IMPACT OF SOME DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES ON ACADEMIC NEEDS ACHIEVEMENT AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF TWO NIGERIA UNIVERSITIES: COUNSELLING IMPLICATIONS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1              Background to the Study

It is expected that any secondary school leaver proceeding to higher institution of learning must have been motivated by one reason or the other and this motivation is usually accompany with the spirit of academic need achievement, base on which a goal will be set

Having been admitted into higher institution, some demographic variables which include location, gender and course of study may influence the internal energy of such student which was earlier directed towards achieving the goal sets and such variables have the capacity to impact positively or otherwise on the academic need achievement of such students (Adeaga&Akinleke-, 2002).

Demographic variables such as location, gender and course of study play a very important role in the academic need achievement of individual student. In fact success and failure depend upon some of these variables which include Income, Location, age, gender that constitute individual personal statistics.

This point was further explained by Adeaga and Akinleke (2002) that many students do perform below expectation in their academic striving due to factors other than low intellectual capacity, stressing that such factors are demographic variables which often result in poor academic performance even among the naturally bright students.