ABSTRACT

 The study evaluated the Continuing Education Programme objectives in Universities in South-East Nigeria. A survey research design was used for the study. Five research questions and five null hypotheses guided the study. The population ofthe study was made up of 198 lectures and 2987 final year students from the eight Federal and State Universities in South East, Nigeria who were in the Continuing Education Programme. The sample comprised 535 respondents made up of 75 lectures and 460 final year students drawn through multistage sampling techniques. The instrument for data collection was a 50 item questionnaire of the likert type of 4-point response mode titled “Evaluation of Continuing Education Programme Objectives Questionnaire (ECEPOQ)”. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was used to compute the reliability index and a reliability coefficient of 0.73 was obtained. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviations while the null hypotheses were tested using t-test statistic. The result ofthe data analyzed revealed that lecturers showed that people have access to quality education and equity in educational opportunities through the Continuing Education Programme to a high extent, the students showed that such access was to a very high extent. There was significant difference at P<0.05 in the mean rating of the lecturers and students on the extent people have access to quality education and equity in educational opportunities through Continuing Education Programme. Both lecturers and students agreed that the curriculum contents ofContinuing Education Programme meets special needs ofemployers of labour and relative to National University Commission (NUC) bench mark. Both lecturers and students accepted that University lecturers were involved in the teachings of Continuing Education Programme to a high extent. There was however no significant difference between the mean rating of the lecturers and students on the extent of involvement ofUniversity lecturers in the teachings of Continuing Education Programme; Both lecturers and students indicated that continuing education programme ameliorates the effect of internal and external brain drain to a high extent. The lecturers argued that Continuing Education Programme encouraged life-long learning opportunities to a high extent among the students of the programme based on the benefits/gains, the students maintained that Continuing Education Programme encourages life-long learning opportunities to a very high extent among students. This study recommended among others that Continuing Education Programme should be encouraged to be operative in all disciplines ofstudy