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 southwestern 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. Keywords: Facilities, Maintenance, Universities, Nigeria