An Assessment of Challenges and Prospects of FreshmanStudents Orientation for Department Choice: The Case of Jimma University

Abstract

The purpose of the s tud y was to ass ess the nature of orientation given fo r ad mis s io n of fres h man students wit hparticular emphasis to the th en Education Faculty an d Faculty of Social Sc iences and Hu man it ies , Jimma Un iv ers it y .Besides,factors that affect the process negatively were als o dimension of the study. To t h is end, descriptive research method wasemp loyed. The s tud y population was second and t h ird year students of the two colleges and th en departments’ heads; theinstruments used to collect data were questionnaire (s tudents ), in t erv iew schedule (depart ments’ heads) and observation of an orientation h eld at the beginning of 200 9. The data t al lied and tabulated were analy zed using descriptive statistics. As theres u lt , what was found is that the orientation given to students seems to be advertisements in th e intention to win as ma n ystudents as p os s ib le wh ich is attributed to absence of well-established ru les and regulations coupled wit h lack of a s tructurewh ich ad min is t ers and controls the process. So, es t ab lis h in g ru les and regulations for ad mis s io n and orientation at co lleg e/university level and p lacin g a s tructure that ad min is t ers the en t ire process wit h res p o ns ib il it y and accountability is believedto s ubs t ant ially a l lev iat e the problems prevailing