Comparative Study of Research Project Supervision on the Performance of Graduating Business Students in Nigerian Universities

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Introduction
Completing a research project has become an accepted part of learning in universities, as a consequence of the widely recognized benefits of the research process for student learning.A research project offers students the chance to undertake a piece of research in an area of interest to them and pursue it through to completion [Dundalk Institute of Technology, 2011].Wisker [2005] states that "engaging in research in any subject consists of problematising whatever is given, putting question into action and learning how to develop an evidence base for knowledge claims and contribution".Research allows students to apply concepts and knowledge acquired in their studies through the critical evaluation of relevant theory and research findings, whilst enhancing their research skills through the scope and depth of their inquiry.Research also provides students with opportunities to demonstrate advanced levels of information sourcing, summarizing and synthesizing, along with a high level of composition and structure in the overall presentation of the completed study [Dundalk Institute of Technology, 2011].
A research project is a core and critical element at degree level in the selected universities and, as such, the supervision of a student's research project is by no means a small task for a supervisor.Supervisors have different research backgrounds, expertise and experience [Pearce, 2005].Some supervisors prefer the supervision of qualitative research, while others prefer supervising quantitative research.In this vein, students' performance is one of the major goals of these universities and it plays an important role in producing the best quality graduates who will become great leaders and manpower for the country's economic and social development [Ali et al., 2009].

Statement of research problems
In Nigerian universities, a research project is compulsory for the completion of degree programmes in all the faculties or colleges.Students are expected to conduct research to consummate their degree requirements.In the same vein, evidence abounds that graduating students are posed with difficulties in writing original and quality research projects.Some of the difficulties encountered by graduating students in Nigeria universities include lack of time; lack of library resources; ineffectiveness of the project supervisor; inability to carry out their responsibility as a research student; lack of cordial relationship between supervisee and supervisor; imposition of research topic on supervisee; lack of motivational factors and lack of Internet services, to mention just a few of the challenges.
In conjunction, supervisors are faced with difficulties in supervising the research projects of supervisees.Some of these difficulties include the supervisees' inability to craft researchable topics; lack of supervisees' commitment and their negligence, the inability of supervisees to develop a research proposal; a lack of motivational factors; and the inability of supervisees to review the literature, to mention just a few.
Pobrane z czasopisma Annales H -Oeconomia http://oeconomia.annales.umcs.plData: 15/09/2023 06:02:26 In light of the above, these difficulties could be regarded as factors inhibiting graduating students from writing a high quality and original research project within the time frame as well as preventing the supervisors from ensuring effective and efficient supervision.These inhibiting factors can also affect the performance of the graduating students and also affect the supervisors in terms of the kind of students they produce.
Research authorities such as Bell [2000], Sidhu [2001], Pearce [2005], Anderson et al. [2006], Tichaona and Onias [2011] also made significant contributions to corroborate the aforementioned difficulties encountered by the supervisees and supervisors.Therefore, this research sets out to investigate the comparative investigation of the effects of research project supervision on student graduating performance in the selected universities in Nigeria, in order to assess the following questions and hypotheses: What is the relationship between research project motivational factors and student writing and research capacity?How have inhibiting factors in project writing correlated with student exposure to research?Finally, is there any relationship between the inhibiting factors in project writing, and student writing and research capacity?

Research hypotheses
H1: There is no relationship between research project motivational factors and student writing and research capacity.
H2: Inhibiting factors in project writing do not correlate with student exposure to research.
H3: The relationship between inhibiting factors in project writing, and student writing and research capacity is insignificant.

Concept of research supervision
Project supervision can be viewed from different perspectives, which include: construction supervision, clinical supervision, research supervision and social work supervision.For the purpose of this study, research supervision is examined.Narayana [2009] viewed research supervision as a complex process and stated that extensive attention and discussion must be engaged to achieve quality research work, as it is an integral part of higher education.

The link between project supervision, writing and defence
The area of research supervision, writing and defence appears to have been given little attention by researchers, as observed by the sparse literature on the subject, despite the fact that there are problems in project supervision, writing and defence that Pobrane z czasopisma Annales H -Oeconomia http://oeconomia.annales.umcs.plData: 15/09/2023 06:02:26 include long completion times, high dropout rates and a failure to successfully defend the research project.As already seen, Lee [2007] highlighted that the supervision of research project, writing and defence should be given greater attention, because the quality of the research project suggests the kind of supervision and writing that was done and the quality of suggestions for improvement made during defence.Most supervisors are likely to supervise students the same way they themselves were supervised, and thus prolong an inflexible tradition of project supervision.Such practices deny and ignore the fact that project supervision requires resourcefulness, expert coaching, facilitative interaction and mentoring, given the many difficulties students face in the area of their study.Grant [2005] considered that some of the difficulties in project supervision emanate from differences among supervisors, mainly as a function of, among other things, their different theoretical orientations or supervision practices/models to which they subscribe.Lee [2007] suggested a common conceptual approach to the supervision of a research project, which acts as a broad guideline for project supervisors.In conclusion, many factors can contribute to the inability of students to complete their research project within stipulated time and one of the most important factors contributing to this is the kind of supervision they receive.Moreover, when studying the graduating students experience of supervision, there is a need to consider all other aspects.Effective supervision of the research student is recognized as an essential factor in the latter successful completion of the degree [Frischer, Larsson, 2000;Hunter et al., 2006].Therefore, as far as the supervision is concerned, it is part of the mechanics of ensuring that the students make good progress towards completion.

The concept of student graduating performance
The research student is the main person responsible for his or her research degree and, as such, should take the responsibility for managing his or her own learning and getting a degree.Also, it is agreed that the student is responsible for an original contribution to the work and developing a mature, critical knowledge of the work area and its context.The responsibility for completing a degree within a reasonable length of time clearly depends on both the student and the supervisor.
Student graduating performance, according to the Cambridge University Reporter [2003], is characterized by performance in tests, in coursework and by performance in examinations of undergraduate students.There are some factors that affect student graduating performance, which include quality of supervision, students' grades/ marks, self-motivation of students, university facilities, management of university, quality of lecturers/supervisors, age of student, gender, faculty of study, father/ guardian economic status, learning preferences, entry qualification of students, daily study hours, etc. [Ali et al., 2013].This study considers the quality of supervision as the factor affecting student graduating performance.

Theoretical inference
Supervisors have a key responsibility to supervise and manage supervisees.There are theories on motivation that have become widely popular and were considered in this study.The theories adopted in this study include theory X and theory y, which were propounded by Douglas McGregor [1960], theory Z propounded by Williams and Allan [1985] and Two-Factor Theory, propounded by Herzberg [1964] and re-modified in the works of Vergara [2000] and Jeremy [2014].In addition, the stated theories address both the supervisees and supervisors, because motivation has an impact on supervisees in writing a quality and original research project which in turn has an impact on their academic performance.Furthermore, it enables the supervisors to be active and effective in supervision.

Inference to Two-Factor Theory
The Two-Factor theory is also known as Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory and dual-factor theory.This theory mainly discusses the motivation factors and hygiene factors.The motivation factors are the factors that concern job content and lead to job satisfaction, which include growth, work itself, responsibility, achievement, advancement and recognition.When these factors are not present on the job, supervisors/supervisees do not tend to be dissatisfied -they are simply not satisfied.Supervisors/supervisees who are not satisfied do not tend to restrict productivity; they just do not get involved in their job or put extra effort into doing a good job.Supervisors/supervisees who are satisfied give that extra effort and productivity increases.The hygiene factors, on the other hand, are the factors that concern job context and lead to job dissatisfaction, and they include company policies and administration, supervision, interpersonal relations, status, working conditions, security and salary.When these factors are considered good or acceptable, supervisors/supervisees do not tend to become satisfied, they simply become not dissatisfied.Productivity is not restricted -it is just held at an acceptable level.When supervisors/supervisees become dissatisfied with any of these factors, they tend to restrict output.Doreen and Scott [2006] conducted research on the impact of undergraduate research on academic performance, by adopting a survey of fifty undergraduates who participated in the programme from 1998 to 2003.Among the students, 31 research projects were completed resulting in 18 peer-reviewed, scientific publications, 15 oral and 28 poster presentations at scientific meetings and greater than 120 presentations to lay organizations.The students who participated in the undergraduate research Pobrane z czasopisma Annales H -Oeconomia http://oeconomia.annales.umcs.plData: 15/09/2023 06:02:26 mentoring programme had a mean 0.5 grade point improvement from their junior year to graduation compared with students in the control group.In addition, more undergraduate research mentoring programme students graduated with a B.S degree and also graduated sooner, obtained employment within the wildlife profession sooner, and had greater success in obtaining wildlife-related employment than students of the control group.The undergraduate research mentoring programme was perceived by participants as a positive influence in their academic career, which taught them to focus on their goals and made them more marketable for employment after graduation.

Empirical studies
Poor supervision can have significant impacts on supervisees, not only limiting the quality of their work, but also their motivation.These challenges that influence the way supervisees carry out their research projects are grouped into three.They are the supervisor-related, supervisee-related and institution-related challenges.Research authorities of the likes of Shumba [2004], Nyawaranda [2005], Pearce [2005] and Chabaya et al. [2009] listed the following as some of the supervisor-related challenges in the supervision of supervisees research projects: too few meetings with students; failure to return work promptly; lack of research experience; no interest in the topic; too little practical help given; absence from department leaving no co-supervisor; lack of relevant skills or knowledge; failure to return work promptly; lack of motivating factors; too little direction; and no interest in the students.Pearce [2005] and Anderson et al. [2006] proved that lack of library resources; students failure to meet regularly with the supervisor; family problems/commitments; lack of time; lack of adequate theory in the area being researched; lack of money; lack of commitment and motivation to carry out the research; and imposition of research topics on supervisees all have a negative influence on supervisees' success in research work [Thondhlana et al., 2011].The scholars were of the opinion that an ability to handle both supervisor-related and supervisee-related challenges in research supervision are a pre-condition to the quality of research projects produced by both the supervisor and supervisee.

Materials and methods
This study examined the comparative studies of research project supervision on student graduating performance.Hence, a study of university of Ilorin and Kwara State University was used to gain access to the required information, from which a judgmental sample of the two universities was adopted to verify the stated hypotheses.The philosophy of research adopted in this study was epistemology (realism) and the philosophy of research approach was pragmatism, as this is seen by some scholars as providing an epistemological justification for the mixed approach.In the same vein, this study considered the survey method and descriptive design complemented by the case study method.The survey method was adopted in this study because it tends to be the most appropriate method when participants opinions are sought Pobrane z czasopisma Annales H -Oeconomia http://oeconomia.annales.umcs.plData: 15/09/2023 06:02:26 [Punch, 2004] as cited in the work of Tichaona and Onias [2011].Furthermore, the case study was adopted because it is used to describe an intervention or phenomenon and the real context in which it occurred [yin, 2003].
The population of the study was structured into graduated (who comprise the lecturers and non-lecturing staff excluding associate lecturers) and the graduating students, which constitute the current 400 level students of Kwara State University and University of Ilorin as the population.The questionnaires were structured on a five-point Likert scale in the order of 5 for "strongly agree", 4 for "agree", 3 for "undecided", 2 for "disagree" and 1 for "strongly disagree", and addressed the lecturers as supervisors.The study used the Spearman correlation to assess the relationship that existed among the variables specified in the questionnaire and data analyses of the two universities were depicted separately on the same table to show the comparison of outcomes without bias.Furthermore, questionnaires were designed to address the current graduating students as supervisees.The information gathered and obtained from the graduating students was compared in both institutions.The population is tabulated below.Therefore, in this study we determined the sample size by adopting the yaro yamanne formula and the continuous and categorical table.The reason for choosing the yards formula is because it is concerned with the application of a normal approximation of 95% confidence level and 5% error tolerance.The formula is given as follows: Total KWASU Sample is 42 + 252 = 294, while UNILORIN sample is 48 + 286 = 334.Note: SWGS represents staff with graduating status and NSCG represents the number of student currently graduating.In this study, 294 copies of questionnaire were distributed in KWASU, and 334 copies in UNILORIN for both lecturers and current graduating students, and 267 and 269 were returned respectively in KWASU and UNILORIN.Of the 267 copies of questionnaire returned in KWASU, 220 were filled, 29 were wrongly filled and 18 were not filled, while in UNILORIN, of the 269 copies of questionnaire returned, 225 were filled and 44 were not filled.

Interpretation of results
Hence, 27 copies of the questionnaire were not returned in KWASU and 65 were also not returned in UNILORIN.The administered questionnaires, returned It should be noted that some of the returned questionnaires were not properly filled, some of the respondents did not fill the questionnaire at all and such questionnaires were disregarded for the purpose of analysis.For the sake of analysis, we considered the questionnaires that were properly filled.The table above illustrates that the highest percentage of respondents, approximately 56% in KWASU and 54% in UNILORIN, respectively, were aged between 18-22 years, and the least number of respondents, almost 1% each, were aged between 33-37 years and 38 and above.It also illustrates that out of the total of 220 and 225 respondents in KWASU and UNILORIN respectively, 56% were male in the former, while 47% were male in the latter.In terms of female respondents, the figures were approximately 45% and 53% for KWASU and UNILORIN respectively.This was because the male respondents were more cooperative than their female counterparts in KWASU, while in UNILORIN the reverse is the case.The table further indicates that approximately 96% and 87% were single, and approximately 5% and 13% married, in KWASU and UNILORIN respectively.Less than 1% were divorced in UNILORIN, while none were in KWASU.Approximately 56% and 41% of the respondents were Christians, and approximately 59% and 42% were Muslims, in KWASU and UNILORIN respectively.Approximately 2% were traditional worshippers in UNILORIN.
Pobrane z czasopisma Annales H -Oeconomia http://oeconomia.annales.umcs.plData: 15/09/2023 06:02:26  Table 5 illustrates the degree of mean of respondents based on the agreement of respondents in relation to the variables.Time management has the highest mean value of 3.62, while research capacity is next with a mean of 3.51 and motivational factors have a mean of 3.35, while inhibiting factors have a mean of 3.23, depicting the level of responses to the variables as described in the questionnaire instrument.

Research Hypothesis One
H1: There is no relationship between the research project motivational factor and student writing and research capacity.

Interpretation of results
The study measured the items of research project motivational factors, and student writing and research capacity and the Spearman correlation coefficient r gave a significance or p-value of less than 0.01 in both universities and 0.05 in UNILORIN, which is less than alpha 0.01 and 0.05 as shown in the table above.This study reveals that there is a relationship between research project motivational factors and student writing and research capacity.Hence, hypothesis 1 as stated above is rejected.

Research Hypothesis Two
H2: Inhibiting factors in project writing do not correlate to student exposure to research.

Interpretation of results
The study measured the items of inhibiting factors in project writing and student exposure to research and the Spearman correlation coefficient r gave a significance or p-value of 0.000 and 0.005 in both universities, which is less than alpha 0.01 as shown in the table above.This study reveals that there is relationship between inhibiting factors in project writing and student exposure to research.Hence, hypothesis 2 as stated above is rejected.

Research Hypothesis Three
H3: The relationship between inhibiting factors in project writing, student writing and research capacity is insignificant.
Pobrane z czasopisma Annales H -Oeconomia http://oeconomia.annales.umcs.plData: 15/09/2023 06:02:26 capacity.Research authorities in the mould of Shumba [2004], Nyawaranda [2005], Pearce [2005] and Chabaya et al. [2009] also made significant contributions to support the above-stated evidence that inhibiting factors such as the inability to cooperate with supervisors and individual differences of project supervision styles do affect students negatively.Furthermore, the issues of not letting students write projects in their own area of interest should be discouraged, even though it has been the contention of supervisors that most students do not like to write an original research project that is novel and creative in nature.
Finally, based on the tested hypotheses of the lecturers' opinions, the results show that lecturers in Kwara State University are motivated when their supervisees complete their research project within the stipulated time, while in the University of Ilorin the reverse is the case.Furthermore, there is evidence from lecturers' opinions in both universities that when their supervisees are not financially buoyant, it negatively affects their project writing and research capacity, delivery and sometimes submission deadlines, as most students are dependent on family financial support.

Conclusions
The present study sought to compare research project supervision on student graduating performance at the Faculty of Management Sciences and Social sciences in UNILORIN and the School of Business and Governance in KWASU with particular reference to six departments in the two universities.The study covers the period of the 2014/2015 academic session in the two universities.In the selected universities, completing a research project is core and critical at the graduating level.A research project allows the students to apply their knowledge and concept acquired in their study while enhancing their research skills through the scope and depth of their inquiry.
In the same vein, supervisors who supervise the students have different methodological inclinations, research backgrounds, expertise and experience, and, as such most supervisors are likely to supervise students the same way they themselves were supervised.Based on the findings, it is evident that research project motivational factors have a positive impact on student writing and research capacity and student time management, while inhibiting factors in project writing have a negative impact on student exposure to research and student writing and research capacity.Therefore, when research project motivational factors are given to students and their supervisors, they in turn have a positive impact on the student writing and research capacity, exposure to research and student time management.
Pobrane z czasopisma Annales H -Oeconomia http://oeconomia.annales.umcs.plData: 15/09/2023 06:02:26 students, unlike other research work carried out in this line of study where most researchers concentrated more on only one perspective -either that of students or supervisors.

Table 1 .
Population of selected universities staff and graduating students Source: Field survey[2017].

Table 3 .
Frequency distribution of graduating student demographic characteristics Source: Field survey[2017].

Table 4 .
The descriptive statistics of project supervision and graduating students performance

Table 5 .
Descriptive mean statistics of the respondents based on variable questions