Abstract:
This descriptive research assessed the influence of Relative Age (RA) on engineering education with special focus on private universities in south western Nigeria. Detailed questionnaires were administered to final year university engineering students capturing all engineering courses been studied. The effect of age on the aggregate academic performance during their five years of study were elucidated. This was augmented with discussion groups to ascertain the germane factors affecting their academic performance. Statistical tools were used in the analysis of the data. The result showed that relative age to a large extent affects the academic performance of both genders in engineering education. Age range of 20 – 21 years showed the best academic performance in engineering with 20% first class while the lower age bracket had the highest percentage of 3rd class (14%) with no record for the first class. The research supports the phrase ‘the older the better’. The study also revealed gender imbalance in engineering education with 79 % and 21% for male and female respectively in the schools studied. Interestingly, child position revealed that 48.27% of the first children are represented in engineering. Relative age quota solution may be employed in reducing the poor performance of engineering students to save the future of engineering education.
