Assessment of the contribution of income generating activities on performance of maseno university – Kenya

The government support towards public universities has been on a steady decline, and the universities have been forced to operate under very tight budgets. This study assessed the contribution of Income Generating Activities (IGAs) on the performance of human resource and physical development of Maseno University (MU). The study will form a basic source of reference to the stakeholders who are interested in the private financing of universities. It adopted descriptive exploratory correlation and cross sectional survey research design. The study targeted a population of fifty one departments of the university where census sampling technique was used to select the sample frame. Both primary and secondary data was collected through the use of questionnaires which were designed into both open and closed ended questions. From the findings, there exist a strong relationship between IGAs and the performance of the human resource and the physical development of MU. Coefficient of correlation by the Product Moment Method of Karl Pearson indicated r = 0.927, which is easily explained by using coefficient correction of determination r² = 0.859. Therefore IGAs had made a major contribution in the performance of the human resource and physical development of the university. However, it was found that among other drawbacks, the progress of running IGAs has been hampered by inadequate funds for further expansion, lack of qualified personnel, lack of awareness of the presence of IGAs and lack of full support from the top management. The study thus, recommends competent management both at the university and IGAs institutions, recognition of what are IGAs and sustainability to ensure the existence of the facilities in future.