PREDICTING STUDENT’S CHOICE OF HOSTEL: AN APPLICATION OF MULTINOMIAL LOGISTIC REGRESSION

Choice of hostel is a crucial decision to every student in tertiary education institution in Ghana. Government hitherto provides hostels for students, but due to limited resources of the state, private sector investors now support government. This creates an opportunity for students to decide which hostel to choose. Student's choice of hostel is influenced by several factors, but this study focused on only student's background variables. The study used multinomial logistic regression to predict student's choice of hostel in Ghanaian polytechnics. A simple random sample of 300 students was selected from Bolgatanga Polytechnic for the study. The selected students responded to a questionnaire that sought data on their background variables. The data was analyzed using SPSS Version 16.0. The results showed that male students exhibit significant preference for Local House to Private Hostel than female students. Significance preference was also shown for Private Hostel and Polytechnic Hostel to Local House by students with literate mothers. In addition, students from low income families also show significant preference for Local House to Private Hostel than their fellows from high income families. The results further established another significant prediction that students who have relationship problems with other students prefer Local House to Private and Polytechnic Hostels. The study recommends that management should consider students with illiterate mothers in Polytechnic Hostel first and also strengthen school-community relationship since some students prefer Local Houses to Polytechnic and Private Hostels.