MAIN FINDINGS, POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITY SYSTEM, CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER WORK
6.6 Recommendations for formulation of prevention strategies for University system The targets of intervention should focus on those risky activities that students are prompted
While gender was found to be the main driver of risky sexual activities at UNAD, the core drivers at UNIZULU were more complex but most importantly gender, age, level of study, marital status and number of children.
6.6 Recommendations for formulation of prevention strategies for University system
meet the needs of poor students, to make up for academic weakness, greed or through peer influence); intergenerational sexual relationship (through ‘sugar daddy/mummy’
syndrome); involvement in casual sex without protection; irregular and inconsistent use of condoms; difficulties to buy condoms (probably at UNAD, where free condoms are not distributed); many students did not know their HIV status (non-availability of facilities at UNAD or because undertaking tests is too expensive); many students did not bother to know the HIV status of partner(s); many students did not discuss HIV with partners, even casual ones, before engaging in sex; engagement in sex after a party and under the influence of alcohol or drugs; substantial number of respondents lost their virginity in the university not necessarily within a committed relationship but probably through exploitation and sex-for-money/favour activities, and the conviction of students that they are invulnerable to infection
6.6.1 Promotion of responsible sexual lifestyles on campuses At policy and academic level
All African Universities must have, by now, put in place a functional HIV and AIDS policy, backed up by management and with adequate funding allocated to provide resources. This, in reality, is not the case, particularly in many Nigerian universities.
Not much research work has been done to establish the level of HIV prevalence in African universities, except a recent survey on South African universities (Dell, 2010), referred to earlier. The disconcerting aspect of this report was the revelation that up to 20.3 % of University service workers in KwaZulu-Natal, where UNIZULU is located, are HIV positive.
This is much higher than national levels. Furthermore this study revealed that ‘HIV
prevalence increased as students grew older’, involvement in inter-generational relationship and prevalence of stigma to HIV. A similar trend was observed from this work that UNIZULU respondents appeared to become more risky in their sexual activities than the UNAD’s who appeared less risky as their level of education increased.
A reference was made in Dell’s report to a ‘global push for evidence-based prevention’
supported by UNAIDs and other agencies, code-named ‘Know your epidemic’. The implication of this call is that each institution is expected to conduct focussed research on establishing the level of epidemic to put in place appropriate response (‘Know your epidemic’ and ‘Know your response’).
Each university should incorporate HIV and AIDS into their curriculum, where the science as well as the social impact would be adequately covered. UNIZULU’s Biochemistry Department runs a fairly comprehensive module on HIV and AIDS and all Education students offer a core module on HIV and AIDS as well. There was also evidence that HIV/AIDS is accommodated in curricula at UNAD. Many Nigerian universities cover HIV and AIDS under the General Studies programme, compulsorily offered by all students. The Open University of Nigeria offers a comprehensive programme as well (Ambe-Uva, 2007).
At Management support level
There is need for university managements to support research into HIV and AIDS and dissemination of results widely, including within the university community.
There is need to provide resources for counselling, guidance and mentoring of students and staff on all issues pertaining to transmission and prevention of HIV infection and provide support to the infected and affected.
In both research and support structures, staff and students should participate actively in the actualisation of the set targets.
Structural support
Each University should have facilities for HIV testing and counselling and services provided free or at affordable costs and managed by professionally competent hands that may operate on regular scheduled visits if permanent engagement may be too expensive. This could be built into the medical services levy in the student’s fees. This would avert the problem the students encounter in establishing their HIV status.
Each University should put in place policies to control the use of alcohol and possession of drugs on campus. This will help in those universities that operate on-campus residences (like UNIZULU) but not UNAD that operate off-campus privately run residences. (Dell’s report above surprisingly found that ‘there was no link between habitual drinking and HIV prevalence’!)
The reality on the ground is that most students (about 80 % of respondents in this study) are sexually active while in the university, it is important to address the problem of inaccessibility to condom by providing them for free (NGOs can help in this regard) or at subsidized costs in the health clinic or designated places (e.g. residences) on campus.
Such places could be located off-campus for a university like UNAD.
To help students to take appropriate decisions when confronted with risky circumstances it is important that the universities adopt a rather intellectual approach to guiding
students by adopting a combination of Health Belief Models that are available. It is important that students know the ‘threats’ they face, the ‘benefits’ of avoiding taking negative steps and develop ‘self-efficacy’ in implementing appropriate behaviour change (lifestyle change) as well as handle negotiations for safe sex which are necessary to remain safe. The University system should be able to set up templates that can provide
‘cues to action’ to constantly remind students what to do in certain circumstances of risk.
Poverty comes out strong from this study and has implications for inter-generational sex, concurrent multiple sexual relationship and ‘under cover prostitution’. The victims of poverty are mostly women. Institutions should set up a programme to identify such students and put a special programme in place to offer support. NGOs could be involved in seeking help for such students. This problem is minimised at UNIZULU because of the existence of the students’ loan scheme but no such luxury is available in Nigeria. The problem of pimps facilitating prostitution in Nigeria is a major challenge that Nigerian universities should tackle decisively.