Comparative study of architecture students’ performance in building structures courses in public universities in Nigeria

Abstract

Architecture as a course is complex combining the arts and sciences of design, construction and services together and there is no single form of knowledge which aptly describes it. With this complexity, the study of Architecture encompasses many courses among which are Building structures courses. As important as these courses are, the performance of the students was very low. Teachers of the courses have employed various methods to improve on this such as test quiz, case study and practical examples to teach the courses. Despite all these, research still acknowledges low performance in the courses. Therefore, this study compared the performances of Architecture students in Building structures courses across public universities in Southwestern Nigeria with a view to examining the students‘ performances in the courses in order to improve on their performances. The study employed descriptive survey. Five public universities approved by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON) namely: FUTA, LAUTECH, OAU, UNILAG and OOU were purposively sampled. A total of 702 questionnaires were administered to all the pre-final and final year students in the Department of Architecture of the sampled universities, while only 541 questionnaires were adequately completed and considered fit for analysis. Cross tabulation with chi-square was used to summarize the data. The study revealed that performances of the students in the courses across the selected universities were very low and the pattern at which students from the sampled universities scored in different questions was disparate. Majority (58.6%) of the students scored below 40 percent in the aptitude test. LAUTECH did relatively better, compared to other universities with a total overall score of 2,810.8 and was followed by OAU (2,558.6); FUTA (2,441.6); OOU (2,392.2) and UNILAG (2,381.9). However, OOU had the highest average score (33.2%), followed by LAUTECH (28.1%), OAU (26.9%), UNILAG (23.4%) and FUTA (14.2%). The study concluded that the students‘ performances in Building structures courses across the selected universities were very low and the reason for the relatively low performance include lack of interest in the courses coupled with calculations the courses involved. This lack of interest is occasioned by no in-depth understanding of the courses believing that it is the duty of professionals (Structural Engineers). The study recommended that students should show more interest in the courses and should not view Building structures courses as just something they need to fulfill a requirement but something they need to know to excel in the field of Architecture.