Abstract

The specific design was a panel study used to determine the Management Information Systems (MIS) data collection methods for university administrators’ decision-making process in South East Nigeria universities. This study was conducted in the ten public universities in South-East, Nigeria. One research question and one hypothesis guided the study. The design of the study was a survey research. The population of the study was made up of 589 university personnel consisting of Heads of Department, Deputy Registrars and Directors of Management Information Systems (MIS) / Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Units in the universities. The sample of the study was made up of 30 respondents that constituted the experts’ panel and were selected from the ten public universities in South-East Nigeria. The experts’ panel was made up of 30 experts consisting of 10 directors of Management Information Systems/Information Communication Technology, 10 academic staff and 10 administrative staff purposively selected from the 10 public universities in South-East Nigeria. Data were collected using a 10 item questionnaire developed by the researchers and titled: MIS Decision-Making Questionnaire (MISDMQ). Three experts from University of Nigeria, Nsukka validated the instrument.

The final draft of the instrument had a 4-point scale of Very Appropriate, Appropriate, Inappropriate, and Very Inappropriate. The instrument was pre-tested on 17 respondents from a public university in Kogi State, Nigeria. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha Formula. A reliability coefficient of 0.88 was obtained for the entire instrument. During the round one survey, the 10- item questionnaire was administrated to the respondents. 8 items reached the panelists consensus while 2 items could not reach the consensus based on a mean cut-off point of 3.00 and standard deviation of less than 1.00. In the round two survey, the 8 items were re-administered to the respondents, while 1 item were discarded. 7 items that reached the panelist consensus in the round two surveys were retained for data analysis while the one item on which consensus was not reached was discarded. The mean score was used to answer the research question. t-test was used to test the hypotheses. Among others it was found that 7 data collecting procedures were accepted and included in the MIS data collection methods for university administrators’ decision-making process in South East Nigeria universities. There were no significant differences between the mean responses of administrators and MIS experts regarding data collection procedures. Based on the findings of the study, one major educational implication was that the MIS has a high potential for making relevant information available for decision making process. It was recommended that universities in South-East, Nigeria should adopt the MIS data collection procedures to provide relevant information for effective and efficient management of the institutions. MIS units should organize workshops and seminars for the university administrators on how to collect relevant data/information for MIS decision-making process in the university.

Keywords: Management Information Systems (MIS), Decision-Making Process, National Universities Management Information Systems (NUMIS), Information, Information System.