Abstract: This study examined the influence of age, ownership and type of university on resource situation in Nigerian universities.

A descriptive survey design was used in the study. Data were collected from 900 academic staff using stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques. The data were analysed using frequency counts, percentages, means, standard deviation and t-test statistics. The three hypotheses generated were tested at . It was recommended that the proprietors of state and third generation universities should improve the resource situations in their universities in order to make them compete favourably with federal and first generation universities.

Key words: Age, Nigerian Universities, academic staff, ownership

INTRODUCTION
The strategic position occupies by university in national development cannot be over emphasized. Universities whether privately or publicity owned, specialized or conventional, federal or state operate with the aim of achieving the objectives of training high-level manpower for the various sectors of the economy and also engaging in teaching and research all aims at ensuring development at every level of human interaction. It is also expected of the university to explore solutions to the country s problems and assist the larger society to achieve its objectives in the areas of human, social and economic development (Ogbodo and Nwaoku, 2007).

However, as important as the role of university in any nation s development, it seems as if universities in Nigeria are not living up to expectation in performing these nobles roles due to poor resource situation which appear to be confronting them. Resources
constitute a wide and all embracing concept. Areola (1982), Oni (1995), Levaicic (1995) and Faniran (1997) have all grappled with the task of attempting a definition of resources. They all seem to agree

that resources are entities existing within man s environment that can be applied or used to satisfy human needs, wants and sustain human existence.

From Adeola (2005) point of view, resources are considered from three perspectives as a means of satisfying some wants or deficiency, as a stock or reserve (fixed or otherwise) from which one can draw its own support, and also as a collective means, possessed by a country as a form of natural endowment to be used for its own support or defence. Oni (1992) and Akomolafe (2005) also opined that resources are those inputs that go into the running and operation

93 European Journal of Educational Studies 2(2), 2010

of any enterprise. In the same vein, Adebayo (2000) and Akinwumi (2001) while emphasizing the place of resources in educational development submitted that steady provision and condition of resources will largely guarantee an effective operation of the educational system.

According to Olagboye (2004), resources can be classified into physical, material and human resources and also social amenities. The physical resources are office accommodation, lecture rooms, libraries, laboratories, resource centres, common room, workshop among others, while material resources comprise current books and journals in the library, stationeries, computers, internet facilities, furniture, laboratory apparatus among others. Human resources consist of staff in the organisation. Social amenities comprise good road networks, portable water, regular and stable electricity. The condition of these resources according to Olagboye goes a long way in facilitating and stimulating any educational programme.

Resource situation on the other hand basically is the availability and quality of the available resources (Akinfolarin,

2007). It can also be described as a condition or the state of affairs of the allotted resources in an institution, especially at a certain time (Julius, 1989). The resource situation entails whether essential educational resources are available and also suitable for organisational activities.

It has been observed over the years that the factors of age, ownership and type of universities appear to influence resource situation in Nigerian universities. Age refers to the

year of establishment of a particular university. For instance, Nigerian universities have been classified into first, second and third generation universities. First generation universities are universities established in the 40s, and 60s in Nigeria and they are six in number. The six universities constitute Nigeria s first generation universities. Second generation universities are universities established in the 70s and third generation universities are the universities established in the 80s, and majority of these universities are owned by state government (Okebukola, 1998).

Basically age is related to the historical development of any university and the prevailing economic situation in the country at the period of establishing these universities. For instance, most of the first and second generation universities in Nigeria were established during the oil boom era in Nigeria (Shehu, 2005). The buoyant economy possibly translated to adequate funding with corresponding positive impact on resource situation of these universities. This appears to make these universities better in terms of resource situation than the third generation universities that were established in the early 1980s when the economy became moribund and hence, no enough fund to make adequate provisions for the resources needed by these universities (Saint and Harnett, 2003).

Yann (2002) further buttressed how university age affe cts academic staff job performance by opined that most state universities, established in the early 1980s when the economy became moribund were the first in Nigeria to disappear from the research scene as a result of financial constraints, and oper ating today as second class teaching institutions with the exception of one or two. According to him, most of

these universities h ave been cut off from international networks, scholars from these universities were forced to seek individually for alternati ve resources, or to withdraw from all research activities.

Ownership is related to the issue of funding and control of the Nigerian University system by their proprietors. Funding appears very crucial for conducive resource situation in the university sys tem. This is premised on the understanding that with adequate funding, more facilities can be provided in the university system. In Nigeria, the current practice of political federalism without fiscal federalism, places the federal government at an advantage over the various states in the federation. This development according to Oke (2001) and Awe (2009) has made the revenue allocation formula to be positively skewed in favour of the federal government, thus creating disparity in the level of funding of both federal and state universities in Nigeria. It therefore appears as if universities owned by the federal government has better resource situation than the ones owned by the state government due to the seemingly financial advantage of federal universities over state universities. It also seems as if specialized universities are better off in terms of resource situation than the conventional universities as a result of higher operational cost of specialized universities.

The shift in attention towards technological advancement in Nigeria witnessed the establishment of specialized universities, such as universities of science and technology and universities of agriculture. It is observed that specialized universities are more capital intensive than the conventional universities. This may be due to equipment and facilities that must be on ground before the universities can take off properly. Thus, it is likely that the priority accorded specialized universities could facilitate allocation of more resources to it, a development which may likely translate or lead to better resource situation. This is therefore to say that type of university may determine the situation of resources in a given university.

Conventional universities on the other hand are traditional universities that offer multidisciplinary courses in arts, social sciences, law, medicine, science among others. These universities are patterned after the British universities and most of the

third generation universities fall into this category (Awe, 2009). The common feature of specialized universities is that they are expensive in nature due to capital expenditure on the equipment for training and research purpose (Aminu, 1986 and Oke, 2001)It therefore appears that there is disparity between universities in terms of resource situation as a result of some factors. Against this backdrop, this paper investigated
the influence of age and type of universities on resource situation in Nigerian universities.

At first stage, the universities were stratified along the variables of type and ownership, six universities were randomly selected; this comprised 4 conventional universities (2 state and 2 federal) and 2 specialised universities (1 state and 1 federal). The 4 conventional universities included in the sample are first generation universities and third generation universities respectively, while the 2 specialised universities are third generation universities..

DISCUSSION

The result of hypothesis 1 showed that there was significant difference in the resource situation of state and federal universities. The federal universities had the higher mean score. This means they have better resource situation than the state universities. This might not be unconnected with the fact that the federal universities are better funded by the federal government, unlike the state universities whose fortune are tied to the subvention from state governments that are dependant on statutory allocation from the federal government.

This then implies that because federal universities have financial advantage over state universities, they are most likely to have better resource situation in terms of availability and quality of physical, material and human resources and social amenities. The finding of this study supports Oke (2001) and Awe (2009) on the poor funding of state universities in Nigeria which has invariably cumulated to poor resource situation in many of these universities.

The result of hypothesis 2 revealed that there was significant difference between first and third generation universities in terms of resource situation. The first generation universities have higher mean score which means they have better resource situation than the third generation universities. This might not be unconnected with the prevailing economic situation at the period of establishment of these universities. For instance, first generation universities were established during the oil-boom era of 1960s and they were only six in number, so they got the necessary assistance from the government in terms of federal government provision of essential facilities for them. However, the third generation universities c ame on board during the period of economic crunch in the country and with an increasing number of universities to compete for the available funds. The historical origin of first generation universities confers instant financial advantage on them and this translates to better resource situation for them.

This then implies that because many of the third generation universities were unfortunate to be established when the economy is moribund, adequate provision of essential resources for these universities might have been put in jeopardy and hence, the reason for poor resource situation which is prevalent in many of the third generation universities in Nigeria. This finding corroborates the work of Saint and Harnnet (2003), and Shehu (2005) that many of the third generation universities were established during economic depression in Nigeria, and hence their owners could not make adequate provision for the resource needed by them to operate effectively.

The finding of this study implies that all essential facilities or resources to boost academic activities must be on ground before effectiveness can be achieved in any university, whether it is specialized or conventional university because no university comes cheap. This finding supports that of Aminu (1986) and Saint (2003) that despite the fact that specialized universities need a viable or conducive resource situation before it can function effectively, not much difference exists between them and conventional universities in terms of provision of conducive resource situation.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Age of university made a difference in resource situation of Nigerian Universities while the It is therefore recommended that the owners or proprietors of state and third generation universities should look into the existing disparity between first and third generation universities in terms of resource situation and adequately addressed it as an urgent matter or issue so that the state and third generation universities can compete favourably with the federal and first generation universities in terms of conducive resource situation.

This can be done by committing more funds to the provision of physical, material and human resources and even social amenities for many of the state and third generation universities. Stakeholders in education such as parents, corporate organizations and individuals can be sensitized to join forces with government to provide some of these needed resources on our campuses, since government may not be able to bear the burden of creating a better resource situation in Nigerian universities all alone.

Also, adequate considerations must be given to both the conventional and specialized universities by their owners in terms of improving their resource situation by making adequate provision for physical, material and human resources and social amenities in right quantity and quality. This becomes necessary in view of the fact that resource situations of the two universities are not conducive.

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