An Analysis of the Cost of Educational Wastages in Nigerian Public Universities: Efficiency in View

Abstract

The study examined the trend and social costs of educational wastage in public universities in Nigeria between 2008 and 2012. One major challenge confronting university education in Nigeria is that the total number of students enrolled for the academic session does not graduate at the specified period which has humongous social and private costs implication. Wastages across universities and areas of specialization have constituted a management problem and a drain at the limited resources in the Nigeria universities. As a survey method of descriptive research design and ex-post facto, it makes use of some indicators for measuring the wastage rate and the cost in Nigeria universities. Data were collected through the use of a validated self-designed questionnaire titled, Record and Financial Inputs and Output Questionnaire (SRFIOQ) with a reliability coefficient of r = 0.89. The study covered six universities (3 Federal and 3 States) among the eleven public universities in South West Nigeria selected through a purposive simple random sampling method. The participants cut across students in eight faculties of the sampled universities. Data were analyzed using frequency counts, simple percentage score and bar graphs and inferential statistics tools to test the research hypotheses for the study. The study revealed that there were variations in the wastage rate indicating a high percentage wastage rate which exists among faculties in various institutions under study. On the average, social cost on wastage was higher on male undergraduates with N 451,951,012.60 than that of females N 302,807,178.40. There was a significant difference in the social cost of wastages between male and female undergraduates (t-cal= .512< t-val= .413; P<.05). Also, there was a significant difference in the social cost of wastages between the states and federal public universities (t-cal= 1.439< t-val= .874; P<.05) from 2008 to 2012. It was therefore recommended that universities should endeavour to improve on their delivery of results as at when due in order to improve the internal efficiency of the institutions. Also, students’ workload should be reduced and the idea of automatic promotion from one level to the next level which is in practice in Nigeria universities should be addressed.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n7p683