PRIVATE COST AND EFFICIENCY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTHWEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper examined the private cost and efficiency of postgraduate students for sustainable development of universities in Southwest, Nigeria between 2012 and 2017. As a descriptive research design of a survey type, it makes use of some direct cost indicators for measuring private cost and the output level for efficiency. Data were collected through the use of a validated questionnaire titled, Private Cost and Efficiency of Postgraduate Students in Universities (PCEPSU) with a reliability coefficient of r = 0.81. The study covered six public universities in South West Nigeria selected through stratification. The participants cut across 300 different categories of postgraduate students of the sampled universities. Two research questions were raised and two hypotheses generated and tested. Data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics tools to test the research hypotheses for the study. The result shows that the private cost across faculties recorded the highest cost of N453,766 .23 in Science followed by Engineering with N429,901.22 and the least is Arts which recorded N287,304.30. Also, there is a positive and non-significant relationship between private cost of postgraduate students and efficiency in Southwest Universities in the study period (r = -.0627, P> 0.05) and significant difference existed in the private cost of postgraduates across disciplines in South-West Nigeria public universities in the period under study. (F (5,30)= 8.55; p<.05).The implication of this result is that the variations in private cost does not determine the efficiency of postgraduate education as other variables such students’ discipline, strike action, time, and students’ crises are prevalent to success of postgraduate students. Based on the results, recommendations were provided such that Universities should checkmate all excessive crises which elongated the postgraduate students’ academic calendar in order to pave ways for efficiency and inter university lecturing/training should be encouraged at the postgraduate level and this should be sponsored by the institutions and government as it will increase the level of postgraduate students efficiency.