Browsing by Author "Ezati, Betty A."

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    Entry Grades and the Academic Performance of University Students: A Review of Literature
    (Education Quarterly Reviews, 2021) Aciro, Rosalba; Onen, David; Malinga, Geoffrey M.; Ezati, Betty A.; Openjuru, George L.
    Universities world over mostly base their decisions to admit their new students on the applicant’s pre-university academic results. However, there is yet no concrete evidence that the students’ pre-university academic accolades determine their performances at university level. In this article, we explored the findings of earlier studies that examined the relationships between entry grades and the academic performance of university students. The study was undertaken to collate the literature on the relationships between the students’ entry grades and their university academic performance in order to validate earlier assertions, if any, as well as to identify opportunities for further research in this field. During the study, we carried out a systematic review of 59 articles that we drew from different online electronic databases including, among others, the Free Scientific Publication, the Worldwide Science.org, and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The majority of these reviewed studies were drawn from America and Europe. Only a few of them were conducted in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Of the 59 reviewed articles, only 53 of them met our inclusion criteria and our key findings showed, among others, that out of the 53 reviewed articles, 26, 4 and 13 of them revealed the existence of positive, negative, and mixed correlations respectively between the entry grades and the academic performance of university students. The remaining 10 articles, however, did not reveal any significant correlations between the two variables; instead, they alluded to the existence of difference in these relationships between male and female students; thus, suggesting for the need for affirmative action schemes. Overall, the study revealed that there is yet no consensus over whether preuniversity academic performances of students predict their performances at university level; thus, indicating the need for further research in this field.
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    Staffing and the Quality of Teaching in Universities
    (European Journal of Educational Studies, 2017) Ezati Azikuru, Luija Marie; Onen, David; Ezati, Betty A.
    This study sought to establish the influence of staffing on the quality of teaching in Uganda’s public universities. It was undertaken in the face of persistent stakeholder concerns regarding the declining quality of teaching and learning in these institutions that have occasionally culminated into student strikes and different kinds of protests. Basing on a mixed-methods approach, the study employed the descriptive cross-sectional survey design where both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 14 academic managers, 111 academic staff, and 285 undergraduate university students of Kyambogo University using survey and interview methods. The collected data from staff and students were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression techniques while content analysis technique was used to analyze qualitative data collected by interviewing purposively selected university managers. The study findings revealed that: first, staff recruitment (B=.182; p=.040), staff training (B=.340; p=.000), and development (B=.327; p=.000) have statistically significant influence on the quality of teaching. Meanwhile, staff deployment (B=.010; p=.914) has statistically insignificant influence on the quality of teaching. However, overall, the study revealed that staffing (R=.683; R2=.467; p=.000) significantly influences the quality of teaching in public universities in Uganda. Therefore, it was concluded that effective staffing would raise the quality of teaching in universities, other factors held constant. The study thus recommends that university managers and staff should stick to the prescribed recruitment policy, invest more resources in training and developing staff, and ensure that existing staff are generally well-managed.