It is common knowledge in Nigeria as a nation that every individual seeking a first degree (undergraduates) at the end (final year) of their stay at the tertiary institution of learning, must, in fact, undergo one of the dreaded “homework” part “and strenuous of education (some students hire a writer to carry out their research(s) for them, popularly known among the educational population as a project or End-of-Year Project).
Many things come together to form the criteria for distinguishing who was successful in staying in school and otherwise. Continuous assessment, test, group work(s) and sometimes personal research and then, the mother of all, exams. All of these are, more or less, the criteria for weighing the “bright” students from the “boring” ones.
Where do final degree projects come into the picture and why? We will take a closer look at it below.
Tertiary institutions are structured to be the last point of training of professionals (graduates) who will duly fill the gaps, if any, and make up the labor industry. No one can be a lawyer, doctor, sociologist, engineer, or architect without proper training at the University.
With that being said, let’s take a quick look at one of the most vital and important parts of this aforementioned build.
THEMES OF THE END OF THE YEAR PROJECT.
What does a final degree project or research topic imply?
The definition of the word project provided by the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary will not serve our purpose in this article.
The final project is the culmination of the degree: it gives students the opportunity to demonstrate everything they have learned. The project module is very different from other modules. The project tests the students’ ability to: design, design and evaluate quality systems, research their chosen subject area.
This senior year research project works, just like any other part of schooling it has some difficulties attached to it.
One of which is the nature of the topics of the final degree project.
The difficulties associated with this are not unreasonable, since although each topic of the project is important, we cannot deny the fact that there are some very difficult phenomena that will serve as a basis for the investigation.
For example, if the topic of an end-of-year project has a lot to do with the threats of cultism and its effects on the student population of Nigerian tertiary institutions, we cannot argue with the obvious fact that it is a very important topic, but the process and investigation maybe be a Herculean. How to approach this issue may not be the problem, but getting first hand information will be a serious problem.
Another difficulty students face is accessibility to important (undergraduate) research materials. It is a bitter truth to say that some tertiary institutions in Nigeria have poor libraries and old books. When students cannot access up-to-date books, by extension they will find it difficult to obtain adequate information vital for the completion of their final degree project.
Another difficulty students face is the nature of some of their project supervisors.
Supervisors are meant to supervise, support, advise, and help students in the course of their research, but some of these supervisors only thwart the students’ work. Some students fervently pray to escape particular teachers as supervisors when they finally reach the promised land.
The strict nature of a teacher coupled with his great taste for the critical nature can scare off students in the course of his project. I have seen situations where supervisors cancel the first submissions made by their students for very trivial reasons that could be easily corrected.
Another difficulty that students face is the approval of the subjects of the final degree project.
Normally this should go into effect as soon as possible so that students can have enough time to research, conduct interviews and take quizzes so that they can catch the worm early, but sometimes, for no particular reason, approval is delayed too long and when it finally is approved, students may not have enough time to execute the projects judicially.
Another difficulty students face to be honest is procrastination by students.
Time management is one of the most imperative factors that students need to duly consider in school but some of the students procrastinate and when it is almost time for presentations they rush, rush and rush their work. No, it won’t work well that way. it will not
In a situation where your senior project requires oral communication, engaging with people who may not be cultured or per se literate can be a bit of a problem. I know a lady whose senior year research project was to be run in a remote village and she was going to conduct an interview with a faction of the villagers. Communicating with women was a serious problem for her.
Like any other phenomenon in life in general, difficulties are bound to come our way. Even roses have thorns.
It’s just a matter of hard work and dedication that can alleviate the stress that comes with projects. Being aware of the challenges and the very importance of projects to shape students and prepare them for what awaits them in the rest of the world and to be specific to their field of professionalism, tertiary institutions may want to come back to the table. design and evoke ways to alleviate the stress students face during projects and also find ways to bring out the best in students in the course of this important exercise.
Nobody likes low grades, and the heavy credit load that comes with a final project scares students into doing pretty much everything in their power to make sure they pass, and pass very well.
Nigerian students are hardly clouded by difficult situations, they always find a way to make things happen.
Hard times don’t last but tough people do, and this in no way justifies neglect on the part of students and teachers in this situation.
When we all do what we have to do, then we can make what we have always dreamed of come true.
