Structural Determinants of Business Education Programme Effectiveness in Nigerian Higher Education: A National Survey

This study investigated the structural determinants of Business Education programme effectiveness in Nigerian higher education through a nationally representative survey. Programme effectiveness, conceptualized as the extent to which Business Education programmes achieve their intended learning outcomes, employment impacts, and societal contributions, is the ultimate measure of programme quality. Despite its importance, a national empirical study isolating the structural determinants of effectiveness across different institution types, geopolitical zones, and funding contexts does not exist in the literature. Grounded in the Programme Theory of Change, the Quality Assurance in Higher Education Framework, and the Input-Process-Output Model, a large-scale cross-sectional survey design was adopted. A nationally stratified sample of 3,000 Business Education students, 400 faculty, and 200 alumni was drawn from sixty institutions across all six geopolitical zones. Six validated instruments measuring curriculum quality, faculty competence, resource adequacy, institutional support, student engagement, and graduate outcomes were used. Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling using Mplus 8.7 was employed for analysis. Findings reveal that faculty research engagement, curriculum-industry alignment, and resource adequacy are the three strongest structural determinants of programme effectiveness. Institutional type (federal versus state versus private) significantly moderates the strength of these relationships. The study provides the most comprehensive empirical evidence on Business Education programme effectiveness in Nigeria to date and makes a significant original methodological and substantive contribution. Recommendations target the National Universities Commission accreditation criteria and institutional investment priorities. Keywords: programme effectiveness, Business Education, structural determinants, Nigerian higher education, national survey