Assessment of Research Skills Among Undergraduates in the University of Calabar, Nigeria

The study assessed the research skills of undergraduates in the University of Calabar, Nigeria. The Ex-post Facor research design was adopted in this study which population consists of all the final year undergraduates of the 2016/2017 academic session. There were a total of 11,193 students as recorded by Academic planning unit of the university, 2017. The sampling techniques adopted for this study were the stratified, proportionate, accidental and simple random sampling techniques. The stratified sampling technique was used to stratify the University into stratum: Faculty of Education, Medical College, Faculty of Management, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Arts. The proportionate sampling technique was used to select 20% of the final year students from each Faculty while the accidental sampling technique was use to get at the respondents. A sample size of six hundred and ninety (690) undergraduates was used. The instrument used for data collection was an adapted University of Calabar assessment scale. The data collected was analyzed using population t-test. The study found that the research skills of undergraduates in the University of Calabar were significantly high. It was recommended in the study that every undergraduate should have a mentor, someone who is more knowledgeable and can guide them, not just in the area of academic success, but to also excel in the area of research.