LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF STUDENTS’ MANAGEMENT AND EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN RIVERS STATE

The study was carried out to investigate legal framework of students’ management as a predictor of effective management of higher education in Rivers State. The study adopted correlational research design.  The population of the study was 1,666 academic staff in the six public tertiary education institutions in Rivers State. The distribution of population was:  University of Port Harcourt 550, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education 350, Rivers State University 330, Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic 208, Ken Benson Saro Wiwa Polytechnic Bori 120, and Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas Bonny 108. The sample of the study was 330 academic staff in the six public tertiary institutions in Rivers State. The sample is comprised of 220 male lecturers and 110 female lecturers representing 20% of the population. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select the sample size as follows: University of Port Harcourt 109, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education 70, Rivers State University 65, Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic 42, Ken Benson Saro Wiwa Polytechnic Bori 24, and Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas Bonny 20. The instruments used for data collection in this study were self-structured questionnaire titled: Legal Framework for Students Management Questionnaire (LFSMQ), and Effective Management of Higher Education Questionnaire (EMHEQ). These instruments were validated by two experts from the Department of Educational Management of Rivers State University. Cronbach Alpha method was used to determine the reliability index of 0.78 and 0.66 for LFSMQ and EMHEQ respectively. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to answer the research questions, while Multiple Regression was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was found out that that legal framework on students’ admission procedures, and discipline  predicted effective management of higher education in Rivers State. Each of these dimensions had significant relationship with and predicted effective management of higher education in Rivers State. On account of these findings, it was recommended that providing a legal framework for management of students on admission procedures, and discipline will enhance effective management of higher education in Rivers State.