PERCEIVED BARRIERS TO TIMELY COMPLETION OF POST GRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECTS IN PUBLIC HEALTH: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY IN DISTRICT, PESHAWAR

Introduction: Barrier to timely completion of post graduate degree remain a crucial issue for students especially for MPH students.There are multiple factors ranging from personal capacity to that of organizational capacity which impending the process.This study intends to determine the Perceived barriers to timely completion of post-graduate research projects in Public Health Methodology This was institutional based survey (cross-sectional) type of study conducted in two selected universities in Peshawar.All MPH students (n=260) who have not completed their thesis till end of 4 th semester but still have been given additional one semester time for the completion in both the universities.Data collected via questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS V-27.0. Results:Result was based on 71 participants (MPH student age 30.65 0.591 (ranged from 24 43 years).Among them 54(76.1%)male and 17 (23.9%)female.Regarding the timely completion of the degree none of them have completed the research work within two years.As shown in the table 1(1.4%) of students was enrolled since 2018 and while a remarkable proportion 66 (93.0%) of students were from 2019 batch and still struggling to complete their research work.According to the schedule, they should be graduated in 2020 but still they were not successful to have their degree.Similarly, 04(5.6%) of the scholars participated in this study were enrolled in 2020 which were supposed to be graduated in 2021.Lack of competent supervisor is one of the major issues with MPH scholar's 45 percent of the study participants reported that there is lack of competent supervisor.69% of the scholars reported that the main causative factor in non-completion of research is institutional factors while 17% have personal barriers in their research.Infrequent meeting of BOSAR/ASRB is also one of the issues that research scholars face.73 percent participant agree with that.Table 2 presents the results summary; 63 percent of the scholars lack technical writing skills. Conclusion:Students' research projects may be delayed due to ineffective communication between supervisors and students, lack of feedback or instruction, or unreachability of supervisors.Students' research projects may be delayed due to ineffective communication between supervisors and students, lack of feedback or instruction, or unreachability of supervisors.