Educational - Ozean Publications

European Journal of Educational Studies 2(2), 2010Table 3: t-test summary of resource situation in conventional and specialized universitiesItem N Mean SD df t cal t tabConventional universities 607 105.14 19.04Specialized universities 293 105.75 16.86 898 0.471 1.960P < 0.05Table 3 shows that t-calculated (0.471) is less than t-table (1.960). The null hypothesis is not rejected. Therefore,there is no significant difference between conventional universities and specialized universities in terms of resourcesituation.DISCUSSIONThe result of hypothesis 1 showed that there was significant difference in the resource situation of state and federaluniversities. The federal universities had the higher mean score. This means they have better resource situation thanthe state universities. This might not be unconnected with the fact that the federal universities are better funded bythe federal government, unlike the state universities whose fortune are tied to the subvention from state governmentsthat are dependant on statutory allocation from the federal government.This then implies that because federal universities have financial advantage over state universities, they are mostlikely to have better resource situation in terms of availability and quality of physical, material and human resourcesand social amenities. The finding of this study supports Oke (2001) and Awe (2009) on the poor funding of stateuniversities in Nigeria which has invariably cumulated to poor resource situation in many of these universities.The result of hypothesis 2 revealed that there was significant difference between first and third generationuniversities in terms of resource situation. The first generation universities have higher mean score which means theyhave better resource situation than the third generation universities. This might not be unconnected with theprevailing economic situation at the period of establishment of these universities. For instance, first generationuniversities were established during the oil-boom era of 1960s and they were only six in number, so they got thenecessary assistance from the government in terms of federal government provision of essential facilities for them.However, the third generation universities came on board during the period of economic crunch in the country andwith an increasing number of universities to compete for the available funds. The historical origin of first generationuniversities confers instant financial advantage on them and this translates to better resource situation for them.This then implies that because many of the third generation universities were unfortunate to be established when theeconomy is moribund, adequate provision of essential resources for these universities might have been put injeopardy and hence, the reason for poor resource situation which is prevalent in many of the third generationuniversities in Nigeria. This finding corroborates the work of Saint and Harnnet (2003), and Shehu (2005) that manyof the third generation universities were established during economic depression in Nigeria, and hence their ownerscould not make adequate provision for the resource needed by them to operate effectively.The result of hypothesis 3 showed that there was no significant difference in the resource situation betweenconventional universities and specialized universities. This might not be unconnected with the fact that the structureand ownership pattern in both universities are the same. It is equally observed that many specialized universities arerun like conventional universities by their respective owners in terms of resource provision without taking intocognizance or consideration the fact that specialized universities; are capital intensive in nature than conventionaluniversities, by this, a lot of funds is required to be committed to the provision of essential facilities for its operation.The finding of this study implies that all essential facilities or resources to boost academic activities must be onground before effectiveness can be achieved in any university, whether it is specialized or conventional universitybecause no university comes cheap. This finding supports that of Aminu (1986) and Saint (2003) that despite the fact97