ETHICAL ISSUES INTERFERENCE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examines ethical issues interference in the management of public universities in Benue State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study and the population of the study comprise of 2500 representing 1200 academics and 1300 non-academic staff of the public universities in Benue State. The sample comprised of 500(240 academic and 260 non-academic) representing 20% of the total population. A researcher structured 10-item questionnaire titled “Ethical Issues interference and Management of Public Universities Questionnaire (EIIMPUQ)” was used for data collection. The instrument for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire. The instrument was validated and a reliability coefficient of 0.84 was obtained using Cronbach Alpha. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions and the null hypotheses were tested using t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that ethical interference has an influence in the management of public universities in Benue State in the area of appointment of administrative heads to a great extent. The study concluded that ethical issues interference and management is complex. It was recommended that the academic and non-academic staff should note that university is citadel of knowledge where individuals are entrenched with skills, knowledge and capacity to nurture and develop potentials and should be void of personal interest, nepotism, favoritism, corruption and compromise of academic integrity and Heads of unit should be involved in the recruitment process