last resort (what their entry qualifications possessed can fetch them),

75 percent of them saw their future prospects as bright and as much as 91.3 percent

did not see being a planning student as a mistake. Only 3.8 percent of the students

claimed not to find the course interesting. The aspects they did not find interesting

were Design (29.2%), Term Paper (29.2%), Theory (20.8%) and Field Work (20.8%).

Of those who found the course interesting, designing course was their choice

(55.3%) followed by Theoretical courses (20.4%), field Work (16.5%) while only 7.8

percent loved Term Paper writing. On what to do next after graduation, 33.0 percent

of the students planned to work in Public Planning Organisations, 30.8 percent wished

to go for higher studies in URP, 21. 7 percent into any profitable employment while

only 9.4 percent of them wished to join private Planning Organisations.

As many as 80.8 percent of the students agreed that Planning as a career could

guarantee life fulfillment. Among those who claimed otherwise, as shown in Table 3,

54.8 percent of them planned to combine Planning with other jobs while 35.5 percent

planned to obtain additional degrees or certificates in different disciplines and only

9.7 percent planned to abandon planning profession entirely.

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On whether the students would choose planning again, 74.7 percent claimed

Yes and almost equal percentage (72.8) would advise their children to choose

planning as a career. As many as 63.8 percent of the students themselves did not

receive counselling before their admission.

Table 3: Students’ Responses to Attitudinal Questions.

If life satisfaction cannot be guaranteed in Planning, what next?

Abandon Planning 9.7%Combine with other jobs 54.8%Combine with other disciplines

35.5%

Choose Planning again? Yes 74.7%No 25.3%

Advise children to take Planning?

Yes 72.8%No 27.2%

Did you receive counselling? Yes 36.2%No 63.8%

Participation in URP Students’ Association?

Fully 59.8%Partially 38.5%No 7.2%

Participate in State’s NITP? Fully 14.6%Partially 38.5%No 46.9%

Student NITP Registration? Yes 49.5%No 50.5%

If unregistered, why? No interest 13.7%Not introduced 41.2%No impact of state Chapter 45.1%

While 59.8 percent of the students actively participated in the URP Students’

Association activities in their branches, it is only 14.6 percent of them that

participated fully in their State Chapters of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners’

(NITP) activities and about 50% had registered as a student member at the national

level. Those who did not register claimed that their State NITP chapters had not made

impact (45.1%), they had not been introduced into the NITP activities (41.2%) or had

no interest at all (13.7%).

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Students’ Perception of Aspects of Planning Profession

Tables 4 and 5 show the responses of students to the various items designed to

measure the students’ perception of the planning profession. The mean scores in

column 6 aptly summarises the consensus opinion of the students. The scores were

obtained by assigning weights to the 4 – point Likert scale, that is, from strongly

Agree = 4 points to Strongly Disagree = 1 point, then summing the scores for each

item and them dividing by the number of respondents to each item. The mean score

was then grouped as follows to arrive at consensus opinion about each item:

1.0 – 2.49 = Disagree (D), 2.50 – 3.49 = Agree (A) and 3.50 – 4.00 = Strongly Agree

(SA).

When asked about the prospects of their profession vis-avis other professions,

responses to this question indicate that on the whole, the students agreed that their

future prospects are no less brighter than those of other professionals. In three

universities – FUT Yola, UNN, and FUT Minna – with the mean weighted scores of

greater than 3.5, the students strongly agreed on this point. It has to be pointed out

here that career talks should be intensified in ABU, Zaria with the lowest mean score

of 2.91 (Table 5).

The students also agreed that what one achieves with his certificate depends

on one’s drive and initiatives. The consensus of opinion here is Agree with UNN

(3.71) strongly agreeing on this point. It is suggested that the professional Practice

skills of the students should be well developed; so also is their writing skill which is

required in proposal writing. Exposure to computer applications and related fields

such as Remote sensing and Geographical Information System is desirable to give

students wider opportunities outside the traditional planning jobs.

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Further observations in Table 5 show that the students believe that planners

can be and are indeed successful in life. Generally students also agreed on this point

(3.29). It is only in FUT Minna where the students strongly agreed. The perception of

the students in Minna may be explained by the fact that most of the professional

planners in the state and at Abuja – the Federal Capital – are highly placed and

successful materially. Indeed, the first National President of the Town Planners

Registration Council (TOPREC) was from the state. The implication of this

observation is that in order to project the image of the profession among the trainee

planners and the public in general, the practitioners should conduct themselves in a

noble manner and take their rightful positions in the scheme of things.

Table 4: Measure of Perception of Students from individual UniversitiesOpinion OAU FUTY UNN FUTM LAUTECH ABU

Future prospect of URP students is not duller than in other professions

3.08A 3.53SSA 3.85SA 3.69SA 3.32A 2.91A

What one achieves with his certificate depends on one’s drive and initiatives

3.33A 3.32A 3.71SA 3.08A 3.28A 3.43A

There are many successful Planners out there

3.25A 3.39A 3.36A 3.58SA 3.28A 3.04A

Planning is creative but not lucrative

3.08A 3.26A 2.79A 3.00A 2.96A 3.09A

Planning may not be lucrative but Planners impact is felt

3.00A 3.06A 2.93A 3.15A 2.92A 2.74A

Planners are feared rather than being respected

3.08A 2.79\a 2.71A 2.85A 3.04A 2.83A

Planners should practice aspects of other professions

3.08A 3.06A 3.57A 2.77A 3.38A 2.96A

Other professionals should be allowed to prepare layouts

1.33D 1.32D 1.43D 1.23D 1.68D 1.26D

Planning students should be made to acquire M. Sc. before graduation

2.25A 3.26A 3.00A 3.46A 2.12A 3.48A

Induction ceremony should be performed before graduation

2.92A 3.``A 3.00A 3.62SA 3.12A 3.04A

Source: Authors’ Field Work (2001)(Strongly Disagree (SD), Disagree (D), Agree (A) and Strongly Agree (SA).

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Moreover, students should be encouraged to attend the Nigerian Institute of

Town Planners’ annual conferences which provide avenue for interaction with the

professionals.

Table 5: Perception of Students on their Prospects

Opinion SA A DA SD Mean Interpretation

Future prospect of URP students is not duller than in other professions

50.5% 35.2 13.3 1.0 3.35 Agreed

What one achieves with his certificate depends on one’s drive and initiatives

53.8 32.1 10.4 3.8 3.36 Agreed

There are many successful Planners out there

43.3 43.3 12.5 1.0 3.29 Agreed

Planning is creative but not lucrative

37.7 35.8 18.9 7.5 3.04 Agreed

Planning may not be lucrative but Planners’ impact is felt

30.5 41.0 21.0 7.6 2.94 Agreed

Planners are feared rather than being respected

19.8 54.7 19.8 5.7 2.89 Agreed

Planners should practice aspects of other professions

41.0 36.2 17.1 5.7 3.12 Agreed

Other professionals should be allowed to prepare layouts

4.7 5.7 14.2 75.5 1.40 Agreed

Planning students should be made to acquire M. Sc. before graduation

41.5 25.5 16.0 17.0 2.92 Agreed

Induction ceremony should be performed before graduation

44.3 32.1 15.1 8.5 3.12 Agreed

Source: Authors Field Work (2001)

To this assertion that planning may be creative but not lucrative, the opinion of

the students (3.04) suggests that they agreed as shown in Table 5. However, over 85

percent of the students already agreed that what one makes out of his certificate

(profession) depends on one ‘s drive and initiatives. However, it is important for

Planning educators to open the eyes of their trainees to other possible lucrative

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planning activities by educating them and involving them in consultancy activities the

staff may be engaged in.

The students agreed that planners’ influence is felt in the society. This means

that the students believed that the Planners’ impact on the society and the environment

is felt by the public though the influence may be perceived positively or negatively.

In many parts of the country, the function of Town Planning is synonymous

with marking buildings with big red letter X, and the Town Planners are seen as

people who go about disturbing workers on construction sites with their

contravention, stop work and demolition notices. In some places the Planner is

regarded as the “policeman” especially where the Planners are very active. Though

the students on the whole appeared to agree with the assertion (2.89) the strongest

support for the assertion was the South West of Nigeria (Table 5) where OAU (Ife)

and LAUTECH (Ogbomosho) had weighted scores of over 3.0. The Planners in this

zone should strive harder to create better image of planning by promoting activities

that will prevent planning problem rather than promoting “bulldozer” approach to

solving planning problems.

On how to survive, about 90 percent of the students opposed the idea of others

encroaching on planning and indeed the consensus opinion was “Disagree” (1.40).

while the students would want to be delving into other professions, they would not

want others to venture into their own discipline. However, as much as 77 percent of

the students favoured the opinion that planners should be delving into the territories of

other allied professions thus swinging the consensus opinion to “Agree” (3.12). This

may result from the observation that other professionals such as the Land Surveyors

and Architects do prepare layouts, site plans and site analysis which are traditionally

the preserves of the Town planners. Instead of encroaching on the field of other

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professionals, trainee planners should be exposed to the widening opportunities which

training in Urban and Regional Planning offers. More Planners should engage in

project Management and Environmental Impact Assessment and other consultancy

services.

On whether planning students should be made to acquire M.Sc, degree before

graduation. Planning students, as shown by this survey favoured graduating with

Masters degree instead of Bachelors degree. Their decision might have been

influenced by the Architecture progamme which usually is a straight course

terminating at Masters Level as is the practice at FUT Minna and ABU. The URP

students in these two universities strongly agreed on this matter. Another possible

reason could be that after their one year compulsory national service, many graduates

do not readily find suitable employment and therefore would prefer to go back to

school. It has been reported by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that only

10,000 of over 100,000 graduates produced by Nigerian higher institutions every year

find jobs in the formal sector of the economy (The Punch, Feb. 15, 2002, p. 3).

Induction ceremony entails making graduating students in the professional

disciplines take professional oath thereby formally welcoming them into the

profession. This is currently the practice in the Architecture profession. About 76

percent of the students surveyed accented to this suggestion and Minna students who

had witnessed the first ever induction ceremony in the country for the Architecture

students in the university strongly agreed with this idea (3.62). This ceremony has the

potential of endearing the profession to the students and make the profession more

psychologically appealing and therefore should be introduced.

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Summary

In summary, irrespective of the mode of entry and motive of choosing URP as

a career, trainee planners in their final year in the selected universities did not see

their choice as a mistake and have come to find the course interesting. All the students

agreed that it is not the certificate that makes people successful but what is important

is what people make of themselves with the certificate. They also agreed that

professional planners can be successful in the society but are not encouraged by the

negative mental map that the public has about the planner. The society dreads the

town planners and see the planner as “police” or “demolishers”

Most of the observations reported above accord with those reported elsewhere.

Mugonzibwa et. al. (2000) observed in Tanzania that image of a profession (good

experiences from the work of professionals, professionals who are caring and helpful

to respondents and professionals who command high respect in the community) was

perceived as an important factor in career choice by 88 percent of the respondents.

Work/profession characteristics factor was ranked second and course characteristics

third.

Recommendations

This age is characterized by globalization, commercialization, privatization,

computerization and democratisation. For today’s planner to survive and find

relevance, he must be trained or retrained to become a “total man” – someone who is

able to cope, fit in or adapt to the changing world. This can be achieved through:

1. Dynamic curriculum development: Planning curriculum should constantly be

updated and periodically revised to reflect modern trends. Professional practice course

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should be enriched to engender self – employment and instil self – confidence and

competence in fresh graduates.

a. New and “lucrative” courses such as computer applications, Data Base

Management system (DBMS), Information and Communication Technology

(ICT), Geographic Information system (GIS) and Remote Sensing should be

introduced.

b. New concepts and paradigms such as Public-Private Partnership in Urban

Environment (PPPUE), Urban Basic Services (UBS), Sustainable Urban

Mobility (SUB), Participatory Planning, Computer Aided Design (CAD),

Computer Aided Statistics (CAS), Environmental Information Management

System (EMIS), Environmental Planning and Management (EPM),

Virtual/Electronic library, Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS), Knowledge

Management, Project Management (PM), Build-operate and Transfer (BOT),

Build-Own and Operate (BOO), Bottom-Up approach, Sustainable City

Project (SCP), City Consultation, Good Urban Governance (GUG) etc should

now begin to find their ways into planning syllabus and into planners’ day-to-

day vocabulary. These will place town planners in position to even get jobs

with the United Nations Agencies and other international organizations.

2. Image Making and Image Laundering: Town planning must be “branded” (Oso

2005) and sold to the public through aggressive but innovative public relations.

3. Finally, awareness about the profession should be taken to the secondary

school, remedial or pre-degree levels in order to popularise the course.

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Appendix 1: Actual Distribution of the Original Intended Courses of Respondents

Course No of times citedAccounting 6Agruc.Econs 1Architecture 18Banking 1Building 1Business Administration 3Computer 1Economics 5Estate Management 2Engineering 5Geography 1Geology 3International Relations 1Law 1Marketing 1Medicine 4Pharmacy 1Political Science 1Quantity Surveying 3Not Applicable 34No Response 14Total 107

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