DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTOMATED STAFF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION

In most Nigerian universities, managing staff information remains a manual or semi-automated process, often resulting in data redundancy, delays in decision-making, and administrative bottlenecks. This project, titled "Development of an Automated Staff Information Management System for University Administration," was conceived to address these inefficiencies through the development of a secure, centralized, and automated system tailored to university environments. The primary objectives of the system are to ensure efficient staff data management, enable rolebased access control, automate staff leave and resignation processes, and provide data export/import support. To accurately capture user needs and system requirements, a combination of elicitation techniques was employed as part of the project methodology. These included structured interview with university administrators, direct observation of current workflows, and analysis of existing staff records. The findings highlighted the need for a responsive system that supports bulk data upload (e.g., nominal roll), real-time updates, status tracking (e.g., confirmed vs. probationary staff), and minimal technical training for users. Based on the elicitation results, a Waterfall development methodology was adopted. The stages involved requirements gathering, system design, implementation, testing, and deployment. The system was built using PHP and MySQL for backend and data storage, with HTML, Bootstrap, and JavaScript for the frontend interface. The application incorporates a secure login system with session-based role control (Admin, Staff), staff profile management, Excel-based import/export, leave/resignation tracking, and SMTP-based email notifications for workflow events. A relational database schema was designed to link user accounts (users table) to staff information (staff_info table), with support for profile photos and document uploads. The system was tested using real-life scenarios and dummy staff data to simulate various roles and workflows. Performance evaluation showed significant improvements in record accessibility, reporting speed, and administrative efficiency. Administrators could easily retrieve categorized staff data, approve requests, and monitor staff statuses from a user-friendly dashboard. Staff members, in turn, could apply for leave or resignations and receive feedback via view leave status page. This project proves that a welldesigned, stakeholder-informed, and systematically developed web-based system can transform university administrative processes. The resulting Management System is scalable, secure, and effective