Perceptions on Falling Standard and Decline Inquality of Federal Universities in Northwest Zone, Nigeria

The importance of education to the development of any nation needs not to be overemphasized, and so, falling standard and decline in quality of Education has become the public outcry. Dough, this problem not only in Federal Universities of Northwest Zone Nigerian but across the six Nigerian geopolitical zones is a relative term. The study adopts descriptive survey design using the students and lecturers of Federal Universities of Northwest Zone as the population of the study. Stratified random sampling technique was used to draw Four hundred respondents from the four selected Universities as the Sample used for the Study. A self-made questionnaire entitled Questionnaire on perceptions on falling standard and decline in quality of federal Universities in Northwest zone, Nigeriawas used to collect data from 400 respondents from the four selected Universities based on Krejcie and Morgan 1970 table of sample size. The research instrument was subjected to scrutiny by research experts in Bayero University Kano and Northwest University, Kano in order to establish its validity. The instrument was subjected to Cronbacts Alpha Reliability test and the reliability coefficient was found to be 0.85. The data collected was analyzed using, mean (x), t-test, and ANOVA statistical tools. This study discovered that the Standard of Federal Universities in Northwest Zone of Nigeria has not fallen but the quality is declining gradually. Also, the characteristics, causes, and the economic implications of this decline in Quality of Federal Universities in Northwest Zone Nigeria were discovered. Finally, recommendations were made to improve the quality of Federal University systems not only in Northwest zone but in Nigeria at large.