STAKEHOLDERS’ ASSESSMENT OF THE UTILITY VALUE OF CONTEMPORARY GRADUATES PRODUCED IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

This study assessed the utility value of contemporary graduates produced in Nigerian universities from the opinions of stakeholders in education including lecturers, employers of labour, policy makers, and parents of students. Cross-sectional confirmatory survey research n was used. 3 research questions with corresponding hypotheses were used. The population of the study consisted 5037 stakeholders in education. Heterogeneous purposive sampling technique was used to obtain 352 respondents. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire. A logical validity index of 0.84 was obtained and the internal consistency index computed using Cronbach Alpha approach yielded a coefficient of 0.72. The research questions were answered using descriptive statistics, mainly frequencies and percentages while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. 77? e finding from the study revealed that the certificates acquired by contemporary Nigerian university graduates do not compare in value to the knowledge and skills transferred to employment. It was observed that graduates from private universities have higher utility value compared to graduates from public universities just as the graduates of l51 - 3rd generation have more utility value compared to contemporary graduates from the Nigeria universities. The study recommends that the need for synergy and collaboration between employers of labour and relevant government agencies in designing curriculum for courses to meet the contemporary skills required in the modern labour market. Also, universities need to pay more attention to internship and work study in order to enrich their graduates ’educational experience