Facilities as an Indicator of Quality Research in Distance Education Universities of Islamabad

Abstract

The study was developed with the one major objective that was to assess the effect of facilities provided to the students on the quality of research. The major objective of the research was further divided into five sub objectives based on the nature of facilities (Labs/ Library/ Internet, Professional /Technical Support, Scholarships/ Funds, Supervision and Organizational Support) targeted in the research process. The research was based on survey method. All the higher level distance education institutions of Islamabad were considered as the population of the research. The researcher used the disproportionate stratified sampling technique to draw the sample for the study. 66 teachers contributed in the data collection process among which 30 were from public and 36 were from private sector. The researcher used a self developed questionnaire for the purpose of data collection. The tool was based on two major parts that were related to the facilities provision assessment and research quality assessment. The first part was further divided
into five sub sections according to the nature of the facilities (Labs/ Library/ Internet, Professional /Technical Support, Scholarships/ Funds, Supervision and Organizational Support) provided to the students. The data revealed that overall the facilities had 39 % effect on the quality of research that was also significant at 0.01 level of significance. Further all the types of facilities targeted were found having statistically significant effect on the quality of research. Labs/ Library/ Internet, Professional /Technical Support, Scholarships/ Funds, Supervision and Organizational Support were having 11%, 14%, 29%, 19% and 20% effect on quality of research respectively. Thus it was highly recommended that the facilities for the research students must be kept on improving and the other distance education institution all over the Pakistan may also focus on the provision of these facilities for the better outcomes.