Universities’ Leadership Compliance with the National Universities Commission’s Benchmark on Minimum Academic Standard and Its Impact on Quality of Nigerian University Education

Abstract

This study investigated the level of Nigerian Universities’ leadership compliance with the National Universities Commission’s benchmark on minimum academic standard, and its impact on the quality of Nigerian university education. This is consequent upon the observations of the some stakeholders in university education, that the failure of universities’ leadership to comply with the National Universities Commission (NUC) benchmark on minimum academic standard, has been the major problem of quality decline in Nigerian university education. Descriptive research of survey design was employed in the study. The population consisted of the staff members from public universities in south-west Nigeria, while the sample consisted of 50 members of staff each from 3 federal and 3 state universities. The finding revealed a moderate level of universities’ leadership compliance with the NUC benchmark on minimum academic standard. The finding was compared with the table on quality of Nigerian university education. A significant relationship was established between universities’ leadership compliance with NUC benchmark and quality of Nigerian university education, and no significant difference was established between the federal and state universities’ staff assessment of leadership compliance with the NUC benchmark. Based on these findings, conclusions were drawn and recommendations made.