INFLUENCE OF COST-SHARING ON ACCESS AND STUDENTS’ACADEMIC PARTICIPATION IN SOUTH SUDAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Students are affected by many factors when making decision to apply and attend public universities in South Sudan. One of the most important factors is cost. South Sudan govern-ment introduced cost-sharing policy without any financial provision to cushion students from low-income families. The purpose of the study was to establish the influence of cost-sharing on access and students‟ academic participation in South Sudan public universities. The study was guided by six research questions and four hypotheses. Convergent parallel mixed method research design was used to collect and analyze data separately but converge the results in the interpretation. A total of 378 students were selected through random sampling procedure, four parents through snowballing technique and six members of the National Council for Higher Education, four university administrators, and two food contractors through purposive sampling technique. Questionnaire was used as the primary data collection instruments in quantitative strand while interview, observation and document analysis guides, respectively were used in qualitative strand. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentage and mean were used to summarize quantitative data, while inferential statistic, a one-sample t-test, was used to determine whether the sample mean is statistically different from the hypothesized population mean. Qualitative data was collected and analyzed simultaneously and categorized into themes pattern. The results indicated that enrollment increased despite the introduction of cost-sharing policy, political instability and the rising cost of living due to inflation. The study also found that the current policy favors students from privileged backgrounds as a substantial proportion of students from low-income families do not participate due to affordability issues. The study recommends that the government fast-tracks peace and re-engineers the education system to make public universities more accessible, affordable and equitable to all. This study is expected to contribute towards improving policy and practice in educational administration and planning.