Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5766 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0484 (Online) Vol.7, No.10, 2017 21 Influence of Parental Occupation and Level of Education on Academic Performance of Accounting Students in Nigeria Odoh, Longinus Chukwudi Lecturer: Department of Accountancy, University of Nigeria, Nsukka Ugwuanyi, Uche Boniface, Ph.D Lecturer: Department of Accountancy, Enugu State University of Science and Technology Odigbo, Ben E., Ph.D Department of Marketing, University of Calabar, Nigeria Chukwuani, Nnenna Victoria Lecturer: Department of Accountancy, Enugu State University of Science and Technology Abstract THE study examined the influence of parental occupation and level of education on academic performance of accounting students in Nigeria. It was informed by the fact that the proper functioning of every country’s financial system and extent of viability of her economy is a function of the quality of accountants produced by her tertiary institutions. The specific objectives were to determine the relationship between parental occupation and level of education on academic performance of accounting students in Nigeria. The scope embraced accounting students in the Department of Accountancy, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The main instrument for data collection was structured questionnaire. The population of the study comprised 150 final year students of accounting in the University. Purposive sampling technique was employed in selecting 60 as sample size and in the administration. Data analysis were done with the statistical tools of Chi-square (X 2 ) and t-test statistics. Results obtained indicate that parental occupational level significantly influenced students’ academic performance in accounting studies in Nigeria, and that parental educational levels have strong positive relationship with students’ academic performance in accounting studies in Nigeria. It was recommended among other things that the three tiers of government should help to improve academic achievement of students in Nigeria, by extending educational support in form of adult literacy programmes to uneducated parents in the country. Keywords: Parents, Occupation, Educational Levels, Accounting Students, Academic Performance. 1. Introduction Accounting as one of the core courses studied in University of Nigeria is generally viewed as the language of all business. It is unique in all perspective largely because those who choose to study it and possibly take it up as a profession must be proficient in figures, sound in character, emotionally stable and lover of quantitative approach to economic reasoning. Hence, accounting is very vital for national development. Both the government, private sector businesses, local and international investors, need the services of accountants and financial analysts to help the country’s financial system, possible areas of investments, budget and budget implementations and the general global economic trends. The development of a country is measured with statistical indexes such as income per capita (per person) (GDP), life expectancy, the rate of literacy, et cetera (Zehri & Abdelbaki, 2013). Accounting information are used in national income accounting and for assessing the effectiveness of national development policies and the performance of the economy as a whole (Rahaman, 2010). However, the problem with some developing countries is most of the citizens are illiterates and this also reflects in the area of accounting knowledge. In developing countries like Nigeria, not much has been reported on the influence of socio-economic background on students’ academic performance in Nigerian universities. Due to high level of illiteracy, some Nigerian families view an undergraduate student in the university as an adult that can fend for him or herself and who should demand less of financial support from his or her family. This is largely a consequent of the parents’ poor occupational backgrounds and low level of education. Also, an average Nigerian university undergraduate is generally expected in this harsh economic condition to partake in full or part in offsetting the socio-economic cost of university training by finding alternative ways of taking care of his or her educational needs and still graduate with excellent performance. Thus, the influence of parental occupation and level of education on students’ academic performance is an issue that calls for concern among all stakeholders in academics largely because, today more than ever before, tremendous pressure is on students to earn good grades because academic achievement is assumed to possess predictive value and used to bar or open the gate between the university and successful careers in life (Rahaman, 2010).