Students’ perception of the role of chaplains at Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Chaplains are trained to provide spiritual care and support in different settings, such as schools, hospitals prisons, military and so on. A setting such as Babcock University, a faith-based higher Institution of learning encourages the services of chaplains for students, staff and faculty. The students at Babcock University experience the services of the chaplain in various areas of the school, hospitals, worship center and hostels. Many students visit the chaplain’s office for citizenship grade issues and few for spiritual care. It appears some of the students seem to have misconception about the role of the chaplain which may have prevented them to visit the office of the chaplain for spiritual help. The citizenship grade is being generated at the worship centre through worship attendance record using biometric. The grading system is based on A-F and scores of 0-100%. Undergraduate students with low grade will face the consequence. The consequence is to visit the chaplaincy office and engage in community service to discourage such behaviour. The research was conducted to study the students’ perception of the role of chaplain. The research was conducted among 362 undergraduate resident students of Babcock University and find out about their perception on the role of school chaplain. This sample size was determined by Raosoft Calculator. The research methodology used is descriptive qualitative research using a designed questionnaire with thirty-one research questions on Likert 5 -point scale of strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and strongly agree to collect data. Data analysis was carried out on IBM SPSS version 26 with tables and figures to show the result. The findings of this study revealed that the perception of the undergraduate students on the role of the school chaplain is that; the chaplains are spiritual caregivers, who provide guidance and support in times of spiritual needs. The findings convinced the researcher that the undergraduate students understand the role of the chaplain. Perhaps some other reasons are responsible for the behaviour of the undergraduate students for visiting the office of the chaplain for citizenship grade issues rather than spiritual help. For future purpose there is need to understand the behaviour and the attitude of the undergraduate students visiting the office of the chaplain for citizenship grade issues rather than spiritual help.