MODES OF ADMISSION AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: A SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AT NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY AWKA

Abstract

Educational programmes need periodical assessment to ensure that the long-term goals that necessitated its introduction are met. Modes of entry into Nigerian universities are no exception. In the quest to ascertain the entry mode that has yielded better academic performance of graduates, a study on modes of admission and students’ academic performance; a situational analysis of English Department in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka became imminent. Therefore, the study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses. It was a descriptive research design of ex-post facto type. The study covered eight academic sessions, four years before the introduction of post-UTME from 2001-2005 and four years after the introduction of post-UTME from 2005-2009.The sample was 694 UTME only and 232 Post-UTME students making the total of 926 drawn from the department following the admission and registration lists of those who were admitted through UTME only and those admitted through UTME/ post-UTME respectively. Two instruments were used for data collection which included: Admission list and student’s academic records. Mean statistics was used to analyze the research questions while the null hypotheses were tested using z-test. The findings revealed the following:(i) the academic performance of graduates admitted through UTME/post-UTME from 2005-2009 was higher than graduates admitted through UTME only from 2001-2005.(ii)there is no difference in academic performance of male and female English graduates admitted either through UTME only or through UTME/post-UTME. Based on the findings, the study recommended, among others that (i) Federal government and NUC should mandate every Nigerian universities to conduct post-UTME screening exercise for its obvious reasons(ii) Curriculum planners/expert should work with individual universities to ensure that the content of post-UTME screening test is in line with the admission seekers choice of course.