The usage of e-governance applications by higher education students

This study aims to analyze the factors affecting the Internet usage of university students using e-governance applications. It is important to examine these factors to understand why the online citizen participation is not increasing as expected, while Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) usage is improving in governance. Governance is an understanding that aims to provide more efficient and effective government applications. It consists of constructing interactive relationships between governments and citizens. New information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide interactive opportunities to citizens. We focus on students because they constitute an important subset of citizen population. The methodology of this study consists of data collected by a survey of 328 university students of Hacettepe University between 2011 and 2012. The sample is taken from six colleges of this university. Our results show that factors affecting the usage of e-governance applications are mainly related to the Internet usage variables rather than socio-economic status of students. Internet security, Internet usage level, Internet usage ability, and Internet usage tendencies are independent variables that have significant effects on the solution of the problem of improving ICTs usage in the processes of governance.