Mentorship As A Correlate Of Postgraduate Students’ Satisfaction In Public Universities In Kwara State

Abstract

Mentorship is essential element in the academic and professional success of students despite this, the relationship between mentorship and postgraduate student satisfaction remains underexplored. Therefore, the researcher investigated the mentorship as a correlate of postgraduate students’ satisfaction in public universities in Kwara State. A descriptive survey design of the correlation type was adopted. All postgraduate students comprising masters’ and PhD students make up the study population. Simple random sample technique was used to select 150 respondents from Kwara State University (75 masters’ students and 75 PhD students). With the help of research assistants, a Questionnaire on Mentorship Quality on Postgraduate Students and Postgraduate Students’ satisfaction were utilised to gather data from the students through google form. The instruments were validated by some selected lecturers. Test-retest method of reliability was used by the researcher and research assistance. Within two weeks, 20 copies of final draft were trial tested twice on the randomly selected students outside the sample school. Thereafter, the reliability of the instruments was obtained using Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient at 0.76 and 0.73 respectively. Additionally, data were analysed using descriptive statistical analysis, which describes the data that was gathered. While testing the research hypothesis was conducted using inferential statistics of linear regression with a significance level of 0.05. it was found among others that there was significant relationship between mentorship and postgraduate students’ satisfaction (F (1,149) = 12.373, P < 0.05). It was concluded that the mentorship is very essential to the achievable postgraduate programme because it make the students understand the nitty-gritty of the career and professionalism. It was recommended among others that institutions should offer training sessions for mentors to enhance their communication, leadership, and conflict-resolution skills. Keywords: Postgraduate Education, Postgraduate satisfaction, Mentorship