Determinant of Needs Assessment for Quality Delivery Services in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

Need assessment is the process of identifying and measuring areas for improvement as well as determining the methods to achieve it. Due to fundamental job expectations of universities, there are always periodic evaluation of programmes and projects available to identify the areas of improvement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine determinant of needs assessment for quality delivery services in Nigerian universities. The population of the study consisted of all academic staff of Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) and Ignitius Ajuru University of Education (IAUOE). The sample size consisted of 494. A self– made instrument, Needs Assessment and Quality Delivery Services Questionnaire (NAQDSQ) was used for the study. Hence, nineteen (19) structured items were drawn for the study. Responses were based on 4-points rating scale in which the responded were requested to answer: strongly agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and strongly Disagree (SD). Data collected were analyzed using mean scores for answering the research questions and Z-test for the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result indicated that the determinant of needs assessment for quality delivery services in the Nigerian universities includes: the rate of students’ admission, learning facilities, staff conditions of service and engagement, nature of programme and its credibility. It is therefore concluded that needs assessment set values for facilities and personnel improvement for quality service delivery. It was therefore recommended that specialized and skillful personnel should be deployed for adequate assessment of facilities and the obligations should be articulately discharged with transparency.