CHALLENGES TO EVOLVING QUALITATIVE UNIVERSITY EDUCATION SYSTEM FOR ENHANCING DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study sought to identify the challenges to evolving qualitative university education system for enhancing Nigeria’s national development. The research was focused in scope to the south eastern states of Nigeria. Six research questions guided the study namely: what are the challenges posed bypoliticsto evolving qualitative university education system for enhancing Nigeria’s national development? In what ways do the admission processes constitute obstacles to evolving qualitative university education system for enhancing Nigeria’s national development? How do the processes of recruitment and promotion of the academic staff constitute hitches to evolving qualitative university education system for enhancing Nigerian national development? In what ways does fund drawback the evolving of qualitative university education system for enhancing Nigeria’s national development? In what ways has deregulation policy challenged the evolving of qualitative university education system for enhancing Nigeria’s national development? How does the university academic culture impede the evolving of qualitative university education system for enhancing Nigeria’s national development? Six null hypotheses were also posed on the significance of the differences in the mean ratings of responses of the three groups: management staff, lecturers of history of education and union leaders, regarding the six factors investigated. The design of the study was a descriptive survey. The population comprised the management, lecturers and union groups in 10 public universities in south-east states of Nigeria and a sample of 160 respondents was drawn. The sample was purposive as those selected were adjudged the most likely holders of the information sought. The instrument for data collection was a four-scale structured questionnaire. The research questions were analyzed by mean scores and standard deviations while the Hypotheses were tested at 0.5 level of significance using  ANOVA and Multiple Comparison (Scheffe) test. The result of the study revealed that politics, admission processes, recruitment and promotion processes, deregulation policy, and academic culture all constitute serious challenges to evolving qualitative university education system for enhancing development in south East of Nigeria. The ways these factors pose obstacles were found to include: limiting time for study, working against meritocracy, causing brain drain, limiting facilities for university community life, entrenching sectionalism, nepotism and mediocrity in the university system. Among others, it was found that dearth of sound research, feud in the system, and a disregard for expertise, democratic and universal values (the fulcrums on which modernization or development move) were prevalent; and these pose obstacles to Nigeria’s development. The tested Hypothesesrevealed that the mean ratings of responses amongst the three groups: management, lecturers and union leaders showed some disagreements regarding how politics, admission and culture challenged qualitative university system; while they were in agreement on the ways recruitment and promotion, fund and deregulation impeded the evolving of qualitative university education system for enhancing Nigeria’s national development. Based on these findings, it was recommended that public universities shouldrun admission, recruitments, and promotions on transparent examination for merit and ‘achievement culture’ to be planted in the nation through the system. That fund should be made available and seen to be properly used by the managements; that lectures, seminars and workshops be organized to reassess and mitigate the damages caused by deregulation to the universitysystem in Nigeria; and that good academic culture should be followed; so that the universities will meet their expected contributions to the development of the Nigerian nation.