Assessment of student satisfaction with higher education: The case of RUFORUM- supported students in Member Universities in Africa

RUFORUM (Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture) has continued to render educational programs more relevant to local, national, and regional labor market needs through supporting the development of new and revised programs at member universities in Africa. These training programs oriented towards human capital development are directly related to stakeholder satisfaction. This study was designed to investigate the satisfaction of RUFORUM supported students with own performance as well as with RUFORUM and university services including supervision, support and enrichment services, and the training and curriculum delivery. A cross-sectional survey research design was used and data collected using the questionnaire survey method. Data collected from a sample of 100 continuing students was subjected to descriptive statistical analysis in Microsoft Excel to establish the satisfaction levels. Results indicated 85 % satisfaction with supervision; 84 % satisfaction with own performance; 73 % satisfaction with training and curriculum delivery; and, 72 % satisfaction with the support and enrichment services of RUFORUM. The study therefore established the key satisfaction levels for the parameters above for the RUFORUM Operational Plan 2018-2022. The study recommends strengthening timely feedback to the students by supervisors; improving the training and curriculum delivery of PhD programs by narrowing the span between undertaking coursework and commencing research to enable students link theory and practicals/research. Further, commitment towards the effective implementation of the RUFORUM Graduate Teaching Assistantship Program (GTA) by member Universities and scaling-up high impact enterprises initiated by students is highly recommended.