Enhancing research support to improve scholarly performance of state university graduate students

Abstract

It is important to establish a culture of research in the graduate schoolof state universities to stay relevant and competitive in the knowledge-based economy. This paper attempted to enhance the graduate school research support for the improvement of the scholarly performance of graduate students in a state university. The mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was used. An online survey was conducted using aresearcher-made questionnaire developed through Google form and was participated by 106 respondents. Likewise, interviews were participated by 11 interviewees.Furthermore, some of the findings were triangulated using document analysis. Average and rank were used to analyze the survey data. Findings reveal that the scholarly performance of the graduate students “does not meet expectations at all”. However, the extent of institutional support of the graduate school “fully meets expectation”. The scholarly performances needing improvement were research presentation and publication which were attributed to the need to attune the informational, mentoring, administrative, and resource supports of the institution along with the national standards for graduate research. Hence, opportunities for improvements were identified on the enhancement of the graduate school research support which may help establish research and innovation culture that is comparable to the national and global standards

Keywords

• graduate students
• research and innovation
• research support
• scholarly performance