Influence of Stable Institutional Policies On Educational Planning Practices of Public Universities in Rivers State (Published)
This study examined the influence of stable institutional policies on educational planning practices of public universities in Rivers State, Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population comprised 4,531 academic staff from three public universities: University of Port Harcourt (1,416), Rivers State University (1,603), and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (1,512). A sample of 453 academic staff representing 10% of the population was selected through stratified random sampling. Data were collected using the Institutional Policy Stability and Educational Planning Practices Questionnaire (IPSEPPQ), a self-structured instrument validated by experts and tested for reliability yielding a coefficient of 0.86. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions, while simple regression and independent t-test were used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Results revealed that stable institutional policies influence educational planning practices to a high extent (Grand Mean = 3.09). A statistically significant positive relationship was found between institutional policy stability and educational planning practices (r = 0.62, r² = 0.38, F-cal. = 168.45 > F-crit. = 3.84). No significant difference was found between federal and state universities in their perception of the influence of stable institutional policies on educational planning practices (t-cal = 1.45 < t-crit = 1.96). The study recommended that university management should entrench long-term policy frameworks that resist arbitrary changes and that both federal and state governments should institutionalise mechanisms that guarantee policy continuity in public universities.
Keywords: Federal Universities, Public Universities, Rivers State, Stable institutional policies, State Universities, educational planning practices, policy consistency