ABSTRACT
The general purpose of the study was to assess the implementation of sandwich programmes in federal and state universities in North-Central states of Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and was guided by six research questions and six null hypotheses. The population of the study is 919 which is made up of academic staff members, directors and deputy directors of academic planning and fourth year sandwich students in the federal and state universities in the North-Central states. As a result of the manageable size of the population, there was no sampling. Data for the study was collected by the researcher and five trained research assistants using a validated and self-developed questionnaire, observation rating scale and oral interview which proved reliable after they were subjected to reliability test. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data collected to provide answers to the six research questions whereas the six null hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The following findings emerged after the data analysis; the federal and state universities in the North-Central states of Nigeria to a great extent adhered to NUC guidelines on planning, funding, recruitment of personnel for sandwich programmes among others. However, these universities to a little extent adhered to the NUC guidelines on provision of physical facilities and equipment for sandwich programmes. The null hypotheses tested indicated that there is no significant difference in the mean scores of federal and state universities in the North-Central states on the extent federal and state universities adhered to NUC guidelines on planning, personnel recruitment, admission and communication for sandwich programmes. Given the research findings, the following recommendations were made: the federal and state universities should develop mechanisms to identify from time to time areas of challenges regarding implementation of sandwich programmes in line with the NUC guidelines and make same known to NUC and other stakeholders for proper policy formulation for sandwich programmes; more attention and considerations should be given to the provision of physical facilities and equipment for the efficient running of sandwich programmes in universities; the admission policies and modes should as well be regularly revisited to espouse better ways of ensuring admissions into sandwich programmes that is more efficient and based more on merit for fairness and equity among others.
