Substance Abuse and its Impacts on Undergraduate Student's Academic Performance (Students of Adama Science and Technology University in Focus)

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the substance abuse on Adama Science and Technology University (ASTU) undergraduate students' academic performance. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods where purposive sampling was used. Data for the study was gathered using questionnaire, interview and documents obtained from health centers and local police office. In addition, focus group discussions were also made with selected students. The data analysis was triangulated to obtain meaningful results. The analysis showed that about 62% of the students abused khat, 51.1% of the students abused cigarettes and 26.1% of them abused alcohol. The percentage of students who chew khat between 5-20 days/month was found to be 46.3, and the remaining 15.7% abused khat for more than 21-days in a month. The study also revealed that students in the first year of their study abused mainly khat but they got in to abusing other substances too as they progressed through their study in the University. It was noted that most students who chew khat did not regularly go to classes and that had an adverse impact on their academic performance. 61.9% of the khat chewing students were absent from class and 43.5% had lost interest in their daily activities because of drug abuse. On the contrary, the study also showed that the students who chew khat since their primary education stage were so much habituated that they could not perform well in studies unless they chew khat. It is recommended that the University should raise awareness of all students during the orientation week about the ill effects of drug abuse and make strict rules and host guidelines on student's code of conduct for eliminating drug abuse from the campus. University should also encourage students, admissions and registration office to monitor students' performance on a regular basis and provide one on one help to drug abusers. University may also consider starting a 'student consular cell' backed by team of professionals who may help the affected students to come out of the drug abuse.