Comparative Analysis of Academic Performance of Architecture Students in Building Structures and Architectural Designs in Southwestern Public Universities in Nigeria

Abstract

Building structures and Architecture designs are major and compulsory courses in the study of Architecture. The knowledge obtained in Building structures is applied in Architectural designs. However, students’ performances in Building structures courses have been observed to be generally low and what is not known is if there is low performance in Architectural designs also. This study therefore carried out a comparative analysis of academic performance of Architecture students in Building structures and Architectural designs courses in Southwestern Nigerian public Universities in order to improve on students’ performances on these courses. The study was a descriptive survey that involved questionnaire, five public universities approved by the National Universities Commission and Architects Registration Council of Nigeria 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. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was employed to show the relationship between Building structure knowledge and Architectural designs performance, while Regression analysis was used to assess the effect of the two courses on students’ performances. The study revealed that there was a significant relationship between the knowledge of Building structure and students’ performance in Architectural designs as the students progressed in their studies (r=0.641; p=0.046). The study concluded that the depth of knowledge in Building Structures is a function of good performance in Architectural designs, when all other factors leading to good Architectural Designs expertise are kept in place.