1.1 INTRODUCTION 

Clearance is a status granted individuals, typically members of Military, University graduates and Employees of Government and their contractors, allowing them access to classified information, a clearance by itself is normally not sufficient to gain access. The organization must determine that the clearance individual has a “need to know” the information. Clearance is the process of determining and negotiating any permission that are needed to melu de use of someone else’s intellectual property in creative project. Part of that process include Determining the owner(s) of the intellectual property. Contacting the owners and negotiating on agreement. Administering written contracts Handling other issue related to the use and licensing of intellectual property. 

No one is supposed to be granted access to classified information solely because of rank of position, but once a clearance is obtained access to certain information or gain of freedom will be granted. The advantage of e-learning are many, as people of all ages and backgrounds become increasingly reliant on the internet for information, online learning become more convenient and efficient here, the need for an online clearance system. The skills needed to access and comprehend information online are becoming common place, and the flexibility of wireless computing means that any coffee shop, airport or bedroom can become a classroom online courses, registration, clearance have few, if any scheduling restrictions, well-integrated learning resources and competitive degree option, with an online clearance system. The changing online college landscape now includes online clearance system, traditional undergraduate and general studies programs. However career learning is still the most popular online training option.

 1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 

Caritas University, Amorji-Nike Enugu is a private university approved by the Federal Government of Nigeria on Dec. 16 2004. It was officially opened on Jan. 21 2005 by the Federal Ministry of Education, Pro. Fabian Osuji. It is the second catholic university founded by Rev. Fr. Prof. EMP Edeh Cssp. The school is managed by the congregation of sisters of Jesus the savior, a religious congregation of nuns founded by him. The school operates the faculty system and presently has four faculties: Natural Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Management and Social Sciences. 

In university like Caritas, there is need for automated method of keeping data, more so a greater need for an online clearance system. This would a long way in alleviating the various problems and stress involved in the manual method of clearance. Moreover, the issue of delayed youth service as a result of mobility to complete the tedious manual process of clearance would be curtailed.

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 

The process of clearing students of a named institution CARITAS UNIVERSITY after graduation requires that the students must be cleared in their various departments and information units. Among which are: Sister’s Clearance Bursary Clearance Male Dean clearance Security Clearance Student Union Fee Departmental Due Furthermore, for a graduating student to carry out his/her clearance from all these departments it normally takes a lot of time and a lot of processes and delay in clearing the student for youth service as well as collection of statement of results. Hence, it became imperative for computer software based online clearance system to eliminate the shortcoming of the manual system in place.

 1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 

The objective of this computer software based online clearance system for the graduating student includes the following: 

To effectively and efficiently process students clearance. 

To provide a reliable and transparent system devoid of personal inclination and interest. 

To provide borderless access. 

To ensure prompt clearance.

To alleviate the problems and stress of travelling and queuing up of student during clearance.

SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY 

The project work will help in a good number of ways to ease the queuing system in the university as the online clearance system will help student to achieve whatever they want to achieve without coming to the various offices for clearance. Clear advantages of internet information processing over those of traditional manual system are higher yields. Online clearance 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 online clearance system and some of them are listed below It save a lot of time. It is very convenient to use it right from the bedroom, office or anywhere in the world. Information processing is very fast and delays can be avoided. It is inexpensive to student and school management. It is also help the school in reducing cost such as labor and stationary.

 1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 

This project work is to develop a computer software based online clearance system for doing clearance for graduating students of Caritas University. The software development will be carried out using JOOMLA Ms Access to manage both the database and at the same time make the software online. 

1.7 LIMITATIONS 

This project covers some of the aspect of a computer software based online clearance system using Caritas University as case study. However the following are the constraints:

TIME CONSTRAINTS: Due to time constrain the web-page covers only clearance for various departments by the graduating student. 

FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS: Due financial constraints people cannot afford this kind of process online especially towards the cost of accessing the internet. Therefore, it would cost a lot to develop a full web-based clearance system. Some documents were considered confidential and were not made available. 

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS 

Computer Network: Computer network is a system that connects two or more computers together using a communication link.

 World Wide Web: World Wide Web simply called “www” is the most important tool of the internet, it was created in the late 1980’s in Europe and was limitedly use in academics cycle.

Clearances: official certification of blamelessness trustworthiness or suitability for graduation and issue of certificate in degree course. 

File Transfer: Any kind of computer file can be sent via the internet from one internet user to another. Table of account in a spreadsheet, design by a graphic artist, music and sound files etc can all be exchanged in this way. 

Web Browser: this is special kind of software that processes hypertext mark-up language (HTML) document. In other words, a web browser is a computer program that interprets HTML command to collect, arranged and display the parts of a web page. 

Web Site: A web site is a collection of many interconnected web page organized by a specific college, organization company etc, containing web page (goods and commodities) on the internet. Web site is stored on web servers. There are many web sites and thousand of HTML pages on each web site. A web is a treasure of information and entertainment. 

Hyperlinks: Hyperlinks are highlighted words and phrase you find on a web document that you can click on as to jump to some other document or internet services. 

Online: connected via a computer attached to or available via a central computer network 

Offline: Disconnected from computer network, describe a computer terminal or peripheral devices disconnected from a computer network.

System: Set of computer components that is, an assembling of hardware, software and peripheral functioning together.