Comparative Evaluation of the Implementation of Quality Assurance Mechanisms in Educational Management Programme of Universities in South-East, Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

This study focused on comparative evaluation of the implementation of quality assurance mechanisms in educational management programme of public and private universities in South-East Geo-political zone of Nigeria. The study was guided by four research questions and four null hypotheses. The study was carried out in three private and eight public universities running educational management programme. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study was eleven heads of departments of the eleven universities. A questionnaire instrument constructed by the researcher was used to collect data for the study, titled, “Questionnaire on comparative evaluation of the implementation of quality assurance mechanisms in educational management programme of universities in South-East of Nigeria (QCEI QAMEMPUSEN). The instrument was face-validated by three experts in the department of Educational Foundations of Ebonyi State University. The reliability of the instrument was obtained using cronbach alpha reliability coefficient, and it yielded 0.83. Mean scores of the respondents were used to answer the four research questions while t-test was used to answer the four null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.  The study came up with some major findings to include, that both types of universities (public and private universities) in South-East implementation the four major mechanisms for quality assurance in educational management programme to a little extent, but the private universities seem to record better implementation of the four mechanisms compared to the public universities. The study then recommended among others that the National Universities Commission (NUC) should lay more emphasis on the public universities especially during main accreditation exercise of universities, as to reduce the gap that exists in the standard in both types of institutions.