1. SOCI 325, RESEARCH METHODS
GROUP B, GROUP 9
LECTURER: DR. (Mrs.) SYLVIA ESTHER GYAN
Names ID Number
(Group Leader)EmmanuelAmponsah Agyemang……………………………………10473172
(Secretary) Evans Aboagye …………………………………………………………………….10478280
Selase Kwami…………………………………………………………………………………………10452218
AkanbulGilbert………………………………………………………………………………………10464732
Amponsah Ebenezer……………………………………………………………………………….10479840
Larbi Osumanu Rashida ………………………………………………………………...10389447
Appiah KusiIsaac………………………………………………………………………… 10492808
Yowaa Frank ………………………………………………………………………….. 10496056
2. (All Rights Reserved)
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA- LEGON
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY.
RESEARCH METHODS.
TOPIC:FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE UNIVERSITY OF GHANA
STUDENTS PREFERENCE ON ACCOMMODATION.
3. DECLARATION.
We declare that we have wholly undertaken the study reported .This work submitted as research
report to the Department of sociology in University of Ghana, is the result of our own effort and
that it has not been presented elsewhere for any other academic purpose.
We further declare that opinion conveyed in this work is solely our responsibility. Ideas, views
and other opinions that are not our own and all references cited therein have been accordingly
acknowledged.
DEDICATION.
4. We humbly dedicate this research work to GOD almighty. We again dedicate it to our parents,
and siblings not forgetting our loved ones Kezia, Ophelia, Juanita and Deborah for their prayers,
love, support and benevolence throughout our study.
All we say is may God richly bless you all. Amen.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
First and foremost, we would like to extend our sincere appreciation and thanks to our lecturer,
Dr. Mrs. Sylvia Esther Gyan and her teaching assistant Mr. Martin Luther. There are simply not
enough words to describe how valuable your guidance was during this research. You are a truly
amazing lecturer.
We also want to express our appreciation to our good friends, Evans, Emmanuel, Ebenezer,
Gilbert and Selase for their opinions, encouragement and sacrifices towards the success of our
study.
Finally, we want to express our appreciation towards our respondents for their honesty and
collaboration.
ABSTRACT.
Researchers suggest there are numerous factors that influence student’s accommodation
preferences. These factors tend to affect the choices of students regarding accommodation.
Inclusive of these factors affecting students accommodation preferences can be categorized
broadly under two main factors. These are Economic factors and Social factors. There has been
very little research conducted which vividly associate Social factors to student’s accommodation
preference. For example, Roche et al. (2010) examined the housing preferences of 325
Undergraduate students. They found that the students desired housing options that fulfilled their
6. high expectations for privacy and amenities. As part of our research we want to find out which
factor listed above influences students’ accommodation preferences the most.
The methodology employed in this study was quantitative, the sampling design used was multi-
stage due to the large and diverse size of our population. The instrument used in our study was
the questionnaire.
Keywords: Accommodation, Students.
TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE NUMBER
TITLE PAGE……………………………………………………………..1
DECLARATION………………………………………………………….2
DEDICATION…………………………………………………………….3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………...4
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………….5
CHAPTER ONE……………………………………………………………7
• INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………….7
7. • STATEMENT OF PROBLEM………………………………………..7
• OBJECTIVES………………………………………………………….7
CHAPTER TWO …………………………………………………………..9
• LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………………...9
CHAPTER THREE………………………………………………………….13
• RESEARCH METHOD ……………………………………………….13
CHAPTER FOUR……………………………………………………………14
• SAMPLING DESIGN……………………………………………………14
• DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUE…………………………………..14
• DATA ANALYSIS……………………………………………………….15
• RESULTS AND FINDING……………………………………………….17
CHAPTER FIVE………………………………………………………………19
1.1 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………19
1.2 SUMMARY……………………………………………………………….19
1.3 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………….19
1.4 RECOMMENDATION…………………………………………………..20
1.5 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………21
1.6 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………..22
.
8. CHAPTER1.
1.1 INTRODUCTION.
Student preferences have always played a key role in their choice of accommodation. Before we
discuss the various factors that influence student’s preferences in University of Ghana, we would
first like to define accommodation. According to the (free dictionary.com), ‘accommodation is
where you live or stay, especially when you are on holiday or when you stay somewhere for a
short amount of time’. In our study, we defined accommodation as a temporal recognized
dwelling place for students wishing to be on campus with the necessary facilities to make
9. learning and living easier and comfortable. It is the wish of some students especially those from
different part of the country and even outside the country to have a place to sleep on campus.
Our study focuses on the opinions of University of Ghana undergraduate, main campus/regular
students.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Ideally, students in University Of Ghana find themselves in different accommodation types due
to certain significant factors. Our study aims to discover the factors that would determine a
student’s choice of accommodation.
1.3 OBJECTIVES
This study aims to find out why students choose a particular accommodation.
Specific Objectives
Our specific objectives are as follows:
• To examine the factors that motivate students in their choice of accommodation
• To identify the social factors that influence student’s residential preferences.
• To find out the economic factors that influence student’s residential preferences.
10. CHAPTER2
1.1 INTRODUCTION.
Literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge
including substantive findings as well as theoretical contributions to a particular topic. Literature
reviews are secondary sources, and as such, do not report any new experimental work. It is the
ultimate goal of this chapter to bring the reader up to date with current literature on the topic and
forms the basis for another goal, such as future research that may be needed in the area. It should
11. be established that literature on the subject is sparse since this area of research has not been
tackled.
1.2 LITERATURE REVIEW
Accommodation is a dwelling or a place of Temporary lodging according to Wikipedia. Here in
University of Ghana, Accommodation is also a temporal recognized dwelling place for students
wishing to be on campus with the necessary facilities to make learning and living easier and
comfortable. It is the wish of some students especially those from different part of the country
and even outside the country to have a place to sleep on campus. Prospective students are always
supposed to choose from many alternatives leading to different views and preferences in choices.
This has further led to the congestion of students in some Hall of residence than the others. Since
the beginning of the option of choice in terms of accommodation in University of Ghana, there
has been divergent views and preferences of student to the hall of residence. At the establishment
of University of Ghana, accommodation used to be one in a room but following the increase in
the student population size, the inadequacy of accommodation facilities has led to “Some
students of University of Ghana (UG), Legon, sleeping in the corridors of the Balm Library and
the Chemistry Department overnight, whilst others sleep in a place called M-Plaza on campus,
known for its deplorable state as reported by Okudjato in an online article. Also, people who had
halls of residence found themselves in these facilities because these facilities were available to
them by certain means such as illegal acquisition of beds, through protocol (whom you know).
The in-out-out-out policy was characterized by student’s affiliation to halls. In 2009, with the
abolition of the in-out-out-out policy, some first year students who had the opportunity to take
part in the online residential application were able to choose halls of their preference. (Jafaru,
12. 2015) .Their choice of a particular a hall was influenced by Luxury, Privacy, Privatization, Live
and Learn, safety and security.( Angelo, 2010)
The reason for a student to choose a particular hall over the other is informed by many factors.
One of these factors is Cost. People who are of less income earning background are likely to opt
for less expensive accommodation. Other hand people of greater income earning background are
also likely to opt for expensive accommodation. As stated by Dessof, “suite style and apartment
housing has become the trend”. Usually, the most expensive accommodation is characterized by
diverse, luxurious and modern facilities like social spaces, a 24-hour reception, private dining
rooms, study rooms, TV lounges and a brand new on-site. Every studio has a private kitchen, en
suite bathroom and comfortable living area, wireless network, Gym centers, restaurant,
swimming pool and the likes.(www.iqsa.co.uk/bloomsbury) Many of such accommodations are
privately owned these include African union hall, Bani hostel, Evandi and James Topp Nelson
Hall as stated by Musah Jafaru in an online article on accommodation facilities in the University
Of Ghana.
In addition to cost, there are other social factors which influence student accommodation
preferences. Some of these social factors include the preconceived notions of students about
certain halls with respect to the reputation of the halls. Another social factor which influences
student’s accommodation preferences is the desire of students to share accommodation with
friends.
Besides cost and social factors, the proximity of accommodation to lecture halls, faculties,
departments and other places of interest also influence student accommodation preferences. For
example in the University Of Ghana, a number students would prefer the traditional halls like
13. Legon hall, Commonwealth hall etc due to the proximity to lecture halls, faculties, departments
and other places of interest.
The trends in student accommodation preferences are global in nature with factors being
universal. According to research on student accommodation preferences conducted by the Scion
Group TLC, a large majority of students across year groups prefer public accommodation to
private accommodation. This can be attributed to the cost factor since most public
accommodation facilities are less expansive compared to private hostels. With regard to
demographic considering cost as a factor, first year students were generally more interested than
the other groups in any type of campus housing according the research on student
accommodation preferences by Scion group TLC. According to the finding by Scion group TLC,
86% of first year students and 81% of second year students prefer the single suite unite type
whilst 74% of third/final year students prefer the two bedroom apartment. Meanwhile 75% of
graduate students prefer the four bedroom apartment unit type.
Varying preferences of student’s accommodation in the University of Ghana has led to a
diversity of problems and issues on campus. One of these issues is “perching’’ this is the illegal
patronage of accommodation facilities as well as the illegal trading of beds. Also a very big
distinction between the various halls in University Of Ghana has been created among the hall of
residence on campus for example Main Campus verses Diaspora. This had an effect in the just
ended SRC election due to the perception that priority should be granted to majority of the
student populace who are in the traditional halls (Main campus) as compared to the minority in
the new halls (Diaspora).
Furthermore, a negative stereotypical perception has been created for the single sex halls
especially Commonwealth which is an all-male hall.
14. Notwithstanding the above, there are still some aspects that we have not been able to cover
which include, reasons why one would prefer not to patronize residential halls and the other
social factors that influence accommodation preferences such as the desire to be close to
friends, the reputation and prestige attached to residential halls and proximity of residential
facilities to lecture halls, faculties, departments and other places of interest.
CHAPTER 3
1.1 INTRODUCTION.
This chapter deals with the techniques, skills, data collection methods and instruments used
to conduct this research .It is our main priority to unearth the factors that influence University
of Ghana student preferences on accommodation
1.2 RESEARCH METHOD
15. Our research method is the Quantitative method. We used the quantitative method because it
helps us explain human behaviour by gathering opinion of undergraduate students of
university of Ghana in their choice of accommodation. Quantitative research method involves
the statistical analysis of behaviour with the assumption that social phenomena can be
systematically measured and scientifically assessed. The reason behind our idea of adopting
the quantitative method was that it involved writing structured questions for survey and
analysis which helped us in developing our questionnaire.
Also, we realized that, the quantitative method will be best suited for our research because we
were dealing with a large population of respondents (undergraduate students of University Of
Ghana) in which will be very difficult to obtain a sampling frame needed for qualitative
research approach.
Furthermore, quantitative surveys are less costly to reach large samples as it makes use of
questionnaires which is relatively less expensive to qualitative method which involves
obtaining tape recorders and other instruments necessary for obtaining data at a higher cost.
CHAPTER4
1.1 SAMPLING DESIGN
The sampling design used for our study was the multi stage cluster. We used this sampling
design because of our large population size and the difficulty in obtaining a sampling frame.
1.2 DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUE
16. Questionnaire is a set of questions drawn up for answering by a number of people
independently, usually to provide statistical information. With the questionnaires drawn and
the objective as to find out the factors that influences University of Ghana student preference
on accommodation. The questionnaires was distributed to three categories of accommodation,
namely University of Ghana accommodation (Akuafo Hall), Private Halls (Pentagon),
Diaspora/ New Halls (Hilla Liman), and Non-resident students. Each questionnaire was made
up of open and close ended questions on the average for category of respondents. The open
ended questions were to enable the respondents to freely express their views on particular
issues and to give a justification for their answers. On the other hand close ended questions
were also supplied where questions involved clear-cut answers and respondents made their
choice.
The method of questionnaire administration has an advantage in that it minimizes respondents
giving inaccurate information due to misunderstanding of some questions since we were able
to explain the questions, which were not understood on the spot. The questionnaire captured
three important aspects, the information and background of respondents and the main
question.
1.3 DATA ANALYSIS
Fig. 1
18. 1.4 RESULTS AND FINDINGS
Economic factors and Social factors
From our findings, we came to the conclusion that the quality of accommodation facilities
under the social factor is the most influential on undergraduate students whilst, the least
influential social factor is prestige. On the other hand, the most influential economic factor is
luxury.
Among the Males of our respondents, luxury tends to be the most influential economic factor
and cost being the least influential factor on their accommodation preferences. Also the
quality of facilities is the most influential social factor and peer influence is the least
influential factor.
However, among our female respondents, proximity to the lecture hall is the most influential
economic factor and cost is the least influential economic factor. With regards to the social
factors, quality of facilities is the most influential factor among our female respondents and
peer influences is the least social factor.
19. CHAPTER5
• INTRODUCTION.
This chapter of the research focuses on the conclusion, which is the deduction of
information from the obtained data. It also seeks to provide reasonable recommendation
as far as information made out of the data collected is concerned the data collected.
• SUMMARY
A sample of thirty-two (32) students made up of undergraduate students of University of
Ghana was considered. Thirty of the students we sampled were resident students while, the
other two were non-residents. The results showed that showed that among the resident
students sampled, the quality of accommodation facilities is the most influential factor in their
accommodation preferences. On the other hand, prestige is the least influential factor in their
accommodation preferences.
• CONCLUSION.
Similar to the findings made by Scion group LLC that economic factors tends to influence
students accommodation preferences, we also realize that economic factors are also vital in
students’ accommodation preferences. However, our findings also establish that social factors
also play a key role alongside economic factors in influencing students’ accommodation
preferences. Out of the thirty resident students sampled, thirteen stated in our questionnaires
20. that social factors influenced them most as against eleven who stated that economic factors
influenced them most and the rest stated that either both or none of the categories of factors
influenced them most. Based on this finding we can firmly conclude that social factors
influenced our resident respondents most in their accommodation preferences. From our
survey, we found out that some students decide to be non-resident due to the fact that their
homes are close to campus.
• RECOMMENDATION
Based on our findings, we observed that students prefer accommodation which has quality
facilities and also accommodation that is close to their lecture halls. We recommend to all
stakeholders that in establishing accommodation facilities that, they should ensure that their
accommodation has the best or the highest quality facilities. Secondly, accommodation
facilities should as much as possible be close to lecture halls.
21. REFERENCES
Retrieved on (8th October, 2015), From:
http://www.modernghana.com/news/88889/1/accommodation-situation-worsens-on-
university-camp.html
Retrieved on (11th October, 2015), From: graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/49347-students-
face-accommodation-problems-at-legon.html .
Retrieved on (5th September, 2015), From:
www.ghanahostels.com.gh/site/AboutUs/detail/3/3.
Retrieved on (21st October, 2015), From: www.iqsa.co.uk/bloomsbury
La Roche. C.R, Flanigan. M.A, &Copeland, P.K (2010, October).Contemporary isssues in
Education Research. Vol.3, Number 10. Pages (46)
Retrieved on (4th September, 2015), From: www.TheScionGroup.com
22. APPENDIX.
QUESTIONNAIRE ON STUDENTS PREFERENCES FOR ACCOMMODATION
Dear respondent, our questionnaire seeks your opinion about “your accommodation
preferences on campus. We greatly appreciate your decision to answer our questions. The
information you provide will be very useful to us. We assure you that you will remain
anonymous and your responses will not be used for any other purpose apart from our
research.
Please tick where appropriate and fill in the space provided as well.
• Sex (1). Male (2). Female
• Age (1) 17-21 (2) 22-26 (3)27-31 (4)32 and above
• Programme of study.....................................................
• Level (1).100 ( 2).200 (3).300 ( 4).400
23. • Religion (1) Christianity (2) Islamic (3) Traditional (4) If
others please specify...............................................................
• Are you a part time worker? (1) YES (2) NO
• Are you a resident? (1) YES (2) NO
If NO to question seven (7) above please go to question (17) and if yes, continue from
question eight (8).
• Type of residence.
(1)University of Ghana accommodation (main halls)
(2)Private Halls (Pentagon, Evandy, Bany, TF )
(3) Diaspora (kwapong, Elizabeth Sey, Hilla Liman, Jean Nelson)
If you tick answer (1) on question eight (8) above please answer question nine (9) and
continue from question twelve (12).
If you choose (2) please go to question ten (10) and continue from question twelve
(12). But if your answer was (3) kindly go to question eleven (11).
• Which particular hall do you reside? (1) Akuafo hall (2) Legon hall
24. (3)Mensah Sabah (4)Common wealth hall (5)Volta hall
(6)if other please specify..............................................
• Which particular hall do you reside? (1)pentagon (2)Evandy
(3)TF (4)Bani
• Which particular hall are you? (1)Kwapong (2)Hilla Liman
(3)Jean Nelson (4)Elizabeth Sey
Tick as many as applicable to you on question (12&13).
• What Social factor(s) motivated you to choose that type of accommodation?
(1). quality of facilities (2) peer influence (3) Hall Activities
(4) prestige (5) If any other reason please
specify.........................................................................................................
• What Economic factor(s) motivated you to choose that type of accommodation?
(1)Cost (2) Luxury (3) proximity to lecture hall (4) if
others please specify.....................................................................................
• Which of the factors influenced you most? (1)Social (2) Economic
(3)None
• Would you like to move from your current residence if given opportunity? (1) YES
(2) NO
• If YES to question fifteen (15) above please explain why?
