ABSTRACT
Cost of education is a vital element in maintaining the standard of that education. This work assessed the cost of nursing education in Enugu state. Descriptive cross sectional survey was used and purposive sampling technique was adopted to select a sample size of 110 staff and 1036 students of the four nursing institutions in Enugu state. Data were collected between May and June 2014 using self developed 2 sets of questionnaire for staff and students and an interview guide for Principal / Head of department of the nursing institution. Four trained research assistants with the researcher administered the questionnaires to the students and staff of the schools and the researcher personally interviewed the Heads of the schools. Data analysis was done using mean, percentages and standard deviation. Major findings of the study revealed that Staff cost is determined by the number and qualifications of the staff employed (academic staff) which invariably affects the quality and standard of education. Yearly private cost of education is more( ₦268,950.47 )in private nursing institution (School of nursing Bishop Shana Nsukka) as they generate their fund internally, though the total private cost of education in university nursing institution is more (₦ 1,143,127.74) due to the fact that they spend higher number of years in school. The average teacher-student ratio in the four schools are high 1:14, some of the schools (UNTH-1:20,UNEC-1:24) with very high teacher-student ratio should employ more teachers as the few teachers are being over laboured as this will affect the standard of education, the school with low teacher-student ratio (ESUTH- 1:4) should admit more students to prevent redundancy of staff. The unit cost of education per student is determined by the number of students an institution has, hence for an institution to reduce their cost of education every effort and machineries should be in place to increase the number of students they admit. Suggestions for further study were also written.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Title page
Table of content
List of figures
List of tables
Abstract
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
Statement of problem
Objectives
Research questions
Significance of study
Scope of study
Operational definition of terms
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of cost analysis
Classification of cost of education
Opportunity cost
Total social cost of education
Unit cost of Education
Factors determining the cost of education
Importance of cost analysis
Concept of nursing education
Meaning of nursing education
History of nursing education in Nigeria
History of nursing education in Enugu state
Patterns of nursing education
Various nursing program available in Nigeria
Departments of nursing in various Nigerian universities
Reforms in nursing education
Cost analysis of nursing education
Classification of cost in nursing institution
Institutional cost
Individual cost
Theoretical framework
Conceptual model
Independent variables
Intervening variables
Dependent variables
Empirical review
summary of literature review
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODS
Study design
Area of study
Population of study
Sample
Sampling procedure
Instrument for data collection
Validity
Reliability
Ethical consideration
Procedure for data collection
Method of data analysis
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF RESULT
Demographic characteristics
Objective 1
Objective 2
Objective 3
Objective 4
Objective 5
Objective 6
Objective 7
Test of hypotheses
Summary of findings
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
Discussion of findings
Implication of study
Limitation of the study
Summary
Conclusion
Recommendations
Suggestions for further study
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
Cost is the value of resources (man, money, labour, tangible and intangible) used to produce goods or services. Cost analysis is an economic evaluation technique that involves systematic collection, categorization and analysis of a programme (Aduol, 2001). It achieves cost minimization for programme under consideration with the goal of identifying the least cost method to obtain certain level of output (Bhushan, 2004). In our elementary economics, we learnt the concept of cost as the opportunity given up. Cost in education is not only the price we pay as school fees but also what was given up to earn it. It has often been said that those who consider education expensive should try ignorance, implying that ignorance is more expensive than the price we pay to earn education. Cost analysis in education provides information on the actual cost involved in producing a graduate at any level of education and gives an insight into the pattern of educational expenditure.
Ashdown &Ross (2002) revealed the important role of education in national development as education brings about economic and non economic benefits to both individual and society. Education is an economic activity involving expenditure of resources, so it is not free. It has what accountants will describe as cost of production, no matter where it is delivered. Every level of education, from kindergarten to tertiary education and seminars, has defined cost of production and where it is commercially produced, the cost of production could include a profit element for the service providers. Without going into the ideological dialectics, human beings generally desire value for money (Akpotu, 2008). Incidentally, there is a direct correlation between the cost of production of the service and the quality, all things being equal. This is often more so when the money is coming out directly from the individual’s pocket.Oladejo (2001) posited that the knowledge of concept of cost in education is an essential tool for educational manager.
In May 2002, the Federal Government issued an order forbidding the charging of tuition fees at all 24 federal universities as these universities were contemplating charging tuition fees as a cost recovery strategy. The Government believes that it has a duty to provide qualified Nigerians with free university education. Before this presidential decree, federal universities started to charge tuition fee ranging from US$ 200-400 per semester (The Higher Education Chronicle, Tuesday May 28, 2002). The Government through the National University Commission made it mandatory for all federal universities to generate 10 percent of their total yearly funds internally through various revenue diversification means (Odebiyi & Aina , 2002). This led to introduction of tuition and other fees and they continue to increase over the years.
In schools, it is assumed that the two largest income and expenditure units are tuition and staff salaries respectively (Akangbuo, 2008). The costs associated with operating the university are continually on the rise over the years (Gibbs, 2001). This increases the cost of education but the question is ,does it increase the standard too?. Most private educational institutions in Nigeria rely solely on tuition as their main income source and they have tuition regimes that are above those of the public/government schools (Ogunlade,2009 ). Government owned schools though they are supported by government also depend on tuition to assist financially to some extent in running of schools. Government support schools financially due to the social benefit of education.
Studies have shown that expenditure on education in developing countries is a very profitable investment and that rate of return to education are higher than for physical capital investment (Psacharopoulos & Woodhall, 2005). Akpotu (2008) opined that education should enrich an individual’s knowledge and develop his potentials (that is broaden an individual horizon). He went further to say that education helps to develop the individual’s physical, intellectual, affective and social abilities to enable him undertake specific task that will improve the welfare of the society. This was in line with Tsang (2008) who postulated that important role of education in national development is widely recognized which includes economic and non economic benefits to both individual and society.
For educational institution to meet up with the cost of running programmes, they are left with few options which affect the total cost of education: that is either escalate the number of students admitted to increase revenue to reduce the cost or keep expenditure to a minimum, which for the most part relates to two areas – staff costs, and infrastructure. Akpotu (2008) carried out a study to determine the social cost analysis of secondary education in south west Nigeria. It was discovered that teacher- student ratio has an inverse relationship with the unit cost per student, that schools with high teacher- student ratio recorded low unit cost while those with high unit cost invariably had low teacher- student ratio. It was suggested that increment of students enrolment will enable attainment of minimum unit cost. To increase income essentially means increasing the number of students , increasing tuition fees and reducing the number and quality of staff (academic and non academic) which invariably reduces the overall educational cost – an approach that has only one possible outcome, reduced quality (Ostwald & Willams, 2007).
The cost of nursing education ranges from fairly inexpensive to moderately expensive programme depending on the type of school (Chan & Wong 1999). What is considered as cost in education includes institutional cost (which includes fixed cost and variable cost) and individual or private cost (which are fee and non-fee cost). For institutions to meet up with the standard of.....
For more Nursing Science Projects click here
================================================================
Item Type: Project Material | Attribute: 96 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Price: N3,000 | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment