Volume 4 Issue 3 (October 2012) - Ozean Publications

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(3), 2012
Instrumentation
The university programs are driven out from list in the brochure of Joint Admission Matriculation Board
(JAMB). Programs in the same field are classified under one main program. The instrument for data collection
related the aspiration of students consisted of a check-list. The check-list was used to collect relevant data from
the respondents. It consisted of fifty five (55) items representing different academic programmes of nine (9)
faculties in Nigerian universities as classified by JAMB. Items in the check-list were designed to elicit
information pertaining to applicants’ aspirations as well as academic programmes that attracted most students’
interests. The check-list was made up of two sections; section one, required demographic information from
students (sex, age, class and field of study) and section two contained the academic programmes provided by the
universities. Two columns were provided against each academic programme for respondents to tick as first or
second choice. This section indicated students’/respondents’ aspirations.
An instrument is valid when it measures accurately what it is designed to measure (Nash in Hassan, 2005). The
items in the check list were critically reviewed. Similarly, the items on the check-list have content or face
validity; this is because items (the academic programmes given in the check list for respondents to indicate their
aspiration) were drawn from the officially documented JAMB Brochure. The reliability of the instrument was
established by conducting a pilot test on 70 selected students. The split-half method was adopted and the Pearson
Product Moment Correlation Coefficient formula was used to test the reliability. The reliability coefficient of
0.84 was attained. This shows a high level of reliability, that 0.75-0.80 must be attained to justify an instrument
as reliable (Simadi, 2009).
The check-list was administered to the respondents in their respective classrooms. Assistance was sought from
the teachers. With the help of teachers the questionnaire was administered to one thousand one hundred and
twenty five (1,125) samples. The questionnaire was retrieved using on–the spot collection method in order to
minimized cases of unreturned check-list. At the end of administration and retrieving of the check-list from the
respondents, a total number of one thousand and fifty (1050) check-list sheets were found usable.
FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
Two types of data were collected and used in the study. First, the academic programmes of the newly (between
2003 and 2009) established universities were drawn from the JAMB/UTME Brochure and classified as fifty five
(55) programmes in nine (9) faculties as classified by JAMB. Another data was collected from the sample of
students via the check-list instrument. The data generated was specifically on the student preference or aspiration
for university academic programmes. The data was collected so as to compare the students’ aspirations with the
availability of such programmes in the newly established universities, as such the need to restructure, by means
of expansion or developing new courses can be objectively ascertained, or otherwise. Similarly, the data
generated from the sample of the study was used to determine the relationship between the academic
programmes distribution of the new universities and trend in applicants’ aspirations. This was equally important
in ascertaining the applicants’ aspirations, which is another important parameter to signify the need for
restructuring or not. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the data collected
from the subject of the study in relation to academic programmes available in new universities, in other words,
the method of data analysis was employed to test the relationship between the two variables. The statistical
analysis of data is shown below in table 3.
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