Barriers to Completion of Masters and Doctoral Degree among Muslim Educators Who Have Completed Their Academic Requirements

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the relationship between the level of determinationin completing thesis/dissertationand the attainment of MastersorDoctoraldegreesamong Muslimeducators. The study also exploredvariables that may hinder or facilitate completionofa thesis/dissertation.The participants wereMuslimeducators in MindanaoStateUniversity(MSU) in MarawiCitywhowerecategorizedinto two groups:those who havecompleted their academicrequirementsand werenot able to obtain postgraduate degreedue to non-completionofthesis/dissertationandthosewhohavecompletedtheirMasters/DoctoralDegrees.Threeindicators wereused to determine the participants’levelofdetermination:researchskills, values,and awareness.The study revealedthat theonlycomponent of the levelof determination found to havesignificant relationshipwith degreecompletion was researchskills. Itis apparentthat the presence ofadequate researchskills was the most significant factor in determining whether a student/researcher completes a post graduate degree. Since research skills wasparticularly identified as a barrier to the completion of higher degrees by Muslimeducators at MSU, further study may be undertaken to determine the researchskills of MSU academics. Based on such a study, the MSU system may adoptremedial measures to improve the research skills of faculty members and otheracademics. Keywords- Education, graduate school, thesis, dissertation, Meranao, Muslims, quantitative research,qualitativeresearch,Marawi City,Philippines