FACTORS AFFECTING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MAINTENANCE IN POSTGRADUATE HOSTELS IN HIGHLY RANKED NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

This paper examined factors affecting efficient maintenance of postgraduate hostels in highly ranked Nigerian Universities. The study population consists of selected top-ranked universities in south-western Nigeria according to times higher education ranking year 2020 namely: Covenant University, University of Ibadan and University of Lagos. The sample size was made up of 120 students, 40 selected from each institution based on convenient sampling techniques. A well self-structured questionnaire was administered as an instrument to collect relevant data appropriate for the survey. Out of the 120 questionnaires distributed, the entire 120 were retrieved. The aim of this paper is to determine the major factors that affect efficient maintenance in Postgraduate hostels. The study which is a survey collated data that were analyzed using descriptive statistics on an excel spreadsheet with the aid of the SPSS software. The findings showed that response time is a major factor that affects efficient maintenance in the hostels which could affect students comfort. The study recommends that the universities should create a special facility management office in each of the postgraduate halls of resident’s order than the existing facility management team and employ facility management professionals. That way, students will conveniently have easy access to the team so as to lay their complaints. The university management should also create an electronic customer service platform for laying down complaints and collecting feedback for progress of work done, while evaluation of Student’s occupancy should be a routine exercise.


Introduction
Facility maintenance is very significant for long term preservation and infrastructural survival in any given university environment. Generally, 80% of assets like class tables, chairs, air conditioners, toilet facilities and wardrobes amongst others owned by well-established institutions (Universities) represent facilities, [1].
Tertiary institutions are usually considered as a number one priority to individual and societal aspirations [2]. Our immediate society is of the opinion that tertiary institutions are the training hub to develop the minds of the future industry stakeholders. The maintenance of higher institutions should therefore be given utmost consideration for basic improvements and student's welfare. Maintenance is also paramount for long life span of any given structure. [3] asserted that lack of proper maintenance causes the structure to deteriorate or become obsolete faster than it ought to. This however should not be an option in any tertiary institution considering the general believe of the society about universities. Furthermore, poor maintenance of facilities has negative effects on the general performances of students, [4]. The conducive environment, accommodation and satisfaction level of students residing in hostels has been studied by various researchers over the years. These studies has revealed that good facilities and proper hostel conditions have positive influence on students enrolment [5]. However, satisfaction level of students cannot be positive if the structure and facilities are not  [6] student's accommodation in Nigeria has not been given much attention by both the government and management of tertiary institutions. Student's need comfortable accommodations in an environment that is well conducive with good facilities to enable them carry out their primary function in their various institutions as expected. However, this has proven otherwise as recent studies have revealed facility deficiencies and dissatisfaction amongst students in Nigerian universities, [7]. It is therefore necessary for the management team in tertiary institutions to frequently and adequately maintain the facilities to improve student's wellbeing as well as their performances. Numerous works have been done with respect to factors that affect efficient maintenance of buildings. One of such works can be seen in the study carried out by [8] on establishing factors influencing building maintenance practices from Ghanaian perspective which revealed that inadequate funding, use of unskilled laborers, poor design from inception and misuse after completion are some of the factors militating against maintenance decisions. Their study however recommended that in every building, maintenance should be considered in the planning and design stage. [9] undertook a study on factors affecting maintenance management of education Trust Fund buildings of tertiary institutions in Osun state and opined that discernable maintenance culture should be practiced in public buildings to give rise to productive maintenance and adequate funds should be set aside for maintenance management of buildings. When a building lacks adequate phasing of maintenance workload, there will be increased uneconomical maintenance management practice, [10]. Their study was centered on maintenance confined to the undergraduate hostels amongst other structures in public schools in Kaduna State. It was discovered by [11] in an analytical study of factors affecting building maintenance that lack of maintenance knowledge by investors has prevented the introduction or application of professional approach to maintenance culture. However, it appears that there are no works on the efficient maintenance of postgraduate halls of residence. What has been studied concerning the postgraduate hall of residence has been related to the satisfaction of users [12]. This present study is geared towards ascertaining the factors affecting the effectiveness of maintenance of postgraduate halls of residence. The focus is on three (3) selected Southern-Nigerian top ranked universities chosen based on world ranking by the Times Higher Education (THE) ranking body. The Universities are Covenant University, Ota; University of Ibadan and University of Lagos. These universities that are doing well in research and other parameters of ranking are expected to have a holistic approach in operation that does also cater for the buildings of which the postgraduate hall of residence forms part. An exclusive study of the postgraduate hall of residence is due to the research focus which these set of occupants are expected to drive. This happens to be the crux of this present study.

Literature Review
Education as it is generally known is a platform for learning. It is the empowerment and adequate development of industrial, social and economic growth in any given country, [13]. For state, federal and private university institutions, it is the duty of the government as well as the management team in private institutions to ensure adequate provision for students and most importantly maintain the facilities adequately and regularly. According to [14], Universities in Nigeria has witnessed a massive growth in student's yearly admission. Due to the singular fact that students are the primary beneficiaries of all academic facilities, it is advised that they are given primary attention in terms of satisfaction over other users, [15]. Their study investigated student's satisfaction with classroom facilities and recommended Student's hostel has been researched upon by different scholars from various perspectives. In a study carried out by [16], they are of the opinion that students hostel is a major consideration that must be put in place before making a choice for higher learning. Oncampus accommodation for students covers a larger part of the built environment in higher institutions and it represents the largest facility assets in any giving university, [17]. This buttresses the view of [1] that 80% of assets owned by well-established institutions represent facilities. Facility Maintenance is of utmost importance in the success of service and manufacturing establishments, [18]. Another study was examined by [19] on international student's satisfaction. They suggested that there should be a maintenance management practice to university hostels facilities to improve the already existing comfort of oversea students. According to [20], qualitative adequacy should be a major concern to the management of the universities, the government, parents and all other stakeholders. This is simply to ensure the comfort of students in the pursuit of an excellent academic carrier. An assessment of quality condition of student's hostels was studied and it was revealed that part of the facilities were in good condition however, overcrowding was a major concern [21]. They advised that the issues of squatters in the student's hostels should be promptly tackled. Further research was carried out by [2], the authors were of the opinion that maintenance programme in tertiary institutions are highly influenced by environmental and climatic conditions, his study also revealed availability of funds to be the most critical factor influencing maintenance programme in southwestern Nigerian universities. Maintenance of hostels has been linked with students' satisfaction. Hence, the understanding of students' satisfaction predicting factors can serve as a guide to tertiary institutions to embark on changes to improve the level of satisfaction amongst students [5]. For students' to actually be satisfied with accommodation provided there is need for expansion and growth to accommodate all their numerous activities. The growth has however been linked to prevailing interest rate and loan [22]. When such growth has been established, it is expected to be furnished with adequate facilities, quality of service, preferred location and neighbourhood, affordable price and sufficient security to appeal to students [23].
Students' satisfaction could be quite expensive in any given tertiary institution. However, [24] have advocated the build, operate and transfer approach in meeting the required needs for students. A study on the assessment of facility management service in Henry Carr postgraduate hostel in University of Lagos was carried out by [12]. They focused on comparing student's expectation and perception on the quality of service in the hostel. Their findings revealed low quality service in the hostel contrary to student's expectations and they were of the opinions that prompt managerial and quality service delivery should be a priority even as they strive towards achieving the institutions cooperate goal. [25] analyzed private school hostels in Nigerian tertiary institutions using federal university of technology (FUTA) as a case study. Their study suggested that investors should focus on investing on campus rather than off campus. The numerous reports on student's ill health in hostels agitated the minds of [26] to assess facilities in male hostels in University environments. Their aim was to establish necessary guidelines or platforms to improve the worth, aesthetics and quality of hostels in Nigerian tertiary institutions. [27] studied the level of satisfaction with undergraduate hostels and it revealed three 3 main challenges disturbing the comfort of students which are electrical works, civil works and the general poor services been provided in the building. They recommended steady and effective maintenance for student's welfare as well as the management team. According to [28] student's hostels are seen from two main perspectives. It either assesses satisfaction, quality and perception with a common goal of students comfort or general academic performance. Although, several studies have been carried out on student's hostels, there appears to be no work that has centred on factors affecting the efficient maintenance of facilities in postgraduate hostels in southwest Nigeria. This study therefore tends to partly fill this gap in literature by examining the major factors that militates against the effective maintenance of postgraduate halls of residence in the selected Universities.

Material and Methods
The research design used for this study is the cross sectional survey whereby questionnaires were administered as an instrument for the collection of relevant data. This method was suitable and ideal for the study because it involved gathering information from university students with a view of determining the major factors that affect effective maintenance of their hostels. Convenience sampling technique which is a type of non probability sampling technique was adopted to reach the target population of which 40 students each were selected from Covenant University, University of Lagos and University of Ibadan being the selected universities for the study which gives a total of 120 students and this represents the sample size for the survey. SPSS software was used to analyze the data with the help of an excel spreadsheet.   From the above bar chart various facilities were identified to ascertain whether the necessary facilities are available to give the students some level of comfort with an aim to improve student's wellbeing. The facilities identified were, reading lamp, Fan, toilet and bathroom facilities, internet facilities, kitchenette, water heater, air conditioner, storage cabinet, reading   Table 4 shows the level of maintenance carried out in each university. Here, the respondents were asked if the available facilities are properly maintained. The results were measured using the 5-points Likert scale of 5= strongly agree; 4= Agree; 3 = Undecided; 2 = Disagree; 1 = strongly disagree. From table 4, 13(10.8%) Strongly disagreed to proper maintenance culture, 57(47.5%) Disagreed, 7(5.8%) were undecided, 41(34.2%) agreed while 2(1.7%) strongly agree. We can see that 47.5% disagreed with the highest frequency of 57 respondents. This result simply reveals that there is a general poor maintenance culture of the available facilities in the three (3) selected universities which affects student's wellbeing.  Table 5 as shown above shows the frequency of facilities maintenance in the hall of residence. Results here were also analyzed using the 5-points Likert scale of 5= strongly agree; 4= Agree; 3 = Undecided; 2 = Disagree; 1 = strongly disagree. The results have revealed that 19 (15.8%) of the respondents strongly disagreed on the frequency of maintenance of their hostels, 60(50.0%) disagreed, 9(7.5%) were undecided, 29(24.2%) Agreed while 3(2.5%) strongly agreed. Based on the above interpretation, (50.0%) disagreed and this has the highest percentage amongst others. We can therefore conclusively say that the frequency of facilities maintenance in the selected universities is very poor.  Table 6 shows the respondents responses concerning existing platforms in their individual universities for laying down of complaints. Using the 5-points Likert scale of 5= strongly agree; 4= Agree; 3 = Undecided; 2 = Disagree; 1 = strongly disagree. 1 respondent, (8%) Strongly disagreed that such platforms exist, 12(10.0%) disagreed, 20(16.7%) were undecided, 80(66.7%) agreed while 7(5.8%) strongly agreed. The result has therefore revealed that platforms exists in the selected universities with the highest percentage 66.7% agreeing to this. Maintenance of facilities should be effectively practiced in any housing system. However, there are various factors that affect maintenance practices which have an impact on students. Table 7 showed the factors affecting the maintenance of postgraduate hostels. The factors were measured using the 5-points Likert scale of 5= strongly agree; 4= Agree; 3 = Undecided; 2 = Disagree; 1 = strongly disagree. In table 7, the mean score of the factors affecting the maintenance of postgraduate halls of residence revealed response time (mean score = 4.04), Bureaucracy (mean score = 4.00), Use of quacks (mean score = 3.75), Time (mean score = 3.66), cost (mean score = 3.63), Convenience during maintenance (Mean score = 3.58), Low labor force (mean score = 3.54), availability of materials (mean score = 3.45). The result has revealed that response time is the major factor that affects the maintenance in hostels amongst other factors (with a mean score of 4.04) which is ranked 1.   Table 8 shows the responses from each university studied. From the table, Covenant University and University of Lagos reveals that response time has the most effect on maintenance in students hostels as they are ranked 1st (with a mean score of 4.1 and 3.85) respectively. However, evaluating the factors in university of Ibadan reveals Bureaucracy and use of quacks as a major factor that affects effective maintenance (with a mean score of 4.25) respectively. Response time was however seen as the major factor that affects effective maintenance of student's hostels (with a total mean score of 4.04)  Table 9 examined the effects of maintenance of postgraduate hostel on students. From the table, it was shown that there are various effects of the state of maintenance on the students which include discomfort, exposure to danger, increase in the cost of maintenance, underutilization of facilities, pollution, and poor publicity of schools. However, the results have revealed that there are three (3) major effects of the state of maintenance on students which are discomfort (with a mean score = 3.98), exposure to danger (with a mean score = 3.96), and increase in cost of maintenance (with a mean score of 3.92). Discomfort which has the highest mean score is seen to be the major effect on the state of maintenance on students causing dissatisfaction and on the long run has negative effects on academic performance.  Table 10 shows the effects of the state of maintenance on students residing in postgraduate hostels. As shown in table 10, there are various effects lack of proper maintenance pose on students. It has been revealed from the responses that discomfort ranked 1st (with a mean score of 4.13) as the major effect caused by lack of proper maintenance in Covenant University, Exposure to danger ranked 1st in University of Lagos (with a mean score of 3.88) while University of Ibadan revealed underutilization of facilities as the effects caused by lack of maintenance. It was however generally revealed from the survey that discomfort is a factor that has the most effects of students due to lack of effective maintenance (with a total mean score of 3.98)

Conclusion and Recommendation
The study has revealed the major factors that affect effective maintenance in postgraduate hostels in top ranked Nigerian universities. Amongst these factors are poor response time, bureaucracy, and use of quacks. Amongst these major factors, Poor response time was revealed to be the most pressing negative effect of maintenance. It can however be generally concluded that the efficient maintenance of postgraduate hostels in the selected top ranked Southwestern Nigerian universities are limited due to poor response from the management of the institutions. The researchers have found it necessary to recommend possible mitigations to combat these challenges. These recommendations include that the universities should create a special facility management office in each of the postgraduate halls of resident's order than the existing facility management team and employ facility management professionals. This gives students easy access to the officials to lay their complaints. This way, the issue of bureaucracy will not exist and slow response in attending to issues will be reduced or be totally eliminated. The university management should create an electronic customer service platform for lying down of complaints and collecting feedback for the progress of work done as it tends to get quick feedback [29]; [30]. Also student's occupancy evaluation should be a routine exercise to collate necessary inventory's, issues and complains of students to improve the efficiency of maintenance as advocated by [31].