Utilisation of Research Findings for Sustainable Development in Tertiary Institutions in South East Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the extent of utilisation of research findings for sustainable development of tertiary institutions in South East Nigeria. Five specific objectives with three related research questions research questions, and three null hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study was one hundred and forty-nine (149) entrepreneurship lecturers (85 from Federal and 64 from State Universities) spread in the five States of South East Nigeria. There was no sampling since all the 149 entrepreneurship Lecturers were used as the subjects of the study. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire titled, “Utilization of Research Findings for Sustainable Development in Tertiary Institutions Questionnaire” (URFSDTIQ). The instrument was validated by three (3) lecturers; two from the Department of Educational Foundations (Educational Administration and Planning option) and one from the Measurement and Evaluation option of the Department of Science Education, all in Ebonyi State University Abakaliki. The reliability measures of internal consistency, using the Cronbach Alpha method with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), yielded an overall reliability index of 0.65. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while a t-test of the independent sample was used to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. Based on these analyses, the study revealed that there was low extent of utilization of research findings for social, economic, political-related sustainable development in tertiary institutions in South East Nigeria; that there was no significant difference (P>0.05) between the mean ratings of lecturers of Federal and State Universities on extent of utilization of research findings for social, economic and political-related sustainable development in tertiary institutions in South East Nigeria. Based on these findings, the study recommended, among other things, that the Federal Ministry of Education of Nigeria and University Administrators should ensure the establishment of enabling social environment and policies that would facilitate the utilization research findings for social, economic and political-related sustainable development of tertiary institutions in South-East Nigeria.