ABSTRACT
Students’ information management holds a strategic position in the effective and efficient administration of the higher education system. The growing student populace in institutions of higher learning has hastened the requirement for ICTs in order to effectively process, store and retrieve reliable information in a swift and precise manner.
The study aimed at examining the use of ICTs for students’ information management in Technical Universities (TUs) in Ghana in ways that address information security challenges and enhances the accuracy and sustainability of students’ information. The study adopted mixed-method design and used a questionnaire to collect data from 136 respondents from three selected Technical Universities staff in Ghana. Interviews were also conducted for two educational ICT providers who were purposively sampled. Analyses of data were descriptive statistics (means and standard deviation) of the quantitative data and thematic analysis of the qualitative data.
The study revealed that the three selected TUs have ICT related internal policies governing the conduct of admissions, awards of grades and records management. Also, the study revealed that the TUs use ICTs for application and admissions processes, which ensure reliable data of students’ information, registrations, fees payments, as well as the processing and reduced time spent on retrieving information. Poor ICT maintenance culture and limited financial resources were key challenges in using ICT for managing students’ information in the three TUs.
The study recommends that the TUs in Ghana must establish a state of the art, appropriate, cost-effective and adequate ICT infrastructure. Again, the management of the TUs must reinforce the automation of all institutional administration programs and
build capacities for effective and sustainable implementation of optimum ICT based on their needs. Also, the automation of students and lecturers attendance to lectures and lecturers assessment by students must be deployed in the three selected TUs.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
Students’ information management or otherwise referred to as students’ records management holds a strategic position in the effective and efficient administration of the higher education system (Gala, 2016). In effect, it is fundamental in the management of educational institutions as it documents the preparation, as well as the execution of relevant progression of services permitting appropriate monitoring of the entire educational system (Adade et al., 2018). Thus, the efficient and effective management of students’ information in higher education institutions has become one of the several challenging concerns confronting higher learning globally. As inferred by Asogwa (2013), Chinyemba, (2011) and Ngumbi (2010), the existing students’ information management traditions in some higher education institutions are not receptive to the contemporary higher education system that is symbolised by extensive technological advancement and development and thus, may not be able to launch the organisations to the full fulfilment of their intentions.
Failure to adequately address the evolving students’ information management problems impacts adversely on the development of these organizations (Bigirimana et al., 2015). Consequently, many higher education institutions have suffered in terms of monetary losses, poor academic performance, workforce discontentment, loss of students and erosion of public confidence (Chidobi, 2015).
Poor students’ information management has manifested in several ways including the failure in communiqué amongst the administrators of institutions, academic personnel, learners and other interested parties (Ngumbi, 2010). This breakdown often
results in predicaments that frequently leads to student unrests and leading to damages of to humans as well as properties that could otherwise be circumvented by the availability of accurate and timely students’ records, a product of effective integration of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) into students’ information management processes (Juma et al., 2016). As pointed out by UNESCO (2011), the expeditious growing student populace in institutions of higher learning has hastened the requirement for ICTs in order to process, store and retrieve information in a swift, logical as well as in a precise manner. The number of individuals entering institutions of higher learning in Ghana has risen dramatically in nine (9) years, just as the figure globally has moved up (UNESCO, 2017).
According to UNESCO (2017), 41,783 students were enrolled in higher education in Ghana in 2005; however, the latest data demonstrates that the number has increased to 157,626 in 2014 which indicates more than twice the figure in less than a decade. Again, as indicated by UNESCO (2017), the worldwide, enrolment in higher education has increased steadily signifying that between the year 2000 and 2014, the aggregate of learners in higher education institutions more than multiplied, rising from one hundred (100) million to two hundred and seven (207) million. The necessity to control this growing learner numbers and control their progress within the educational system demands that higher education institutions administrators turn to ICTs solutions to manage students’ information effectively. Also, the efficacy and potential of ICTs is an indication technology can afford opportunities that hitherto were not in existence a few decades ago.
Consequently, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) application in education has gained popularity in recent times which has primarily affected the way
higher learning institutions go about their activities (Sherifi, 2015). Not only in the processes of teaching and learning but also, monitoring of students’ progress. Information technology is defined as the aggregation, treating, storing or retrieval of data (Sherifi, 2015). In comprehensive terms, ICT highlights the purpose of communication in contemporary IT, in the diffusion or transmission of data from one place to the other and over a distance. As pointed out by UNESCO (2008), ICT is a term employed to define an array of hardware apparatus, computer software as well as telecommunication infrastructure that allow access, retrieval, storage, organisation, manipulation, presentation, sending of materials and communicating both domestically and internationally through digital media.
To Becta (2008), ICT characteristically denotes computer technologies, as well as other technologies employed in the gathering, storing, managing and communicating information. According to Bayangan-Cosidon (2016), ICT is a distinct array of high- tech apparatuses and resources employed to interconnect and generate, disseminate, store and regulate data. Information and Communications Technology as Chawinga & Zozie (2016) point out is crucial in enhancing efficiency and the advancement of knowledge-intensive services as well as products, which represents the primary ambition of every nation worldwide, as it offers endless success for nations (Popescu et al. 2017).
ICT has been accepted by diverse segments comprising both manufacturers as well as health to improve their day to day operations (Tay & Lim, 2013). The realm of education has been transformed by the assertive consequences of information and communication technology as well. Asogwa et al. (2015) and Iwhiwhu (2005), infer that ICT has the capacity to expedite, ameliorate, and intensify skills, stimulate and
occupy learners in pedagogy, assists in relating educational familiarities to job practices, aids in building monetary sustainability for future employees, contributes to revolutionary developments in institutions, supports instruction, and affords occasions for link between the institution and the real world. Wolfe & Fletcher (2013) infer that ICT has wide-ranging pedagogic prospects and a high likelihood of modifying the pedagogical context when it is applied judiciously.
The embracing of ICT in educational settings commences from preschool (Lupu et al., 2015) up to institutions of higher learning (Pavel, et al., 2014). Explicitly, the usage of ICT in institutions of higher learning has re-demarcated pursuits in the education process, research and data sourcing, administration of learners’ records, correspondence between academics, learners and other stakeholders in the establishments (Sapere-Obi, 2014). As Asogwa et al., (2015), puts it, the application of ICT in institutions makes the management and instruction process more amenable, less time consuming, and less costly, and thus most of the higher educational institutions including Technical Universities (TUs) in Ghana are striving to adopt the values of ICT.
Managers of universities supervise multiple operations such as accounts, personnel, students as well as taking care of the institution in general. The management of students’ activities encompasses multiple undertakings beginning from the entry processes through instructional undertakings to handling and releasing of students’ results. These managerial operations have been acknowledged to have been significantly enriched with the use of ICT. According to Obeng (2004), the amalgamation of information and communication technology into this practice
increases the entire admittance undertakings of universities by making it available to all.
Again, ICT use and use in the management of students’ academic records in TUs could become an antidote in providing practical solutions to student information management problems that otherwise would have been difficult if not impossible. ICT according to Asogwa et al. (2015) facilitates student data management. While Maguire (2005) asserts that academic institutions have adopted the use of ICT in order to cope with the volumes of information generated by organisations.
Commenting on the relevance of student information/statistics to tertiary institutions, Krishnaveni & Meenakumari (2010) infer that for pedagogical advancement, faculty, institutional planners and administrators require sufficient and reliable data of learners’ enrolment as well as students school records through the use of ICT for effective planning and management of the tertiary educational system. There is no doubt thus that the management of TUs has become more complex; consequently, student information management demands more attention (Scheuermann et al., 2009).
The massive upsurge in the number of learners in the TUs, as well as the multiplicity of programmes, has led to the management of large volumes of information that must be accessed speedily to afford information for effective management and decision- making processes (Matovu, 2009). Consequently, the use and usage of ICT for student information management in TUs has become crucial. The necessity for and significance of students’ records cannot be overemphasised (Mondal & Mete, 2012). Additionally, the fact that they ensure continuousness in the university scheme, records encompass statistics, and educational institutions need to efficiently and adequately manage student information.
Students’ information is further needed during institutional review activities in order to make a determination regarding the institution and affording the relevant suggestions for reform. Recommendations, as well as academic transcripts of graduates/learners frequently required by employers and other establishments, can only be made available through accurate information systems. It could be an exaggeration to intimate that student information management challenges are normal at the various echelons of the educational sector. Nevertheless, it is becoming evident that these issues are more prominent in the higher education system as a result of correct, consistent and dependable records that fulfill evidential demands are being generated, however, they are not appropriately handled (Bayangan-Cosidon, 2016).
This, thus, becomes a matter of great worry to governments, guardians, learners, individuals as well as organisations (Olmstead, 2013; Merkley et al., 2006). Desperate attempts in the past to advance the state of affairs in many higher education institutions through the instigation of technology and internet services in addition to the development of a database did not appear to have aided the condition much since the information management systems remains orthodoxly paper-based and labour- intensive (Gürkut & Nat, 2016).
