Integrating Readership Promotion and Student Engagement Programs for Sustainable Reading Culture in Nigerian Universities: Insights from the Federal University of Technology, Babura

Abstract

The study examined the integration of readership promotion strategies and student engagement programs on reading habits in a newly established university in Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted, targeting undergraduate students, with disproportionate stratified random sampling used to select respondents from the School of Engineering and the School of Science, Information and Communication Technology. Out of 500 distributed questionnaires, 442 were returned. The research instrument, adapted from existing literature, was validated by subject matter experts and demonstrated high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.89). Ordinal linear regression was used to analyze the data due to the ordinal nature of the responses. Two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The findings revealed that both student engagement programs and readership promotion strategies significantly enhanced the reading culture among students. Student engagement programs such as advisory committees, reading challenges, and library events accounted for 85.8% of the variation in students’ reading habits (R = .926, R² = .858, p = .002), while readership promotion strategies including library orientations, book clubs, and social media campaigns explained 26.6% of the variation (R = .516, R² = .266, p = .001). consequently, based on these results, it is recommended that the university formally integrate student engagement initiatives such as peer-led reading circles, book discussions, and reading competitions into its academic calendar and co-curricular framework, with consistent support through funding, staff coordination, and student leadership development to ensure sustainability and strengthen a lasting reading culture and among others.