Entrepreneurship Education and Graduate Unemployment in Nigeria: An Empirical Analysis of Business Education Departments in South West Universities

This study empirically examined the relationship between entrepreneurship education quality and graduate unemployment outcomes in Business Education departments of universities in South West Nigeria. Despite the large-scale integration of entrepreneurship studies into university curricula following the Federal Government directive, graduate unemployment continues to rise, raising questions about the efficacy of existing programme designs. Anchored in the Theory of Planned Behavior and Human Capital Theory, this study tested the hypothesis that entrepreneurship education quality significantly predicts post-graduation self-employment and employment outcomes. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted. The population comprised 1,200 Business Education graduates who had completed their programmes within the past five years across six universities in Ogun, Oyo, Lagos, Ondo, Osun, and Ekiti States. A stratified sample of 600 graduates was selected. Two validated instruments, the Entrepreneurship Education Quality Index and the Graduate Employment Outcome Survey, were used for data collection. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 significance level. Findings reveal that practical entrepreneurship training, mentorship exposure, and access to business incubation facilities significantly predict self-employment outcomes, while purely theoretical instruction has no significant effect. The study contributes an empirically grounded programme quality framework for improving entrepreneurship education in South West Nigerian universities. It recommends mandatory incubation lab integration and industry-linked mentorship as critical programme components. Keywords: entrepreneurship education, graduate unemployment, business education, South West Nigeria, planned behavior theory