Academic Factors and Graduate Employability in Nigeria

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of academicfactors on graduate employability in Nigeria, a case study of Calabar, Cross River State. Toachieve this objective, two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The ex-postfacto research design was adopted for the study. An accidental sampling technique was usedin the selection of the samples. A total of 150 respondents were used for the study. The majorinstrument for data collection was a four-point Likert scale questionnaire titled AcademicFactors and Graduate Employability Questionnaire (AFGEQ). It was designed by theresearcher with the aid of five research experts to establish its validity and reliability. Thesplit-half method of reliability was used to test the reliability. Pearson product momentcorrelation coefficient and Spearman Brown Prophesy Formula coefficient derived aftercorrelating the outcomes were 0.789 and .882 respectively. Data collected was subjected tostatistical test at 0.05 level of significance. The hypotheses were analysed using one-wayanalysis of variance (ANOVA). The result of the analyses showed that academic disciplinesignificantly influences graduate employability while academic achievement does notsignificantly influence graduate employability. Based on these findings, it was recommendedamong others, that the curriculum should reformed and made universal to provide students ofhigher institutions with the requirements of contemporary labour market. It was alsorecommended that there should be a de-emphasis on certificate education in place of skillorientedtraining