Understanding institutional and facility related challenges affecting the application of ICT skills to academic activities by faculty staff in sampled Nigerian Universities

Abstract

The study aimed at understanding institutional and facility-related challenges affecting the application of ICT skills to academic activities by faculty  staff. The three full-time universities in Benue state were purposively selected to form the population of the study; namely, University of Agriculture, Makurdi; Benue State University, Makurdi; and University of Mkar, Mkar. The descriptive survey design was adopted with a total population of 1, 537 faculty staff. Out of this population, 306 faculty staff were drawn as a sample for the study, using the simple random sampling procedure. A validated questionnaire was deployed for data collection; while charts, frequency tables and simple percentages were used for data analysis. The study revealed that institutional and facility-related challenges affecting faculty staff’ ICT skills application to academic activities in the universities in Benue State include: inadequate funding of ICT ventures, lack of sponsorship for ICT training, inadequate ICT facilities, unstable power supply and poor internet connectivity. Based on this, it was recommended that the government should annually provide ICT development fund to universities for bankrolling of ICT projects, and the management of respective universities should ensure more spending on providing ICT facilities, stable  power supply, and sound Internet connectivity as this would greatly enhance academic activities in the universities.

Keywords: ICT Skills, Faculty staff, Nigeria, Universities, Challenges, Application