Perceived Competency Need of Postgraduate Students for Research Writing in Maryam Abacha American University, Niger Republic

Abstract

This empirical research aimed at identifying perceived research competency needs of postgraduate students in research writing in Maryam Abacha American University, Niger Republic. Two research questions and null hypotheses each were formulated to guide the study. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population for the study comprised of 56 respondents consisting of 51 PhD students and five masters’ students, with 42 been males and 14 females. Simple random sampling was used to recruit the research participants. A structured questionnaire used in a similar study was adopted as tool for data collection. The tool was modified to consist of 33 items, with each having two columns of (a) desirable and (b) difficult, patterned on a five-point rating format of 5, 4,3,2,1. The instrument covered the five chapters of a thesis writing format and was content validated by specialists. The internal consistency of the items was determined using Cronbach alpha method which produced a composite coefficient of .966. The data were personally collected by the researchers and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that PG students desired the 33 competencies for thesis writing, out of which 11 competencies were rated difficult to be utilized by the students. The hypothesis tested revealed that there was no significant difference between male and female students on their competencies. It was recommended that both research lecturers and project supervisors should utilize the 33 skills, while emphasizing the difficult ones to make PG students competent in crafting quality research thesis.