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 Re-Engineering 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
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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
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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.