ABSTRACT
This study determined the gap analysis of provosts’ performance in the management of student personnel services in colleges of education in South East Nigeria. Seven research questions guided the study, and five null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted in carrying out the study in the five states of South East Nigeria. The population for the study was 189, consisting of seven provosts and 182 senior administrative staff. There was no sampling because of the manageable number of the respondents. The instrument for data collection was a 50-item structured questionnaire, developed by the researcher. The instrument has two components of ‘Required’ and ‘Possessed’ Skills’ Performance levels, with four response options each. The instrument was face validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha method. The overall reliability of the ‘required’ and ‘possessed’ skills performance levels were 0.95 and 0.92 respectively. A total of 186 questionnaires (98%) were retrieved and analyzed using mean, standard deviation and performance gap analysis index (PGAI) to answer the research questions, while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found, among others, that the provosts highly required the student personnel services management skills with cluster mean value of 3.70 showing the upper limit range. Provosts do not possess the skills for effective management of the services, shown in the cluster mean value of 1.84, as a result they have performance gaps in respect of communication, discipline, health services, accommodation, and library services. It also found that there are no significant differences between the mean responses of the provosts and senior administrative staff on performance gapsof provosts for the management of student personnel services. Based on the findings, it was recommended that provosts should be exposed to in-service training programmes (capacity building), on student personnel services management skills they require. This should be funded by the federal and state governments.