Chibuogwu, Nnaka V. (2015)

In Nigeria, as in most developing countries, there is gender disparity in education access especially at the higher education level. Research reports on this subject link this phenomenon to the prevailing socio-cultural and economic values and practices in Nigeria. Efforts are on ground to widen access to tertiary education for all including women. One such effort is the establishment of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). From available statistics, NOUN is recording steady increase in enrolment for both women and men though still more men than women are enrolled in NOUN especially at the higher education level. Since socioeconomic and cultural factors are known to influence women's access to education, this study sought to determine the socio-economic characteristics of the women who are currently enrolled in higher education programmes at NOUN. A 30-item questionnaire on socio-economic characteristics such as age, educational background, employment status, marital status, income, was validated and used for data collection. The questionnaire also sought to find out if there were any constraints facing the women enrolled into NOUN higher education programmes. Two research questions were used for the study. Six hundred (600) women enrolled in NOUN were drawn from six randomly selected study centers in Nigeria. The instrument had a coefficient of 0.83. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that majority of the women though employed had very low annual income. Recommendations were made for enhancing women's access to higher education programmes in NOUN.