L’attrait des formations professionnelles dans l’enseignement supérieur au Cameroun : une analyse comparative du choix des étudiants entre ipes et établissements facultaires publics dans la ville Yaoundé.

Abstract

We started from the observation that, despite the comparative advantages offered by State Universities, Cameroonian students are more attracted by the same professional training courses offered by private higher education institutions, abbreviated in French as IPES. The statistics over the last few years prove this, and they are increasing year on year. There is the issue of the low attractiveness of professional training courses offered by State Universities, compared with IPES. This low level of attractiveness has negative consequences, such as a drop in the number of students enrolled, a decline in the quality of teaching and the loss of financial support to public faculties, for State Universities and for students wishing to receive professional training at them. Under these conditions, the ability of State Universities to train enough skilled professionals to meet the needs of the labour market would be affected. This observation has led us to question the reasons why students choose one university institution over another. In order to structure our answer, we have chosen four theoretical frameworks with a psycho-sociological focus, which have enabled us to highlight the factors influencing students' choice of institution. These factors relate to employment prospects, the reputation of the institution and its study programs, as well as access to useful training resources. We have used a two-stage mixed method, a qualitative and exploratory method using an interview guide with 05 students, as well as a quantitative and deductive method using a questionnaire with 72 students from an IPES and a State University in Yaoundé. The findings show that all three factors selected for our study have a positive beta coefficient (β) and good overall significance (Sig. < 0.05). These factors therefore have a positive and significant influence on students' choice of higher education institution.