FAVOUR CHINOYE ANIAMAI

This study was carried out to examine Perception of students on the withholdingof theirfinal year projects by the institution in Fine and Applied Arts Department: a case study of tertiaryinstitutions in Nigeria. Four research questions was raised to guide the study and the mainobjective of the study is explore the perception of students regarding the withholdingof theirfinal year projects in Fine and Applied Arts departments. The descriptive design was adopted, the population size comprise students in universityof Benin. In determining the sample size 100 students was used as the sample size. Self-constructed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected and validatedquestionnaires were analyzed using frequency tables. The result of the findings reveals that indicating that a majority of the respondents agreed with the rationale providedbyinstitutions. These include preventing plagiarism, protecting intellectual property, andmaintaining academic standards, from the finding it was also indicated that students holdnegative perceptions of the practice and experience emotional dissatisfaction, suchasfrustration and disempowerment. The study therefore recommended that Institutions shouldformulate transparent guidelines that define the conditions under which final year projectscan be accessed, used, and published by students, Rather than total withholding, universitiescan adopt digital repositories where students can access their work under supervisionor aftera fixed embargo period, Students should be educated on their intellectual rights andresponsibilities, enabling them to understand why their works may be temporarily restrictedand how they can legally protect and use them.