Maintenance of Student Residential Facilities and Its Influence on Students’ Well-being and Academic Performance: Evidence from Public and Private Hostels at the University of Mines and Technology, Ghana
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study examined the impact of maintenance of students' residential facilities on student well-being and academic performance at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), addressing three key objectives: assessing maintenance practices based on ownership type, examining the effect of maintenance on student well-being, and investigating its effect on academic performance. A sample of 320 respondents was drawn from a population of 1,662 students residing in three selected hostels, public and private, with 276 questionnaires successfully retrieved and used for analysis. Maintenance conditions were evaluated across electrical, plumbing, masonry, and carpentry components, revealing significant disparities across ownership types. Private facilities consistently outperformed public counterparts, with plumbing systems emerging as the most critically deficient category, particularly in publicly owned accommodation, while a pervasive culture of apathy toward maintenance of publicly owned properties was confirmed. Regression analysis established that maintenance quality was a significant positive predictor of student well-being, with improvements in residential maintenance yielding measurable gains in well-being outcomes. Maintenance quality similarly demonstrated a stronger positive relationship with academic performance, with better-maintained residential environments providing students with more supportive ecological conditions for academic engagement. Through Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, the residential facility was identified as a critical microsystemic environment whose physical condition directly shapes the proximal processes underpinning both student well-being and academic achievement. The study recommends that universities adopt formalised preventive maintenance systems and that funding bodies allocate maintenance resources proportionally to facility condition, concluding that student residential facility maintenance is a structural determinant of student outcomes warranting urgent and sustained institutional attention.
Authors: Carin Fianu, Sefam Afewu
Institution: University of Mines and Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7167347297