Institutional Factors and Doctoral Degree Completion in South-west, Nigeria Universities

Enhancing the production of highly skilled professionals is a key objective in university education for fostering economic and national development. Understanding students' progress in relation to doctoral degree completion is crucial for institutions seeking improvement. In this study, various institutional factors such as Teaching and Learning Methods, Skills Development, Assessment and Feedback Mechanisms, and Organization and Management were evaluated to assess their impact on indicators like professional exposure, learning environment, and achieving doctoral degrees in Nigerian universities. The research employed a non-experimental correlation design, involving 126 respondents selected from three South West universities using a multi-stage sampling technique. Data collection utilized the Institutional Factors and Doctoral Degree Completion Questionnaire (IFDDCQ). Research questions were addressed through descriptive statistics and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The findings indicated a significant and positive relationship between doctoral degree completion and factors such as access to teaching and learning materials (r=0.412, p