In recent years, the technology of database has become more advanced where large amount of data is required to be stored in the databases. Data mining then attract more attention to extract valuable information from the raw data that institution can use for decision-making process. It applies modern statistical and computation technologies to expose useful information hidden within the large database to remain competitiveness among educational field, the institution need deep and enough knowledge for a better assessment, evaluation, planning and decision-making. Data mining helps institution to use their current reporting capabilities to discover and identity the hidden patterns in database and hence can be used to predict performance of the student.

Data mining can be viewed as a result of the natural evolution of information technology because before 1960 when database and information technology had not evolved, analysis of data was basically the primitive file processing which would not give the appropriate useful information despites the huge amount of time consumed. The evolutionary path of data mining has been witnessed in the database industry in the development of the following database and information technology.

Data collection and data creation

Data management (including data warehouse and data preparation)

Data analysis and understanding (involving data mining and data interpretation)

Moreover, data mining is also known as knowledge discovery in large database (KDD). Consequently, data mining consist of more than collecting and managing data; it also includes analysis and predictions. Important decision are often made based not on the information rich data stored in database but rather on decision maker’s institution, simply because maker does not have the tools to extract the valuable knowledge embedded in the vast amount of data.

1.2 Statement of the problem

It is not feasible for people to analyze great amounts of data without the assistance of appropriate computational tools. Therefore, the development of tools of an automatic and intelligent nature becomes essential for analyzing, interpreting, and correlating data in order to develop and select strategies in the context of each application. To serve this new context, the area of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD), came into existence with great interest within the scientific, industrial, and commercial communities. The popular expression “Data Mining†is actually one of the stages of the Discovery of Knowledge in Databases. The term “KDD†was formally recognized in 1989 in reference to the broad concept of procuring knowledge from databases. One of the most popular definitions was proposed in 1996 by a group of researchers. According to Fayyad, et al. (1996): “KDD is a process with many stages, non-trivial, interactive, and iterative, for the identification of comprehensible, valid, and potentially useful patterns from large data setsâ€. It is of utmost desire to extract valuable information from large databases. 

This research work therefore addresses the intelligent prediction of students’ course of study in higher institution based on the historical student academic data. This will facilitate better performance of students in high institutions.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Project

1.3.1 Aim

The aim of the research work is to develop a computer application software that will be able to predict student course of study in higher institution using classification algorithm.

 1.3.2 Objectives

The following are the set of objectives addressed by the project work:

To develop and populate student academic database

To develop a computer application program that will be able to mine knowledge from the students’ academic database using Classification algorithm.

To predict student   course of   study according to their Post UTME cutoff.

To reduce the rate at which student admission is fortified.