Influence of Inflation on Business Education Undergraduate Students’ Ability to Incur Indirect Costs of Studying in Tertiary Institutions in Rivers State

This study investigated influence of inflation on Business education undergraduate students’ ability to incur indirect costs of studying in tertiary institutions in Rivers State. Three specific purposes posed based on the proxies of inflation related to the indirect costs of studying which are transportation, feeding and accommodation guided the study. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Population was made up of 1065 Business Education undergraduate students from year 1 through to year 4 in the four tertiary institutions in Rivers State offering the programme during the 2022/2023 academic session. Sample size consists of 50% of the entire population which was 534. Proportional stratified random sampling technique was used to select the sample size. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaire and secondary data was obtained from the published National Bureau of Statistics monthly CPI transportation, housing utility and food for Rivers State. The instrument was validated by two experts, one expert of Educational Measurement and Evaluation, and the other of Business Education all from Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE). Test retest method was used to determine reliability of the instrument and Pearson Product Moment Correlation was calculated to obtain r value of 0.86. Data collected were analysed using Simple Linear Regression Model (SLRM) to answer both the research questions and test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that inflation proxies such as CPI transportation and CPI housing utilities positively influenced Business Education undergraduate’s ability to incur indirect cost (transportation and accommodation costs) of studying in tertiary institutions in Rivers State. The finding also revealed that CPI food has negative influence on Business education students’ ability to incur indirect cost (feeding cost) of studying in tertiary institutions in Rivers State. The findings also revealed that none of the influences were significant. Based on the findings, it was recommended amongst others that Business education students’ association in tertiary institutions in Rivers State should collaborate with their respective Students’ Union Government to request the three tiers of governments to provide respective students with not less than N6,000 lunch allowance as part of their palliatives for subsidy removal till the inflation abate.