The Impact of Financial Stress on University Student Academic Performance

The study examined the impact of financial stress on university student’s academic performance. The study examines factors like living cost, tuition fees and demonstrates how financial strain can result in poor academic performance and high dropout rate. The study adopts a survey research design in which a well-structured questionnaire was designed and distributed to respondents as a means of gathering. The population covers the final year students of the Faculty of Management Science, University of Benin, Benin City, and Edo State, Nigeria. They include the departments of; Accounting, Banking and Finance, Business Administration, Entrepreneurship, Human Resource Management, Marketing, and Taxation. Respondents consist of final year students in the aforementioned department. The sample size of this study is limited to two hundred and ninety-one (291) students which were selected conveniently. This is done using the Spareman Correlation Method (SCM) statistical tool. The study found that the frequency of financial stress among university students has a negative and significant relationship with academic performance. It also revealed a negative and significant relationship between the effects of financial stress on students’ grades and retention rates and their overall academic performance. It also showed that the effects of financial stress on students’ ability to focus and learn emerged as another significant factor negatively impacting academic performance. It found a positive and significant relationship between students’ ability to cope with financial stress and their academic performance. And finally, it also revealed a positive and significant relationship between coping strategies of financial stress and students’ academic performance. In line with the above findings, the study recommends that universities should review and enhance their financial aid programs, introduce student to extensive programs like financial education and counseling, make it easier for students to find on and off campus jobs that don’t conflict with their studies, extend mental health services for students experiencing financial hardship and universities should push the state and federal laws that deals with the underlying issues leading to students financial stress