Assessment of Material Resource Management Practices On Administration of Public Universities in South-South, Nigeria

The study investigated assessment of material resource management practices on administration of public universities in South-South, Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The design adopted for the study was descriptive survey design. The population was 11,174 staff from four public universities in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States South-South, Nigeria. A sample size of 559 staff was used were selected for the study. The sample was selected using a multi-stage sampling procedure technique. The instrument for data collection was researchers-structured questionnaire titled “Material Resource Management Practices and Administration Questionnaire (MRMPAQ)”. The questionnaire was validated by three experts in Faculty of Education Benue State University, Makurdi. A reliability test of the instrument was conducted on 30 staff from University of Calabar, Nigeria, using Cronbach Alpha. The result yielded a value index of 0.92 was obtained using Cronbach alpha reliability test. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. Chi-square test of goodness of fit was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that material resource planning and purchasing practices have positive significant impact on administration of public universities in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States South-South, Nigeria. The study concluded that material resource management practices have improved administration of public universities. The study recommended that public university administrators in Nigeria should ensure regular and proper material resources management focused on planning and purchasing of material resources in their universities in order to enhance administration of public universities in Nigeria. Keywords: Material resource management, planning, purchasing, administration of public universities