Academic Climate and Goal Achievement in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria as Correlates of Administrators’ Managerial Philosophy

Abstract

This study tried to investigate, the relationship between administrators’ managerial philosophy, academic climate, and the academic goal achievement of students in Nigerian tertiary institutions. The study adopts a correlational survey design.  The population consists of all the head of departments, teachers and students of selected tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The stratified random sampling technique was used to select 15 tertiary institutions in the southern part of Nigeria. The sex served by the institution and the location formed the strata.  The vice-chancellor (administrator) and ten lecturers from each institution were used.  The ten teachers (lecturers) were chosen based on seniority from among those who have spent at least five years in the school. The result of the examination for 2012 academic session was also collected from each institution sampled. Two instruments used for the study were: Administrators Managerial philosophy Questionnaire (AMPQ) and Teachers Perception of Academic climate Questionnaire (TPACQ). The AMPQ was administered on both the Administrators and teachers while the TPACQ was administered on the teachers only. The instruments were given construct validity by relating contents to specific variables of the study and the contents were also face-validated, by experts in the field. The instruments were tested for reliability through the test-re-test method.  The coefficient of correlation of the tests was 0.86.Data were collected and analyzed descriptively using correlation, analysis. The result of the study showed, among other things, that there was a significant relationship between administrators’ managerial philosophy and academic climate, and there, was also significant relationshipbetween academic climate, and academic goal achievement of students in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Based on these, it is recommended that the State should encourage the administrators to attend work-shops and conferences on personnel management to enable them acquire greater and better skills of manpower management There is need to motivate the administrators of schools to constantly reappraise themselves viz-a-viz their managerial philosophy, their academic climate and the level of academic goal achievement with a view to improving performance.