the contribution of ict in the management of students academic records: a case of makerere university academic records information system

Description

The study is about contribution of information communication technologies in the management of student’s academic records in Makerere University under the academic records information system. This emerged because there was mismanagement of student’s academic records despite the technological advancement that had been advanced in the University. Such problems included loss of marks, miscalculation of marks to mention but a few. The study intended to establish how ICT has contributed towards the management of student’s academic affairs. The study employed the use of questionnaires, interviews and observation to obtain information in relation to the topic under study. The major findings of the study indicate that ICT does contribute towards the management of students records in the areas of registration of students, verification and ensuring the authenticity of students’ records. The major problems faced in the use of the ARIS were resistance from the users in adopting the system, systems break down causing delays in work, interruptions in internet connectivity and limited number of staff needed to perform all the tasks in the allocated time. From the findings, it was concluded that ICT has greatly contributed towards the management of students academic records in Makerere University and the following recommendations were proposed so as to ensure the better performance of the ARIS and these included recruitment and training of more staff in the records management function as it was discovered that the number of workers needed to effectively manage the system are few hence a shortage. These staff should however be equipped with more records management skills, activation of most if not all of the modules of the ARIS system. Currently some modules such as the module that assists in the registration of government students as they apply for university education is not operational as a result this has led to the use of the manual system to manage records related tasks manually which tasks could be managed with ease if the system was fully functional and also drafting of a records management policy to regulate the management of records. It was also however noted that despite Makerere University possessing an ICT policy that regulates the management of the academic records information system, Makerere University however lacks a university records management policy that would assist in guiding the management of records within the university.