UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
2022/23 ACADEMIC YEAR
ECN/BBA 4411
FINAL EXAMINATIONS
JUNE 2023
TIME ALLOWED: THREE (3) HOURS
_____________________________________________________________________
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. There are five questions in this paper. Section A carries 40 marks, while questions in Section
B carry 20 marks each.
2. Section A is compulsory. Choose any other three questions from Section B
DO NOT TURN OVER UNTIL INSTRUCTED
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SECTION A
CASE STUDY
Over the years, The University of Zambia has been increasing the students’ enrolments with the latest
student population estimated at 30,000. These consist only of first to sixth year, excluding those at
Ridgeway Campus. The University has recently faced criticism regarding the quality of education that its
students have been receiving. Areas of this criticism include the adequacy and quality of text books
available to the students for their reading, the shortage of lecturers, dilapidated lecturer rooms, as well as
a compressed academic calendar among other things. In a bid to respond to these challenges, University
Management has lobbied and sourced for funds from Government in order to boost the Human resource
structure as well as give the University a face lift in different areas of its operations such as books and
other infrastructure. However, the lamentations among students with regards to the quality of education
that they have been receiving has continued. The Vice Chancellor has just engaged you to conduct a study
that would ultimately help address these teething problems.
QUESTION ONE
a) Define Research and briefly explain the difference between pure and applied research? [5]
b) Determine the appropriate title that you would use for the study, and formulate a problem statement
using a case study provided to you above. [5]
(i) Formulate research objectives for objectives of this study?
[5]
(ii) From the above scenario, identify at least four independent and one dependent variable.
[5]
QUESTION TWO
a) You have decided that the student populace will be your target population, use the Taro
Yamani formular to determine the sample size of your study. [Use a 1% sampling error]
[5]
b) Given that in terms of the years of study, the students are divided into the following
proportions:
Year of Study First Second Third Forth Fifth Sixth
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Proportion 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05
(i) Using the information in the table above, and your answer in a), determine the population size
for each cohort (year of study), as well as the sample size that you would choose from each of
these cohorts. [5]
(ii) Determine the appropriate sampling method for your study. Justify the choice of your
sampling design and give a detailed, but precise explanation of how you would go about
implementing the sampling design that you would choose for this study.
[6]
(iii) Briefly explain how you would process and analyse your data.
[4]
SECTION B: ANSWER ANY THREE QUESTIONS
QUESTION THREE
a) Identify, and briefly explain at least four (4) characteristics of scientific methods of
acquiring knowledge. (8)
b) “During the year 2022, the Road Traffic and Safety Agency (RTSA) recorded a total
number of 3200 deaths resulting from road traffic accidents.”
As a researcher, you have just determined that this number represents 20% of total
mortality occurrences in the country. Does this 20% represent the parameter, statistic or
subject? Explain to justify your answer.
(4)
c) Using appropriate examples where possible, briefly explain the difference between:
(i) Discrete and continuous variable.
(4)
(ii) Theory and Hypothesis (4)
QUESTION FOUR
a) What is research design? (2)
b) Research Design can be split into four different parts that deal with different aspects of
the overall research design. Identify these parts and briefly describe what aspect of design
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they deal with.
(8)
c) Why is it important to ensure that research findings are valid and reliable? (2)
d) What key questions would you as a researcher, ask, in ensuring that your overall study
findings are valid and reliable? (4)
e) Identify, and briefly explain some of the factors that may affect reliability and validity of
study findings. (4)
QUESTION FIVE
a) List down and explain at least four factors that you would consider when choosing the
secondary data to use for your study. [8]
b) Outline and explain the processing operations that data should be subjected to upon
collection, in order to make it amenable to analysis. [8]
c) Briefly explain the difference between descriptive and inferential analysis. [4]
QUESTION SIX
Write short notes on the following:
a) Law of large numbers [5]
b) Cross Sectional Data [5]
c) Snowballing [5]
d) Law of normal distribution [5]
Good luck! -
