Quality of university graduates and human resources development in Nigeria

The quality of graduates from Nigerian universities is reported to be on the decline, especially in critical and valuable skills, to the extent that companies hardly recruit but rather adopt employment protection strategies because, to them, these graduates do not meet the demands of the industry. The study therefore sought to ascertain the factors influencing the quality of graduates, using final year undergraduates of the University of Calabar. The expo-post facto design was utilized, two hypothesis were generated and through simple random sampling techniques, 200 respondents were drawn. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and the analysis was done using one-way ANOVA. Results indicated that selection criteria had significant influence on academic performance but a non-significant influence on students' conduct. The recommendation was that, for Nigeria to meet its millennium developmental goal, only competent, high quality candidates with the right ability, interest, aptitude and motivation should be selected for admission based purely on merit.