Crude Petroleum is one of the core drivers of economic activities in Nigeria, and the government's subsidy policy from the 1970s has been in place to cushion the effects of global oil pricing on the Nigerian economy. The government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu removed the oil subsidy on the day of its inauguration, triggering high levels of inflation and an economic crisis in the country, which has persisted until this year, 2024. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the 2023 fuel subsidy removal policy on business education students' academic attainment in Southeast Nigeria, disaggregated into four research question and four hypotheses by correlating fuel subsidy removal on (1) flow of students' enrollment, (2) educational progression, (3) curriculum delivery strategies and (4) students' achievement levels. The study adopted a descriptive survey design to study a sample of 367 students drawn using the Taro Yamani formula from a population of 4,480 business education students in government-owned colleges of education in Southeast Nigeria. A self-administered and structured questionnaire titled "Fuel Subsidy Removal and Education Attainment Questionnaire (FSREAQ)" was developed in a 5-point Likert-type format for data collection. The instrument was validated by experts in Business Education and found to be reliable at 0.80 using Cronbach Alpha. The data were analyzed for baseline information using frequency tables, percentages, pie charts, and histograms/bar charts. The objectives were addressed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (rho). Findings showed that fuel subsidy removal and the flow of school enrollment (Coeff 0.178, p 0.453) do not have a significant effect on business education. However, fuel subsidy removal had a significant effect on the educational progression of business education students (Coeff -0.578, p 0.003) and a significant adverse effect on curriculum delivery strategies in business education (Coeff -0.273, p 0.023). Fuel subsidy removal did not have a significant effect on students' achievement levels in business education (Coeff -0.733, p 0.073). The study concluded that fuel subsidy removal has shown a considerable adverse impact on the academic attainment of business education students in Nigeria. The government should intensify its efforts to improve the quality of education through TETFUND funding and increase wages for educators in tertiary institutions.
Fuel subsidy, Business education, academic attainment, Nigeria
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