DEREGULATION OF PROVISION OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES AND QUALITY ASSURANCE IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

This work is centered on Deregulation of provision of educational services and quality assurance in Nigerian universities. The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of the deregulation of provision of educational services and quality assurance indicators in Nigerian universities. These indicators include quality of staff in both public and private universities, standard of facilities available for effective teaching and learning, the admission processes that can ensure quality, and products of the universities as a fulfilment of quality assurance policy. Four research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. Data were elicited based on the following variables as they relate to ensuring quality, quality of staff, quality of facilities, admission process and quality of products from the university. Three theories were reviewed namely: public interest, system approach, and free market theories. The design of the study is ex-post facto while the population of the study is all academic administrators in both public and private universities in the study area, and the sample size is 714. Questionnaire titled: “Deregulation of provision of Educational Services and Quality Assurance in Nigerian Universities” is the main instrument used for generating data. The instrument was subjected to scrutiny by three experts. Mean rating and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while t-test statistic was used to test the four null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results show that the policy of deregulation has to an extent affects on the university system with regard to quality of academic staff, quality of facilities, admission process and the quality of graduates from the university. There is significant difference in the views of academic administrators of public and private universities on the effect of deregulation of provision of educational services on quality assurance in Nigerian universities. Based on the findings, it was recommended that government and authorities concerned (especially the National Universities Commission (NUC) should ensure that adequate number of qualified staff are available in both public and private universities to ensure quality in the system. Secondly adequate and functional facilities for effective teaching and learning should be made available in both public and private universities, especially Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based equipment. Admission into the university should be purely on merit and according to the carrying capacities of the university.