Global Awareness Society International 22 nd Annual Conference – Rome, Italy, May 2013 Determination of Challenges and Opportunities of the Global Financial Crisis for Business Education Undergraduates in South East Nigerian Universities Justina I. Ezenwafor (Ph.D.) Senior Lecturer 08037132200 & 08077971198 ji.ezenwafor@uizik.edu.ng & justed1998@yahoo.com Amaka U. Okeke (Ph.D.) Senior Lecturer O8033225686 au.okeke@unizik.edu.ng & okekeau@yahoo.com Department of Business Education Faculty of Education Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria Augustine U. Enemuo, (Ph.D.) Senior Lecturer Business Education Department Madona University, Okija, Nigeria 07062491467 Abstract The 2008 financial crisis in America has adversely affected the rest of the world. Being a nascent financial sector that seeks to integrate with the global financial system, the global financial crisis led to a drop in Nigeria’s foreign exchange and reserves causing a double-digit inflation which affected all sectors of her economy. This brought daunting challenges to the government, corporate organizations and individual citizens especially students who are mostly dependants. This study seeks to determine the challenges and opportunities of the crisis to undergraduate business education students in south east Nigerian universities. Two research questions and four null hypotheses guided the descriptive survey. Population consists of 1078 out of which 285 who are in the final year were sampled. A 4-point rating scale validated questionnaire with reliability coefficients of 0.71 and 0.83 was used for data collection. Data were analyzed with mean, standard deviation, z-test and ANOVA. Results revealed the respondents’ challenges to include alarming increase in school fees, high cost of living on campus, inadequate funds and training equipment, among others and opportunities as working in business centers, editing materials, teaching in private schools and marketing materials, among others. Three hypotheses were rejected as significant difference was found in respondents’ mean ratings. The authors conclude that vocational skills training will equip Nigerian students to cope more effectively with their challenges and recommend that owners of universities should adequately provide equipment for skills training and that government should lay more emphasis on vocational education.