Drake Patrick Mirembe (PhD)

The study examines administrative factors influencing timely completion of postgraduate students supported by RUFORUM grants in Africa. The University administration factors examined included: presence of an accessible supervisor; incentivizing supervisors; relationship of supervisor to the student; communication between supervisor and the student; experience and expertise of the supervisor in the field of study of the student; number of students assigned to a supervisor; duration of review of proposals by supervisors/examiners; delay in returning comments by external examiners; and, inadequate guidance from the supervisor to the student on research matters. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted and data was collected using a close-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview guide. Data collected from 241 respondents was subjected to correlation and regression analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to establish significant variables. Results indicated the major university administrative factors influencing completion time was the small number of supervisors for both Master’s and doctorate students. This warrants the need to give attention to increasing the number of supervisors supervising the graduate students.