Improving female students’ participation and their academic performance: Ethiopian Technical University

Abstract

This study was conducted with the objective of improving female students’ participation and their academic performance of students in Ethiopian Technical University. The researcher selected 22 female students and 6 male teachers through purposive sampling techniques. The data gathering tools were questionnaire and interview; secondary data were collected through document analysis. The quantitative data were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and qualitative data were analysed by narration and summarisation. The result indicated that university climate, department choice of students, lack of tutorial classes provided by the university and poor training support for female students to improve academic performance impacted female students’ academic performance. In addition, sociocultural factors, female students’ background area, educational status of parents and perception towards their academic performance affected the academic achievement of female students. Furthermore, socio-economic factors, economic status of parents, female students living outside university and being non-cafe affected female student’s academic performance at the higher education level. Keywords: Academic performance, factors, female students, participation, Ethiopian Technical University.