INTERNAL MECHANISM FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE IN UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH EAST ZONE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Comparative analysis of the utilization of internal mechanism for quality assurance in universities in South East zone of Nigeria, is the crux of this study. Various studies had looked at related topics but none of them had adequately interrogated the issues at hand and none had narrowed its works to the universities in the South-East, Nigeria. It is at this backdrop that this study becomes imperative. The theoretical prism is underpinned by total quality management theory advanced by Edward Deming. Descriptive survey design was utilized. The population for the study consisted of 508 academic staff from public universities and 314 academic staff from private university in South East, Nigeria. Questionnaire was designed to elicit appropriate information from the respondents. The reliability co-efficient of the instrument was calculated using Cronbach Alpha Method. Reliability Index of 0.88 calculated high reliability of the instrument. Mean score and standard deviation were deployed to answer the research questions, and t-test statistic was employed to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that quality in student evaluation and academic staff appraisal are some of the internal mechanisms for quality assurance in both public and private universities in the south-east. The study concluded that internal mechanisms are utilized in the students and lecturers` quality assurance evaluation systems. It recommended among other things, that information technology communication be introduced to students` internal mechanisms for quality assurance.