COMPUTERIZED BURSARY MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

COMPUTERIZED BURSARY MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study

Payment of fees in schools especially in tertiary institutions is an indispensable responsibility on students, parents, guardians and on government or organizations offering scholarship grants. The fee charged is used in providing a conducive learning environment for the students. It enables the management to pay staff salaries, provide equipments and maintain infrastructures in the school. For a graduating student to carry out his or her clearance from all these departments, it normally takes a lot of time and a lot of processes and delays in clearing the student for youth service as well as collection of statement of result.

Rocana Institute of Technology, Enugu is an Innovative Enterprise and Vocational Enterprise Institution (IEI/VEI) with the aim of providing high quality training in innovation, vocation and technological education at various points of social strata. Rocana Institute of Technology, Enugu was founded in May, 2010 as a result of creativity and love for Technical education with entrepreneur skills of the proprietor, Chief Robert Orji. The institute was established in November, 2011 with approval from National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Kaduna and the Minister of Education (FME), Abuja.  The mode of payment in Rocana Institute of Technology is quite stressful to students as they are required to go to various banks to make payment; after which the student will come back to the bursar office to exchange the teller into receipt without it been stored into the payment database. Some time the receipt got lost if not kept properly in a save place.

Hence it became imperative for a computerized bursary management information system to eliminate the shortcomings of the manual system in place.

            This computer based management system has promising prospect for educational institutions in order to enhance the fee management system. The demand for a computer based fee management processing system in a large number of universities worldwide, is a growing necessity. The proposed system would store, display and issue receipt. This system not only enhances the institute document management, it also allows decisions to be made faster and more efficiently.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The process of clearing students after their graduation requires that the students be cleared in various departments and information units.

Among these are:

• Library fines and overdue or lost library materials from the Institution
•  Departmental Dues 
• Residence hall damage charges 
•  Return of athletic equipment 
• Bursary and all other charges 

In Rocana Institute of Technology, the need for an efficient and automated student’s fee management system cannot be overemphasised. This is because it is a private Institution whose major source of funding is by fee payment from the students. As in every other legal transaction, receipts are then issued to the students which they must present before; taking exams, getting accommodation in the campus, submission of course forms, lab test and treatment, getting ID cards etc.

1.3 AIMS & OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this project include:

• To effectively and efficiently process students clearance
• To provide a reliable and transparent system devoid of personal inclinations and interest
• To provide borderless access
• To ensure prompt clearance
• To alleviate the problems and stress of travelling and queuing up of students during clearance.

1.4 THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this study is basically on designing software or database that holds students school fees Status, Student’s Ledger book, generate receipt and other records. The record or data in the database can thus be use in decision making especially during examination clearance.

1.5 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is aimed at replacing the inefficient and time-wasting manual fees management system in Rocana Institute of Technology and clearance during examinations. A Computerized bursary management information system allows the users to check their clearance status as whether they are in any way indebted to the school, fill and submit their clearance form, and obtain their clearance letter. There are many other advantages of a computerized bursary management information system and some of them are listed below. 

• It saves a lot of time. 
• Information processing is very fast and delays can be avoided. 
•  It is inexpensive to students and school management.
• It helps the school in reducing costs such as labour and stationary.

Lectures are sometimes missed by the students who normally go for this clearance without which they will not sit for their exams. Thus this study is significant to eliminate these inefficiencies.

1.6 THE LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The major constraint on this project work is time and finance.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Fee: a charge made by an institution e.g. for membership, entrance, or the administration of an examination.

Receipt: this is a written statement that money or good has been received.

Clearance: permission to do something or for something to take place.

Automation: a system in which a workplace or process has been converted to one that replaces or minimises human labour with mechanical or electronic equipment.

Computerised: Convert based system to install or start using a computer system to organise, control, automates something

Database: Any collection of data organised for storage in a computer memory and designed for easy access by authorised for easy access by authorised users.

Password: this is a secret code that  a user must type into a computer to enable him access its contents.

Manual: This is the use of hands to operate or control something.