STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION AND USE OF A UNIVERSITY CAMPUS OPEN SPACE

ABSTRACT
The study provided an insight into students’ perception and use of the Ugbowo Campus of University of Benin. The objectives were to determine the most and least favourite open spaces for students in the campus, and out how they perceive and use the campus’ open spaces. With the undergraduate students (full time) count of 29,400 in the campus, 435 students were selected for the study and this represents 1.5% of the undergraduate (full time) students in the campus. The respondents were selected from among the sophomores and final year students. Interviews surveys which pertained to the spatial behaviour of respondents and their uses of open spaces by respondents were also conducted. Descriptive statistical analysis were used to analyse the data collected with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20. Also, the Chi-Square (𝜒2) test was used to analyse the degree of closeness between perceptions and use of open spaces of the campus. The study revealed that 68.1% of the students had a positive perception of open spaces in the campus but the perception do not really transcend to their use of open spaces as many students do not regularly use the open spaces in the campus.