USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY FOR STUDENTS’ INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITIES IN GHANA

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.