Abstract
Due to the cost involved, lecturers, supervisors, and students strive to complete the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) programme within five years (10 semesters). The National Universities Commission (NUC) sets the time frame. Nonetheless, research indicates that most Ph.D. candidates at public universities in southwest Nigeria (PUiSWN) fail to finish their courses on time. Consequently, the completion time of doctoral programmes (CTDP) in faculties of education (FoE) in selected PUiSWN was investigated in this study. Vroom's expectancy theory served as the anchor, while the survey design was adopted. The multi-phase sampling process was used. Four were chosen (Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun and Oyo) out of six states in southwestern Nigeria, using the simple random sampling method. Four 80.0% public universities (PUs) having FoE with the highest Ph.D. registration were purposively Issue 1/2026 678 selected. Out of the 623 students in the 2015–2016 cohort, 146 had dissertation titles certified within five years (W5Y). Data were collected using the CTDP Questionnaire (CTDPQ). The quantitative data were analysed using simple percentages. The study found that a majority of the respondents, 66.0%, were male, and 23.3% (145) completed their programmes W5Y, while 76.7% (478) were still on the programmes. Based on the findings of the study, students, supervisors and faculty involved in doctoral programmes must work together to improve the timely completion of Ph.D. courses in FoE in PUiSWN.