INSTITUTIONAL LEADERSHIP FOR EFFECTIVE ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIA

Abstract

The study explored institutional leadership for effective administration of universities in South-South Nigeria. Three research questions and corresponding null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted a descriptive research design with a targeted population of 3000 which comprised of Vice Chancellors, Deans and Heads of Departments of universities in south-south Nigeria. The sample for this study was made up of respondents 450 which represents 15% of the entire population. The instrument for the study was a 20-iteme structured questionnaire title institutional leadership for effective administration of tertiary 
institution questionnaire (ILEATIQ) and was patterned on a 4-point likert scale of strongly agree (4), agreed (3), disagree (2) and strongly disagreed (1). The Cronbach's Alpha statistic was used, which indicated a reliability index of 0.87, showing that the questionnaire items were consistent and reliable for the study. Mean and standard deviation statistics was used to answer the research questions, while t-test inferential statistics was used to test the formulated null hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Statistical analysis was done using the statistical package for social science, SPSS version 23. The result of the study identified skills needed by institutional leaders to be effective in the system, the respondents agreed that those skills identified had positive impact in 
effective administration of public universities. Furthermore, the respondents agreed that the challenges for effective institutional leadership include; lack of funds, insufficient school plant, increase in students‘ population, examination malpractice etc. The study however concludes that for efficiency and effectiveness in the university system, leaders should possess essential institutional leadership skills. The study recommended amongst others that leaders of universities should have periodic training and retraining on institutional leadership skills and that the identified issues that hinders the effective management of schools should be handled 
appropriately.