Higher Education Stakeholders' Real-Life Experiences with Nigeria's Internal Quality

Assurance System

1.0Introduction

In most nations, a university's three primary missions are to educate students, conduct research,
and provide community service (Albert, 2010:490; Jaishi, 2020:5; Singai, 2021:7). As a result,
academics, the institution, and society all gain from the quality of research conducted at a
university. There is little doubt that the ability of scholars to advance in their professions is
greatly impacted by it. For the next generation of scholars, this is an opportunity to learn about
systematic research and critical reflection as a means of expanding one's own body of
knowledge. Research outputs published in academic journals and publications are used to rank
institutions around the world. The majority of countries' industrial and technological
advancement is built on university-led research and development.

The university's teaching and community outreach missions both benefit from research.
Professors' involvement in research, according to Grant and Wakeline (2009:138; Hua, 2009:5;
Saketa, 2014:190; Tight, 2016:293), not only adds to the body of knowledge, but also improves
the quality of the professors' instruction. The findings of Saketa's study on the higher education
system show that teaching and learning are inseparable from research and publication, which
considerably improves tuition in any school. It has been previously described as beneficial
(Brennan, Cusack, Delahunt & Kuznesof & Donnelly, 2019:306; Visser-Wijnveen, Van Driel...
and Verloop and Visser-Wijnveen, 2010:195; McKinley, Mcintosh... and Milligan, 2021:1037;
McKinley and Mcintosh, 2021:1037), but it is dependent on the university's research or teaching
intensity. A recent study found that academics who put in more time and effort into their studies
are better able to give back to their communities.

1.1 Problem Statement

Teaching and research have been considered as two of the most important responsibilities of
Nigerian universities, but neither is given the attention they deserve in the name of quality
assurance. Academics and institutions carry the major duty for assuring the quality of their
offerings, which lies squarely on their shoulders. Research output at Nigerian universities suffers
from systematic flaws in internal systems for ensuring the quality of university research
(CNAPUN, 2012: 399; Yusuf, 2012:323). The quality of research conducted by universities has
a significant impact on their ability to contribute to social and economic growth, as well as on
their ability to train the next generation of scholars. Consequently, the quality of university
research must be improved. It is for this reason that the Nigerian universities have been urged by
NUC to develop IQA units as one of the primary issues facing its QA responsibility (Agbaoye,
2014:288; Mafiana, 2014:120; Saliu, 2014:271). It appears that many colleges have not
implemented this and there is no statistics on the amount of compliance that can be found. In
certain universities, quality assurance (QA) units have been established to focus on teaching,
despite the fact that IQA activities are expected to include requirements for both teaching and
research (Saliu, 2018:44). IQA is similarly unguided at Nigerian universities (Nigerian
Universities Quality Assurance Network, NUQAN, 2018:6). Nigeria's academic institutions, on
the other hand, are lagging behind when it comes to research production and citations (Afolabi;
Popoola; Adoghe; Atayero & Fayomi, 2019:154-5; Times Higher Education, 2019). It has been
shown that the relationship between a person's socioeconomic status and the likelihood of being
incarcerated is strongly related to the likelihood of being incarcerated for drug-related offenses.
If this is the case, poor IQA procedures at Nigerian universities may be to blame. A study of
Nigeria's research system concluded that the country lacks effective funding and administration
of research, as well as processes for determining the quality of the research that is conducted
(Fosci et al., 2019:12). The findings of this investigation will be used to investigate and evaluate
the IQA practices and research outputs of Nigerian universities. As a result, the IQA of
university research will be improved, as an example for other institutions.

1.2Purpose of the study

Using phenomenological methods and the concerns detailed in the problem statement,
researchers set out to learn how Nigerian higher education stakeholders felt about the idea of
implementing an external quality certification system. So that quality assurance talks and related
policy decisions may have a greater impact on how the system is implemented, this was done to
better understand how the system was being implemented.

1.3Objectives

To achieve the purpose of the study, the interrelated objectives of the study were;
  identify the IQA policies and structures available in Nigerian universities to improve their
research outputs.
 examine how Nigerian universities use IQA practices to improve their research outputs
 describe how EQA mechanisms influence Nigerian universities’ IQA practices to
improve their research outputs.
 compare the IQA practices for improving research outputs, the EQA influences and
constraints on the basis of universities’ performance levels.

1.4 Research Questions

 In Nigerian universities, what IQA policies and processes are in place to increase
research outputs?
 How can Nigerian institutions increase their research outputs through IQA practices?
 What impact do EQA mechanisms have on the IQA practices of Nigerian universities in
order to enhance their research outputs?
 What are some of the barriers to Nigerian institutions' IQA processes that assist research
output improvement?

1.5 Significance of the Study

Nigerian institutions' poor research performance prompted this study to propose an IQA
paradigm that could improve university research. Academics are expected to benefit from this
study's findings since they can be used to improve postgraduate students' research quality. They
could assist in the development of methodologies for assessing and diagnosing research hurdles
in university faculties and departments. Universities' administrators, IQA Directors, and research
managers may benefit from the development of a helpful approach for assessing research
transformation and research quality assurance activities. Policymakers in Nigeria may be able to
draw from these findings a path for the establishment of policies that include research inputs,
processes and outputs into the quality assurance system. These initiatives could help Nigerian
universities' research to be more effective and contribute more to both national and global
progress.