An Investigation Into Defaulted Student Accounts Receivable At The University Of Namibia

ABSTRACT

Tertiary education has become increasingly important, and is seen nearly everywhere as the engine of every country‘s economic growth. Despite the universal importance of tertiary education, fundamental financial problems, such as student debt, faced by institutions of higher education are experienced worldwide. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the defaulted student account receivables at the University of Namibia (UNAM). Furthermore, the reasons investigated were whether the course enrolled for had been completed, the type of financial sponsorship, the mode of offering (part-time, fulltime and distance learning), gender, age and the educational level of the parents. A third aim of the study was to suggest strategies to improve the collection of student accounts receivable at the UNAM. This study was conducted by taking a quantitative research approach. The studied sample consisted of 159 UNAM students whose last registration was in the 2012 academic year and who defaulted on the payment of their accounts; five administrative staff members from UNAM Student Debtors Section were also part of the sample. A random sampling method was employed in this study to select the student respondents as well as purposive sampling to select the staff members. The collected data were analysed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), and the technique used for data analysis was the Chi-square test. In particular, there was a significant relationship between defaulting to pay and aspects, such as whether the course enrolled for was completed, financial sponsorship and the mode of study. Gender, age and the educational level of parents showed an insignificant relationship with defaulting to pay.