VALUES RE-ORIENTATION FOR PREVENTION OF ACADEMIC CORRUPTION AMONG LECTURERS IN UNIVERSITIES IN BAYELSA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated values re-orientation for prevention of academic corruption in universities in Bayelsa State. There were four research questions raised and four corresponding hypotheses tested in the study. Design used for the study was descriptive survey. Population of the study comprised all the 1,082 academic staff (871 males and 211 females) in two public universities in Bayelsa State out of which 542 lecturers consisting of 436 males and 106 females were randomly selected as sample for the study using 50% of subjects at each stage of the sampling. Instrument adopted for the study was a 22-items questionnaire that was validated and titled “Values Re-Orientation for Prevention of Academic Corruption Questionnaire”(VROPACQ). The instrument was validated by two experts in Educational Management, Niger Delta University and reliability of the instrument was 0.89 using Cronbach alpha statistic.
Research questions raised were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using z-test at 0.05 level of signicance. The ndings of the study indicated that the male and female lecturers disagreed on the forms of academic corruption existent among lecturers in universities in Bayelsa State. It was revealed that they however agreed on the causes of these academic corruptions, ethical values exhibited by these lecturers and the strategies for value reorientation to prevent academic corruption in these universities. It was recommended that government should make legislations to reward and punish good and bad
value systems among lecturers as a way of improving on value system of lecturers in universities in Bayelsa State.