FUNDING MODELS ADOPTED BY PROPRIETORS OF PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH EAST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the funding models adopted by proprietors of private universities in South 
East, Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study and two null hypotheses were tested at 
0.05 level of significance. The researcher adopted a descriptive survey research design for this 
study. The study was carried out among private universities in South East, Nigeria. The 
population for the study was one hundred and seventy six (176) respondents which comprised 80 
university management staff and 96 university finance officers. There was no sampling in this 
study. The instrument for data collection was a 24 item structured questionnaire titled “Funding 
Models Adopted by Proprietors of Private Universities Questionnaire (FMAPOPUQ)”. The 
instrument was validated by three research experts. Two of the experts were from the Department 
of Educational Management and one from the Department of Mathematics and Computer 
Education, all from Faculty of Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology 
(ESUT), Enugu. To ascertain the internal consistency of the instrument, the researcher made use 
of Cronbach Alpha statistic of testing reliability. The computation yielded the following results 
0.81 and 0.83 for clusters 1 and2 respectively. The overall reliability was 0.82 which was an 
indication that the instrument was reliable and therefore, used for data collection. Mean and 
standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the null hypotheses were 
tested using t-test statistical method at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed 
that proprietors of private universities adopt market funding model and host-proprietor-universityuser funding model to enhance the funding of private universities in South East, Nigeria to great 
extent among others. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended among others that 
market funding model should be maintained in order to improve the funding of private 
universities.