Organization and retrieval of students’ academic records in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria – Nigeria

Abstract

The study was undertaken to investigate how students’ academic records in Ahmadu Bello University are organized and retrieved. A descriptive survey research design and purposive sampling procedure were employed for the study to find out the effectiveness of students’ records organization in the Various departmental records offices of the 12 faculties. The number of staff identified managing students’ academic records were 480 and the study used Krejcie and Morgan statistical table to determine the sample size which was 216. A total of 216 questionnaire were distributed but 210 were filled and returned which gave a response rate of 97.2%. Data analysis of the bio-data variables were presented in frequencies and percentages. Two research questions as well as two research hypotheses were raised and tested the hypotheses. The reliability of the instrument was tested using the split-half method. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) statistics tested whether relationship exist among the respondents’ opinions on the individual items that made up each research hypothesis. The decision to accept or reject any null hypothesis was at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The study revealed that retrieval of students’ academic records in the study area was slow and time consuming due to poor records organization. The study concluded that students ‘ records organization is below standard and so should be allocated good time in processing the students records to help researchers and administrators experience fruitful search for specific records and timely retrieval. The research proposed that staff managing the students’ academic records should be professionals or trained to monitor students’ records either in manual or electronic format to ease accessibility. The National University Commission (NUC) should as a matter of urgency design and implement a policy that will compel all Universities in Nigeria to provide functional records centres that will make students’ academic data available to the commission and other relevant organizations at all times.