A Comparative Study of Students’ Access to and Utilization of Learning Resources in Selected Public and Private Universities in Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated students’ access to and utilization of some learning resources in selected public and private universities in southwest Nigeria. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 585 (295 public and 290 private) students from 12 (six public and six private) universities in southwest Nigeria. Two instruments-Cost and Quality of University Education Questionnaire (CQUEQS) with a reliability coefficient of 0, 87 and Availability of Learning Resources Observation Schedule (ALROS) which had been used in a previous study-were used to collect data for the study. Frequency counts and simple percentages were used to analyse the data while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed a significant difference between public and private universities in terms of access to learning resources while there was no significant difference between public and private universities in the utilization of some learning resources. It was recommended that public universities should endeavour to provide more learning resources in their institutions while university authorities should ensure that learning resources that are provided are adequately utilised by students.

Keywords: Accessibility, utilization, learning resources, public and private  universities, southwest Nigeria.