Appraising capacity building among engineering students in selected universities in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examined capacity building among engineering students in selected universities in south-western Nigeria. One hundred and fifty-one final year engineering students took part in the survey. A structured questionnaire were administered to the respondents as a tool for data collection. The data collected were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis using SPSS. The results showed that 66.9% of the respondents had passion for their choice of engineering courses. Out of 110 students that had access to computer system, about 87.4% had related engineering application software on their personal computer while only 76.2% could use them proficiently. Based on the students' responses, 93% of them expressed that their departments lacked adequate and state-of-the art equipment for practicals, 54% stated that practicals were carried out occasionally, while 95.6% indicated that Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (S1WES) was very relevant to their study of engineering. The ANOVA conducted on the data showed that SIWES had significant effect on the understanding of their core courses (p<0.005). Also, the core values of the universities were significant to capacity building. The paper concluded that Nigerian universities had potentials to develop the needed human capacity in engineering but they can do better through provision of adequate equipment, strengthening the SIWES programme and laying more emphasis on vocational as well as entrepreneurial skills.