INSTITUTIONAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AS CORRELATES OF DOCTORAL DEGREE PROGRAMMES COMPLETION AMONG ACADEMIC STAFF OF COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Doctoral degree programmes are expected to be completed between three and five years. However, reports have shown that there is increased length of completion and high attrition rate among academic staff in Colleges of Education (CoEs) who are undergoing doctoral degree programme in southwestern Nigeria. Previous studies focused largely on enrolment and participation in doctoral degree programmes with little emphasis on the influence of institutional and demographic factors on Doctoral Degree Completion (DDC) rates, particularly among academic staff in CoEs. This study, therefore, was designed to examine the extent to which institutional (Study Leave – SL, Grants and Scholarship Opportunities – GSO, Leadership Disposition – LD, and Teaching and Administrative Workload – TAW) and demographic (age, Marital Status – MS and Domestic Responsibilities – DR) factors correlated with DDC among the academic staff of CoEs in southwestern Nigeria.

Resilience, Attribution and Tinto’s Student Integration theories provided the framework, while the survey design of the correlational type was adopted. Three states (Oyo, Lagos and Ogun) in southwestern, Nigeria, having both state and federal CoEs, were purposively selected. The five existing schools common to the six CoE were purposively selected, while all the 1,850 academic staff who had at one time or the other enrolled for the doctoral programme were enumerated. The instruments used were Doctoral Degree Completion (r=0.94), Leadership Disposition (r=0.75), Teaching and Administrative Workload (r=0.79), Grants and Scholarship Opportunities (r=0.82) scales and Study Leave inventories(r=0.85). In-depth interview sessions were held with nine academic staff from the CoEs. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance, while qualitative data were content-analysed.

Respondents’ age was 44.50 ± 2.75 years. Majority of the respondents were male (71.0%) and 91.4% were married. Only 27.7% had completed the doctoral degree programme. The distribution of the respondents across the schools was 33.6% (Education), 23.7% (Sciences), 23.4% (Arts and Social Sciences), 11.4% (Languages) and 7.9% (Vocational Education). Doctoral enrolment in CoE was 7.0% (2001 – 2005), 13.0% (2006 – 2010), 52.0% (2011 – 2015) and 23.0% (2016 and beyond). The average year of DDC was 6.6, while the attrition rate was 16.0%. Two out of every 10 academic staff who enrolled for the programme dropped out. The LD (r=0.75), TAW (r=0.56), GSO (r=0.50), SL (r=0.38), DR (r=0.43), age (r=0.30), MS (r=0.12) had significant relationships with DDC, while gender did not. Institutional (F (4;1034)=289.36; adj. R2=0.44) and demographic (F(5;1087)=96.94; adj. R2=0.24) factors made significant joint contributions to DDC, accounting for 44.0% and 24.0% of its variance, respectively. The LD (β=0.62), DR (β=0.36), gender (β=0.14), age (β=0.14), TAW (β=0.13), MS (β=0.12), GSO (β=0.04) and SL (β=0.04) relatively contributed to DDC. Cost and time intensiveness, responsibilities/workloads and schedule of meetings hindered timely DDC.

Bad leadership disposition, domestic and marital responsibilities, gender, age, and teaching and administrative workload accounted for extended doctoral degree programme completion among the academic staff of colleges of education in southwestern Nigeria. Therefore, psycho-emotional support should be provided for lecturers on doctoral programmes and their teaching and administrative workload should be reduced for timely completion.