TERTIARY EDUCATION TRUST FUND INTERVENTION PROJECTS AND RESOURCE UTILIZATION IN UNIVERSITIES: PLANNING FOR IMPROVEMENT

This study examined the influence of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETF) intervention projects and resource utilization in universities in South Western State of Nigeria. The paper relates to funding and utilization of physical resources in universities in aspects of educational planning and administration. The study was a descriptive design of the correlation type. Purposive sampling technique was used to select six out of 14 beneficiary universities in the States. Instruments used to collect data were “TETF Intervention Projects Checklist” (TETFIPC), “Educational Facilities Checklists” (EFC) and “Resources Utilization Checklists” (RUC). The research questions raised were answered using percentage and utilization rates, while Pearson product-moment correlation statistic was used to test the hypotheses formulated to guide the study at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study indicated that building construction had the highest TETF allocation (64.5%), while staff development opportunities had the least (1.1%) in the sampled universities. Significant and positive relationship existed between time and space utilization rates and student academic performance in the universities (r (1,800) =0.63 and r (1,800) =0.59, p≤0.05 respectively). Based on these findings, it was recommended that TETF should provide more funds to Nigerian universities as well as periodic evaluation of completed TETF projects and utilization to ensure that TETF funds are properly used for the approved projects. Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETF) should improve on the provision of educational facilities to universities for staff and students’ use through increase in education tax from 2% to 4%. For better funding, for collaboration is needed with the World Bank and other funding agencies as being practiced in other countries such as Norway, Spain, and United Kingdom.