Influence of accreditation on quality assurance in universities in Rivers State

Abstract

The study examined the influence of Accreditation on Quality Assurance in Universities in Rivers State. Two research questions were answered while two hypotheses were tested. The study adopted descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised all the 3 universities in Rivers State with a total of 1,531 respondents made up of their academic staff. The sample size was 317 representing 20.7% of the respondent population using Taro Yamane formula. Stratified random sampling technique was used to draw the 317 respondents from the strata. The research instrument used for data collection was a self-constructed 32-item questionnaire titled Influence of Accreditation on Quality Assurance Questionnaire (IAQAQ). The reliability coefficient of the IAQAQ calculated at 0.76 with the aid of Cronbach alpha statistics. Face and content validities were ensured by the supervisor and two experts in Department of Educational Management (Higher Education), University of Port Harcourt. Mean scores, standard deviation and rank order statistics were used to answer the research questions on a modified 4-point Likert scale while z-test were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The findings revealed among others that the ways through which accreditation influence quality assurance in universities under study were by ensuring quality teaching performance of lecturers, quality admission process, quality infrastructural provisions and adequate curriculum review. It was also revealed that there is a significant difference between male and female respondents on how accreditation influence quality assurance through quality teaching and quality admission process. Based on these findings it was recommended among others that academic staff should use the infrastructure provided judiciously and prudently in order to sustain the quality of the infrastructure over a period of time; only lecturers who are professionally certified in a particular discipline should be allowed for the job of lecturing in such discipline to ensure quality assurance in all the three universities in Rivers State.