CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
In common with other public sector
institutions, Higher Education Institutions
(HEIs) are seeking to maintain the three „Es‟ of
efficiency, effectiveness and economy, by adopting private sector managerial
techniques. Business Process ReEngineering is currently been used as a change
management strategy in a number of UK Higher Education Institutions. A number
of interrelated pressures have created the need for change in polytechnics:
expansion of higher education; changing student profile; pressures from industry;
increased competition; information technology (IT) capability.
At Caritas University, the need for an effective and
efficient automated management information system cannot be overemphasized.
This is because it is a private University whose major source of funding is by
fee payment from the students , receipts are then issued to the students as
evidence of payments which they must present before; taking exams, getting
accommodation in the campus, submission of course forms, lab test and treatment,
accessing school library, getting ID cards etc. Over the past few years,
enrolment of students into the university has steadily increased with its
attendant demanding more on the school
doctor, who personally and manually goes through students receipt before
attending to student even on emergency cases, the clearance officer is not an exemption as he
personally and manually goes through all the students‟ receipts and certifies
them by issuing clearance cards before examinations, in the library either Identity or clearance card must be
presented before been allowed to enter the library . The school registrar case is worst as final year data are been
examine critically before final clearance as he
personally access all students data before their finally clearance,.
This manual processing system has caused loss of receipts, clearance cards, ID
cards and time delay during the clearance period, treatment and even in
accessing library. In order to speed up this process and simplify this manual
record processing system, the development of an electronic database system is
thus being proposed in this project work.
This computer based management information system has
promising prospect for educational institutions in order to enhance the entire
management system. The proposed system would store, route, display and issue
receipt electronically. This
system not only enhances the university‟s document
management, It also allows decisions to be made faster and more effectively and
efficiently.
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Caritas University is a private university approved by
the federal government of Nigeria on December 16 2004. It is situated in Enugu
and was officially opened on January 21, 2005 by the then Minister of education
Prof. Fabian Osuji with all its student staying in hostel. It is the second
catholic University in Nigeria founded by Rev Fr Prof Emmanuel Paul Mathew Edeh
C.C.Sp OFR. The proprietor of the University is the sisters of Jesus the Savior,
a religious congregation founded by him.
Caritas
university source of fund is based only on students payment no external funding
like other public universities. To these effect proper documentation of student
payments record are highly essential hence the need to present receipts as
evidence of payment before been render services like Hostel accommodation,
Students Registration Number, Students Identity Card, Medical Treatment, Given
access to library etc. Students who do not present these receipt are been
denied these services even when there have paid or not in order word it is
expected by all students in the institution to always carry along their receipt
whenever the are in need of these services. At these juncture it may interest
to know that the above service are been paid into one account and the receipt
issue is one. Going about with these receipt throughout an academic year has
really been challenging for the students as many has lost theirs or others been
turn which has lead majority into frustration or been force to pay extra money
for a new receipt.
It is also
observed that even with the receipt there is a high delay in services render to
the student these is because of their growing large number and the manual
process of assessing their records before been render services.
Since development come, that triggered the
necessity to record information in different areas of endeavor, it has always
been difficult to manage large amount of data. This is still a serious problem
not only to the institution but to
Nigeria economy as a whole. The present system used manual way of
writing on paper and recording. These process is very slow and the proposed
system, management information system been introduced to solve all this problems.
This new system will be capable of retrieving data from its database where
payment records can easily be access, updates, delete without any receipts for
confirmation.
The new system will also meet the need of fast
processing which greatly reduced response time.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The
management of human resources has remained the most complex aspect of many
organizations. In fact, this had been the reason why most management scientists
in the research identified human resources management as a backbone of any
organization.
Caritas University Enugu, is really facing a lot of
challenges when it comes to human resources management as students move around
with files, document and receipt before
been render services like accommodation, medication, given access to library
and the worst part is clearance for examination. These constant moving about
with receipts, files and documents have really resulted into files getting
missing, receipts being turn and even the school cabinet getting jammed,
delaying the presentation of certain information about the student, destruction
of files and records, time required to record as well as presenting an
information and also the cost of purchasing files, paper and furniture and
fixtures.
The
lack of a computerized method of record keeping further compounds the problem.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE
STUDY
The
general objective of the study is to design and implement a prototype of human
resources management system which can be used to manage human
resources in the institution. With the
following objectives
i.
Eliminate
heavy paper processing during clearance, exams, medical treatment, hostel
allocation and exams
ii.
Provide
a more efficient and simpler means of handling and updating students fees,
staff promotion and other records
iii.To provide a quick, accurate and timely
query response system
iv.
To
provide solutions to the problems of inaccuracy, alteration, delay, loss of
receipts and irregularities in the manual system of clearance
v.
Maintaining
timely preparation of school fees receipts vi.Enable parents or guardians know if their children are truly paying
fees.
vii.
Reduce
queuing up of students during exam, clearance, accommodation, lab test etc.
viii.
Help
management in decision making.
ix. Generate
receipt and clearance card immediately after payment.
x. To reduce
stress and gain easy access to both students and staffs record.
It also aims at providing a well secure
database management system. Most importantly, this project work aims at eliminating the problems
encountered in the manual system of human resources management system .
1.4
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study is aimed at replacing the inefficient and
ineffective time-wasting manual school registry management system in accessing
students information whose negative impact is highly display during exams
clearance as Lectures are sometimes missed by students as a result of
presenting their payment credentials before obtaining clearance form without which
they will not sit for their exams.
Thus this study is significant to eliminate these
inefficiencies.
1.5
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This research work will concentrate on both students and staff in the
institution covering students admission form which include name ,sex, date of
birth, date of admission, department, faculty it also covers all the services
they pay for which are; school fees, medical fees, library fees, hostel fees
etc. Staff employment form which
includes the name, sex, location, in fact information about the staff,
performance assessment, retirement and handling of some queries like; updating
staff record, deleting staff record on retirement or withdrawal and searching
for staff information as the case may be.
1.6
PROJECT REPORT ORGANIZATION
This project
work is organized into five chapters. Chapter1 covers introduction: Background
of the study, Statement of the problem, Aims and objective of the study,
Significance of the study, Scope of the study and definition of terms. Chapter2
elaborate on the different review by various authors. Chapter 3 is on system analysis and design which entails the
following: research methodology, method of data collection, analysis of the
existing system, limitation of the existing system, system design,
database design, System flow chart, top
down design, Chapter 4 on Implementation testing and integration; choice of
development tools, system requirement , software requirements, Hardware
requirement, implementation, testing while chapter 5 is on summary, limitation,
recommendation, BEME, conclusion.
1.7
DEFININATION OF TERMS
HUMAN RESOURCES: It is a department in an organization that
deals with employees records, hiring and retirement.
MANAGEMENT: It is the co-ordination of all the
resources in an organization through the process of planning, organizing,
directing and controlling.
PUBLIC SECTOR: The industries and services that are owned
and run by the government.
PRIVATE SECTOR: The industries and services that are owned
and run by private companies.
SYSTEM: A method or set of procedures and even
personnel working together as a whole to achieve a goal.
DATA: This are numbers, text or images which are
in a form suitable for storage in a computer or processed by a computer, or an
incomplete information/ unprocessed information.
INFORMATION: This is a meaningful material derived from
computer data by organizing it and interpreting it in a specific way.
INPUT: Data entered into the computer for storage
or processing.
OUTPUT: Information produced from a
computer after processing.
INFORMATION SYSTEM: A set of interrelated components that
collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support
decision making and control in an organization.
APPOINTMENT: Appointment is a term used to refer to
employment of a new staff to provide some services to the institution.
LEAVE:
Leave is a term used
to refer work free day(s) granted to staff to rest to carry out some personal
activities elsewhere ( away from the working station).