FUND UTILISATION AS DETERMINANTS OF STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Inadequate funding of the Nigeria’s public universities had become an unresolved problem in the educational body polity. When the students’ enrolment trend is on the increase without a commensurate funding inflow, it portends great dangers particularly for academic performance. The thrust of this paper was to propose effective fund utilisation and enrolment control as determinants of good academic performance among the public universities in Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Twenty-one public universities in Nigeria was selected through stratified random sampling technique from three out of six geo-political zones viz south west, north central and north west. The study participants comprised key university administrator including Bursary, Directors of Academic Planning and Directors of Students Affairs of selected universities. Three instruments: University Funding and Fund Utilisation Inventory, University Enrolment Inventory and University Students Academic Performance Inventory were used for quantitative data collection. Research hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Multiple Regression Analysis.   Fund utilisation of public universities on academic related matters had a positive but not significant correlation with students academic performance. Direct and indirect academic (b=0.42; t=165; p>0.05) and library and ICT development expenses (b=0.41; t=0.61; p>0.05). The combination of the predictors however, explain 17.6% of the total variance observed in the students academic performance. The linear combination of fund generation, fund utilisation (academic and non-academic matters) and students’ enrolment had significant influence on students’ academic performance in public universities in Nigeria (F_(3,10)=15.16, p<0.05). The higher enrolment was noticed among the older Federal Universities when compared with their state-owned counterparts during the period of study. The students’ enrolment in the public universities had significant negative correlation with their students’ academic performance (r=0.89, p<0.05).    Funding and fund utilisation in isolation do not have significant influence in improving students’ academic performance. Students’ enrolment is a significant determinant of academic performance, while the linear combination of funding, fund utilisation and enrolment had significant influence on students’ academic performance in Nigeria’s public universities. Hence, both the Federal and State Governments should always endeavour to put in place regulatory mechanism for optimum students enrolments and effective fund utilisation for academic programmes by educational manager.