Management of Educational Records in Nigerian Universities for Better Results

The paper investigated the status of record-keeping in Nigerian universities following the general complaints by graduated students, retired staff etc that the record-keeping in Nigerian universities was below standard. The population of the study consisted of all academic and non-academic staff of 114 universities in the six geo-political zones of the federation of Nigeria: North-Central, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, South-south and Southwest. A sample of 150 academic staff and 150 non-academic staff were selected by stratified random sampling method from each geographical zones of the federation. A total sample of 900 academic staff (485 males and 415 females) and 900 non-academic staff (452 males and 448 females) participated in the study. The data of the study was collected using questionnaire. The questionnaire was titled University Record Keeping Inventory (URKI). The validity of the questionnaire was done by experts in Educational Administration and Planning. The reliability of the instrument was tested using a Split-Half Method. The correlation coefficient was corrected by the use of Spearman Brown Formula. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation was .77 and the final Spearman Brown Formula yielded 0.87. The statistics used were Z-test and simple percentage. The major finding was that record-keeping in Nigerian Universities was below average. Based on the finding, it was recommended that University administrators should train their personnel and update their record-keeping facilities to reflect what is obtainable in global villages.