The Motivations for Joining the Postgraduate Program and the Challenges Confronting Libyan MA Students at the Department of English

Abstract

The central focus of the paper is to explore the motivations of Libyan students to pursue postgraduate studies, and the challenges that may cause students for not completing such studies on time. To achieve these objectives, 34 master’s degree students from the Department of English in the Faculty of Languages at the University of Tripoli, participated in this study. The data on these motives and difficulties are gathered through a close-ended questionnaire that is delivered online. The results reveal that students join the master’s degree program mainly for better employment and to upgrade their qualifications. Moreover, the results show that the determinants of late completion are significantly institutional and partially personal. Institutional factors include lack of resources, paucity of guidelines for dissertation formats, as well as the lack of workshops for research methodology and instruments for analyzing data. Personal factors, on the other hand, include pressure from parents and family commitments. Finally, the study provides some pedagogical suggestions and recommendations.